The record-union., 1891-06-29
PRESERVATION or GAME.
An Admirable System of Protec,
tiOn and Management.
Some Suggestions Which American
States Might Adopt-How Scarcity
of Game May be Prevented - A
Maryland Example.

There is a law on the old Maryland
statute books which was intended to pro-
hibit master from feeding his slaves or
servants on canvasback duck and terra
pin oftener than twice a week, says
Washington correspondent OF the st.
Louis Globe Democrat. According to
Maryland tradition duck and terrapin
were so plentiful in the old days that
householders found them the cheapest
food, because they were the most album
dant. Not only did they appear con-
stantly upon the tables of the old plant
ers, but they were served daily to the
servants and the slaves. This high feed
ing was INDUCED in so constantly that it
became monotonous, then distasteful;
and finally an appeal went up to the
Maryland lawmakers to end this process
of starvation. They passed the law, and
after that the Maryland 'laboring
classes" were obliged to submit to a diet
Of terrapin and canVaSback duck only
twice week.
Conditions have greatly changed since
then, and terrapin and duck are now cs-
teemed, first because they are rare, and
second because they are palatabe. Ma
ryland now has game laws protecting the
CanYasback, and there are laWS-nOt eN-
&ctly 'game laws'-which are intended
TO protect the terrapin. Other States, too,
have adopted the system OF protecting the
wild game, but it is pretty certain that in
many sections of the country the laws
for this purpose are absolutely diSre-
garded or else far from perfect. In many
Of the older States game has become
scarce, and unless a better system of game
protection and management IS adopted
and rigidly enforced it must entirely dis
A
hunter to kill 1000 prairie chickens out
of season and in violation of law, as oc-
CURED in South Dakota not long ago,
certainly needs radical correction.
Consul-General Frank II. Mason, of
Frankfort, Germany, in Il report just
submitted to the State Department,
makes some valuable suggestions, and ut
the same time gives an interesting ac-
count of the German system Of game pro-
lection and management from Il purely
economic standpoint. IN beginning he
says:
''Observant Americans travelling by
rail through Germany during the late
summer or autumn months are often as
tonished by the abundance Of hares, par
tridgeS and pheaSantS which are to De
seen in the fields and thickets along the
railways, or by roebuck-from two to Il
dozen or more together-feeding in pas
lures and meadows, and scurrying into
the adjacent woods on approach of the
train. This surprise is usually augmented
when, at some country station, the trav-
eler sees q party of spOrtSmen returning
TO town with the proceeds of a day 5
shooting. Remembering the denuded
condition of the older and more thicllly
settled portions OF our own country IN all
that respects field and woodland game,
the impression IS apt to come home to the
transatlantic tourist that, III this respect
at least, the Germans manage better than
we have done. In fish-culture and the
skillful breeding of many kinds Of ami
mails the Americans are unsurpassed, if
equaled, by any people Of Europe; but in
making marketable game plentiful pro-
duct Of fields that have been cultivated
since many centuries before America was
discovered, the Germans have, it would
seem, set an example which we may
study with interest, ii not profit"
The game birds and animals Of Ger
many which are still so plentiful include
principally the stag, the fallow deer and
roedeer, hares and rabbits, the caDer-
caelZie (or Auerhahn), pheasants, par
tridges, snipe, woodcock, wildducks and
swans, not to speak Of fish, offers, foxes
and badgers.
1T was but natural" continues Consul
General Mason, THAT people busy with
the task of clearing and settling a country
so vast as ours should until within recent
y
mails as part of the spontaneous product
OF the land, the property of whoever
might take the trouble to pursue and kill
them. Not within many centuries has
any such eaSy-going Indifference on that
subject prevailed in these older nations OF
Europe. From the days when the game
belonged to the Crown and hunting was
the exclusive privilege of the King and
the nobility, game birds and animals
have been recognized as property not less
tangible and defensible than domestic
poultry or cattle.
with the Imperial preserves of Ger
many and the vast estates of the wealthier
aristocracy, where stays and pheasants
are reared and tended by liyeried game
keepers for wholesale slaughter on
princely hunting days, the present report
has, for obvious reasons no concern. 4 II
that belongs to social and political con-
dition so remote from our own as to
divest it of all practical interest in this
connection. But the Imperial and Grand
Ducal preserves cover but a small pro-
portion of German territory. The vast
bulk of it Is possessed by individual
farmers and communes, and is leased, so
lar as shooting privileges are concerned,
10 individuals or small clubs of profess
siOnal and business men in the neighbor-
ing towns and cities for an annual rental.
which amounts in the aggregate to MANY
the important revenues of the agricult-
ural class"
Prussia, Bavaria, Hesse, Wurtemburp
and Baden have each their separate code
Tor the protection of game and the regula-
ton of the shooting privileges, and in no
respect are the provincial governments
. OF Germany more jealous of national in
reference than in regard to their game
laws. ConSui-General Mason takes as a
taIr example the Code of Prussia Re
garding it he says:
"One of the important provisions of
tho Prussian code is that which permits
any proprietor of landed property to kill
game at proper seasons in any part OF his
premises that may be inclosed by a fence
or wall, but which denies him this privi-
iege on any piece of uniuclOsed land
which is less than 260 acres III extent. In
the latter case the game on the farmer
land reverts to the care of the commune
III which he lives, which rents the shoot
ing privileges OF all such territory within
It's limits, crediung TO each farmer his due
Ebare OF the aggregate rental, proportion
Hse To the area of mis- land.
"As nearly all farming lands in Ger
many are owned III small tracts by peas
ant farmers who live in villages, and as
such lands are rarely or never inclosed
by any sembiauce of hedge or fence. il
follows that most field shooting is leased
by the communal authorities ut prices
which vary from 20c to 75c per acre annu-
ally, thus adding an additional crop, so
TO speak, so the yearly product of the
ground. These shooting privileges are
leased usually for terms of six, nine, OF
twelve years. Competition is by auction
at the Office of the communal burgomaS-
ter, and the lease goes to the highest
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