79 
More and more we are approaching in this country the conditions 
that have prevailed in Europe for many years. Farming land is worth 
in the State of Illinois all the way from one hundred to two hundred 
dollars per acre. Intensive farming and improved stock has become a 
necessity. ‘The modern farmer no longer invites the world to come and 
shoot on his land. Rather he invites the sportsmen to keep off his 
premises lest he frighten his high priced stock or damage his valuable 
crop. Soon the farmer, following the lead of his European brother, will 
hold the shooting privileges of his farm to have a cash value, and he 
will make of that privilege an asset. Sportsmen who have been accus- 
tomed to being welcomed to the farmers land, will resent the new order 
as an undemocratic piece of viciousness imported from aristocratic 
Europe. Still the farmer has the right to rent the shooting on his place, 
and will soon learn to do so when he finds it has a market value. 
At present, the close tilling has taken away the cover that once was 
the haunts of the prairie chicken, the ruffed grouse, the quail, the wood- 
cock, the snipe and the plover. These good Illinois ‘birds are passing 
and a demand is growing for a group of game birds to take their place, 
and this demand has got to be met by the game commissions of today and 
the future. 
Already various states have anticipated the future of game birds 
in this country and have endeavored to find suitable European birds to 
take the place of our own game birds once so plentiful; birds that will 
thrive in a country where land is high and intensive cultivation of the 
farm prevails. 
To meet this demand your commission has given much consideration 
to the question of putting the State Game Farm on such an economical 
basis as to make it possible to stock every county in the State with game 
birds suited to the new conditions growing out of the increased value of 
land. 
STATH GAME FARM. 
Inasmuch as the State Game Farm, located at Auburn, had been 
the source of much scandal, and further because of the fact that a very 
small product resulted from an exceedingly large expenditure, the com- 
mission took up the matter of dealing with this place with a degree of 
trepedation. However, this branch of the service was taken hold of at 
once with the determination of making of it a business organization that 
would prove a valuable asset, yielding a fair return for the cost of its 
maintenance. 
It is a peculiar satisfaction to the commission to be able to state 
that during the past year the game farm has been an unqualified success. 
The product of the farm far exceeds the expectations of the commission, 
considering the cost of maintenance. Put in concrete form, the com- 
mission is able to state that the product of the farm to date is in round 
numbers 16,000 young birds and water fowl divided as follows: 
10,000 young ring-necked pheasants ; 
500 young fancy Weare, including Golden, Reeves, Amherst. 
Mongolian, Jap, and Silver varieties ; 
