216 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Feb. ii, 1911- 
Duck Shooting in the Southwest. 
Los Angeles, Cal., Feb. i .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: At last the rains have come, and with 
them has come an end of a poor season’s duck 
shooting. In Orange county this season the 
shooting has been injured very greatly by the 
road hunters. 
Duck shooting in Southern California is a 
preserved proposition and almost essentially 
artificial. The preserves were once alkali ranches 
with never a duck near them. The clubs mostly 
were formed by one or two men who bought 
up a piece of promising land that lay flat so it 
could be flowed easily, and organized a club 
upon it, either selling out their land at a profit, 
turning it in and taking their pay in stock, or 
openly making their own interest by taking their 
commission in that form for making sale and 
engineering the deal. Whichever way the thing 
was done, the result was the same. Artesian 
water is developed, dykes confine it in broad, 
shallow ponds, and ducks are drawn there in 
such numbers that the shooting thus created has 
become with tuna fishing the salient sporting 
feature of Southern California. Sportsmen from 
all over the country belong to these clubs and 
kill two birds with the one stone by coming 
here to winter in the land of perpetual sunshine 
amid the wildfowl. 
The indictment these men have brought against 
the road hunter is, he has done nothing to create 
shooting; is a sporting non-producer, taking un¬ 
earned profit on the labor and investment of 
others. 
The legislators will be asked to pass a “no 
sale” law on ducks. The law now extends this 
protection to nearly all other game birds except 
the waterfowl. Market hunting is being done 
less and less each year, and since the new fish 
commission and the new deputy, John Pease Bab¬ 
cock, took hold of this last fall, the duck bag 
limit has been enforced against the San Fran¬ 
cisco commission men as it never was enforced 
before. Many arrests have been made, and the 
illegal traffic in ducks is very nearly broken up. 
The closing of the quail season is being advo¬ 
cated quite strongly. Quail are in sore need of 
protection. The valley variety is typically Cali¬ 
fornian. It made the reputation of the State in 
an upland game bird way. It would be a pity 
to see it perish, and I voice the sentiment of a 
majority of sportsmen when I say the money 
now being expended by the State in experiment¬ 
ing with foreign game might much better be de¬ 
voted to the propagation and protection of the 
splendid indigenous game bird that we already 
have. He could not be improved upon; the 
whole world does not show his equal. The idea 
of spending the money of the sportsmen upon 
experiments is abhorrent. It never has been 
made to pay in half the instances where tried 
in this country. In Oregon the pheasant did 
pay, and that instance has been made the cover 
and excuse for more foolish expenditure of the 
sportsmen’s cash than all other things combined. 
The deputies of the fish commission have done 
some excellent work the last few months, and 
arrests are being made in a number that if not 
gratifying, at least proves an effort is being 
made to enforce the law. 
The coming into office of a new governor has 
made some changes in the complexion of the 
fish and game commission of which Michael J. 
Connell, of this city, remains chairman. Dr. 
David Starr Jordan tendered his resignation, but 
Governor Johnson in recognition of the sterling 
worth and standing of the professor reappointed 
him, reaffirming the judgment of former Gover¬ 
nor Gillett. The other commissioner, appointed 
to succeed Lendal M. Gray, who was killed in an 
automobile accident at Paso Robles a few weeks 
ago, is Fred G. Sanborn, of San Francisco, a 
sportsman well liked and well qualified to make 
a credit of the office. 
Game and fish preservative conditions in Cali¬ 
fornia are in better shape now than they ever 
have been before. Edwin L. Hedderly. 
Missouri Fish and Game League. 
St. Louis, Mo., Jan. 29. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: I inclose clipping from the Globe- 
Democrat of Jan. 27, which is self-explanatory: 
About 300 persons interested in rod and gun 
sports met at 2127 Franklin avenue, in response 
to a call by various hunting and fishing clubs of 
St. Louis and vicinity, for the purpose of dis¬ 
cussing game and fish legislation and to create 
a State-wide organization to advocate the secur¬ 
ing of a large tract of land in the Ozarks to be 
used as a State park, game preserve and fishing 
resort, for the benefit of citizens of this State. 
A permanent organization known as the Mis¬ 
souri Game and Fish League was effected with 
the following officers: Sam Stannard, Presi¬ 
dent; T. M. Sayman, Vice-President; Henry C. 
Griesdieck, Treasurer, and H. F. Mardorf, Sec¬ 
retary. There were representatives present from 
many organizations, and representatives were se¬ 
lected to represent their clubs and co-operate in 
the movement to advocate adequate game and 
fish legislation during the present session of the 
Legislature. Also, if possible, to obtain the ac¬ 
quisition by the State of a State park and re¬ 
serve. 
The secretaries of other clubs throughout Mis¬ 
souri are urged to send their names and the 
names of their clubs to Secretary H. F. Mardorf, 
4068 Olive street, St. Louis, so they can get in 
touch with the movement and unite for a com¬ 
mon cause. Considerable talk was indulged in 
by speakers in alluding to the present systematic 
effort to repeal all game and fish laws in Mis¬ 
souri and leave no protective measures for game 
and fish. Letters of regret at not being able to 
be present were received from nearly one hun¬ 
dred persons, including Gov. Herbert S. Hadley 
and State Game and Fish Commissioner Jesse 
A. Tolerton. 
The league heartily indorsed the Senate bill 
introduced in the Legislature by Senator T. J. 
Feaster, of Climax Springs, in Camden county, 
which bill proposes to purchase the famous Ha 
Ha Tonka Park, in Camden county, comprising 
over eleven and a half square miles of a scenic 
beauty spot in the Ozarks, which, if acquired by 
the State, will become as famous as the Garden 
of the Gods in Colorado or the Yellowstone Na¬ 
tional Park. All this tract of land can now be 
acquired, it is stated, by diverting a part of the 
fund yearly collected from hunters’ licenses, 
without interfering with the present operations 
of law enforcement and continuing the distribu¬ 
tion of imported pheasants and partridges, as 
now being conducted by the State Game Depart¬ 
ment. H. F. Mardorf. 
Game and Fish in New Jersey. 
The last report of the Board of Fish and 
Game Commissioners of New Jersey says that 
the revenues of the board have increased, and 
have made possible an efficiency never before at¬ 
tained. The second year of the resident license 
law has been successful, and opposition to this 
tax has practically ceased. It is regarded as 
a general protective measure and a long-needed 
regulation of gunners, who thus pay for stock¬ 
ing and for police protection without cost to 
the citizen who does not hunt or fish. The 
amount received during the year for resident 
licenses was $57,731-50; non-resident license 
fees were $5,990, an increase of $53°- The fees 
for unnaturalized foreign born license holders 
were $560, a loss of $40. 
In 1909 the open season for deer—Wednes¬ 
days in November for the shooting of bucks 
only—followed a closed period of ten years. 
Eighty-six bucks were taken and no person in 
the woods was mistaken for a deer and injured 
or killed. This resulted from the provision that 
only bucks may be killed, which obliged the 
hunter to make sure of what he was shooting 
at. 
All salt water fish are greatly reduced in num¬ 
bers. Perch and striped bass must be protected 
in the spring.of the year when they enter bays 
and rivers to spawn or they will be extermi¬ 
nated. Nearly 10,000 brook trout were distrib¬ 
uted during the year, beside black bass, white 
and yellow perch, crappie, pickerel, catfish and 
bait fish to the number of about 19,000. Fish¬ 
ing in fresh water lakes for bass, pickerel and 
crappie showed an improvement over former 
years, and the trout fishing, notwithstanding 
unfavorable conditions, compared well with that 
of previous years. 
Game birds liberated were 5,650, of which 
3,893 were imported English pheasants and 
i ,757 imported Hungarian partridges. The 
pheasants appear to have done well and bred. 
The partridges have not done well and seem to 
have disappeared in some places. A few Euro¬ 
pean quail turned out disappeared. 
Efforts to feed game birds during the winter 
were continued. Nearly 12,000 pounds of buck¬ 
wheat seed was distributed through wardens 
to farmers who agreed to sow the seed and let 
it stand as food for quail. 
The board recommends a bag limit not to ex¬ 
ceed the number per day which follows the birds 
mentioned. Quail, 10; English pheasants, 3 ! 
Hungarian partridge, 3; woodcock, 10; ruffed 
grouse, 3; reed birds, 50; railbirds, 25; ducks, 
20; geese, 10; brant, 10; shore birds, 25. 
Upland plover should be protected for five 
years. 
The season for shore birds should be from 
June 1 to January I. 
One law for the whole State with an open 
season from Nov. I. to Dec. 15, for quail, par¬ 
tridge, grouse, English or ringnecked pheasants, 
Hungarian partridge, wild turkey, prairie 
chicken, woodcock, squirrel and rabbits. The sea¬ 
son for waterfowl to be from Nov. 1 to Feb. 1. 
Providing for the use of one or more game 
farms. 
Providing that all wild State land shall be 
game refuges. 
Prohibiting the use of silencers on guns of 
any kind. 
