257 
aug. i4, 1909] FOREST AND STREAM. 
•easonably easy for him to secure a fair and 
iberal award for the loss he has sustained. No 
sportsman, whether specially partial to the deer 
ir not, ever did or ever will raise his voice 
igainst a broad and generous policy in dealing 
With these cases of actual damage done by deer. 
Possibly at a future time I will write a few 
vords about the laws of some other States that 
>rovide for payment of damages and which show 
i marked contrast with the Massachusetts law\ 
I was much interested in Warden Chase’s let- 
er from Vermont in your last issue. 
Henry H. Kimball. 
One Woman’s Experience. 
Roswell, N. M., Aug. 7. — Editor Forest and 
stream: Some six years ago, when my husband 
brought me to New Mexico, I had no interest 
n life. We bought land near Roswell, adjoin- 
ng the fair grounds. Soon the express brought 
ne some fine poultry, and several poultry houses 
aid yards of the most approved models were 
milt. I commenced to take interest and my 
lealth improved. A garden was planted. The 
air grounds were abandoned. I applied to the 
ity and got possession. So many men and boys 
ame to shoot at every bird they found, mock- 
ngbirds and song larks that made sweet music 
or me, that I made up my mind to save the 
ircls and got an appointment as a deputy game 
varden. I soon found there had been a war- 
en who got disgusted, enforcing unpopular 
iws. I caught the offenders and let them know 
hat unless they stopped I would take them to 
ail. I was always treated with respect and the 
hooting stopped. Many women called to see 
lie, asking permission to drive around the fair 
rounds. A Miss C., from a Southern city, got 
le interested in her twenty-gauge hammerless 
lector gun and together we commenced to read 
Almo’s Travels in Texas.” 
Next we employed a boy to trap a lot of 
(arrows in my lettuce patch. I was converted. 
1 had used my .22 rifle. Now a new field had 
pened up. When we had luck catching spar¬ 
es we had a trap shoot after our 4 o’clock 
inner. My friend lets me use her gun and my 
tore is four out of five and better. I love that 
un and with all my outdoor work it is a rec- 
•ation I take most interest in. The gun is left 
ith me and as I take a walk around the fair 
rounds, many a bad hawk is killed. 
I have been reading up on game protection 
id very soon I shall be raising quail under my 
Id hens. In place of stopping shooting one 
sputy game warden will raise game to shoot at. 
■ ith a short closed breeding season, the farmer 
iken in as a friend, the artificial raising of 
ame by gun clubs and all who find it a profit- 
)le business, the South and West can very soon 
?come a great game country. With a small 
'e for a hunting lisence to pay game keepers, 
'erybody who wants to hunt could do so on 
ir open lands. With all our laws we must 
knowledge game decreases every year, except 
1 private preserves, and these preserves are 
it popular with the American people. 
Roswell is a health resort, but the pure air 
New Mexico will not cure unless an interest 
taken in some outdoor life. The high, dry 
■titudes of the Southwest will help. An in¬ 
rest taken in some sport—shooting, fishing or 
liking— will cure. Mrs. B. R. Bufkham. 
Game Laws and Politics. 
Walter R. Welch, fish, game and fire war¬ 
den of Santa Cruz county, California, who was 
summarily discharged by the county supervisors 
on June 1, has been reinstated by the Superior 
Court. Warden Welch was discharged without 
a hearing because he had approved the action 
of some of the legislators in their attempt to 
compel the State Fish Commission to render an 
accounting of its disbursements of the shooting 
license funds, etc. He brought suit to recover 
his salary for June. In his opinion Judge Lucas 
F. Smith said, in part: 
“It is admitted, as before stated, that all of 
these proceedings were had in the absence of 
petitioner, and without his knowledge or notice 
to him of any kind, and without hearing any 
evidence, and without any charge being made 
against him by any one for dereliction of duty 
or misconduct in office of any kind. In brief, 
the record shows that this was a hasty and ill- 
advised proceeding that does not commend it¬ 
self to any fair-minded person, much less to a 
court of justice. 
‘‘The office of fire warden was created by an 
act of the Legislature, and petitioner w,as ap¬ 
pointed to fill it by the State forester, under the 
statutes of 1905, p. 235, Sec. 8. Hence the 
board of supervisors had no more authority to 
vacate that office than it has that of governor or 
any other State office. 
“I hold, first, that the board exceeded its legal 
power in declaring vacant the office of volun¬ 
tary fire warden. Second, the board exceeded 
its legal authority in declaring vacant and re¬ 
moving petitioner from the office of fish and 
game warden of Santa Cruz county, without 
specific charges being preferred against him, and 
without giving him notice of such charges, and 
without giving him an opportunity to be heard 
before he was deprived of his office. Third, 
that the omission of the board to specify in its 
call for said special meeting the particular busi¬ 
ness to be transacted in relation to petitioner’s 
office, renders its action in relation thereto null 
and void. 10 Cal. 344; 141 Cal. 322, and cases 
cited. 
“Holding as I do that petitioner is now and 
was the duly appointed and qualified and acting 
fish and game warden of Santa Cruz county dur¬ 
ing the month of June, 1909, and that he is now 
and was during said time the duly appointed and 
qualified and acting voluntary fire warden of this 
county and State, it follows that respondent’s 
demurrer to the petition herein should be over¬ 
ruled, and it is so ordered. Respondent is grant¬ 
ed ten days to file an answer to said petition, if 
deemed advisable; but in case no answer is filed 
within said time, then judgment will be ren¬ 
dered in favor of petitioner as prayed for.” 
The case was reviewed in these columns in 
June. 
Hendersonville, N. C., July 31.—Editor Forest 
and Stream: I read with ever increased interest 
the letters and articles that appear in Forest 
and Stream. Unfortunately for us, in this 
State, we have too many laws, yet greatly need 
proper laws and their enforcement. It seems 
that North Carolina is one of three States of 
the Union that have these many county laws in¬ 
stead of state laws, and that about 20 per cent. 
of all laws passed in this State up to Jan. 1, 
1909, are game laws. 
Our last Legislature needed much of the good 
work accomplished by the Audubon Society, and 
politics and not individual qualification seems to 
be the principle governing for the appointment 
to the position of game warden. 
Our last Legislature passed a license and game 
law for f lay county. This is a county law. 
Anyone living outside of the county must pay 
a license of ten dollars before he hunts in that 
county, nor is that all. He must get a written 
permit from each and every landowner on whose 
lands he hunts or shoots, and this he must have 
with him when he hunts or shoots, or otherwise 
he is liable to arrest. I cannot see why we 
should not have a State law providing that every 
man who shoots anywhere off of his own lands 
shall pay a license, say of one dollar. This, 
with a non-resident license fee, would bring 
to the State quite enough money to properly 
care for and protect the game and fish of the 
State. 
Politics should have nothing whatever to do 
with the preservation or protection of game and 
fish, and the chances are that a man who will 
let politics govern his action in a matter like 
this would also see that a warden is appointed 
who would arrest some and let others off scot 
free because of political bias. 
True sportsmen are the farmer’s best friends, 
while the pot-hunter is his worst enemy. Yet 
many of the laws passed are really in the in¬ 
terest of the pot-hunter and against the sports¬ 
man. 
We must wait two years before recent un¬ 
wise legislation can be undone and wise legisla¬ 
tion put on record. It is like planting an or¬ 
chard. We can gather only such fruit as we 
plant. Ernest L. Ewbank. 
Game Outlook. 
Owego, N. Y., Aug. 7.—Editor Forest and 
Stream: Very encouraging reports are being 
received concerning the game outlook. The 
hatching season was unusually favorable and 
every indication points to a good shooting sea¬ 
son with plenty of partridges and rabbits. Par¬ 
tridges are more numerous than for the past 
five years. Several flocks of quail are reported 
from different sections hereabout and there is 
no end of rabbits, the country districts being 
literally overrun with them. The only scarcity 
in game this year will be the gray squirrel. No 
sportsman ought to shoot them anyway; they are 
a harmless and beautiful ornament to any piece 
of woods, and as a table delicacy do not com¬ 
pare with the more numerous and palatable 
rabbit. 
The pheasants which the rod and gun club 
liberated a few years ago are increasing rapidly 
and they are spreading over the adjacent coun¬ 
try and adapting themselves to local conditions 
in a most satisfactory manner. The open sea¬ 
son for these birds will commence next year, 
but it should be extended for at least two years 
longer to give them a better foothold. 
The game laws were never before enforced 
so well, and instead of the almost general con¬ 
tempt for the game laws which prevailed a few 
years ago, we now find a feeling of wholesome 
respect for this statute, and a co-operation exist¬ 
ing among nearly all classes looking to its en¬ 
forcement. F. J. D. 
