The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-05-16
Tho Farmer Protected and Re-
munerated and the Propri-
etor Has His Sport.
Favorlte and Most Plentiful Game In Ger
m~any-The Time for Hunting
sale of Game.

that Will protect marketable game from TN
onslaught of the pot-hunter and the viciou
killing for sport only by those whose taste
lead in that direction, and who never paus
for one moment to consider the evil the,
are perpetrating, says the San francisco
Sunday Call. Consul General Frank II
Mason, of Frankfort, Germany, contributes
an able paper IN this subject, some of who's,
ideas and suggestions it may be we'll for III
on this side of the water to consider.
With the imperial preserves of Germany
and the vast estates of the Weather arts
%tocracy, where stays and pheasants arr
reared and tended by liveried game-keep-
ers for wholesale slaughter on princel,
days, Mr.. Mason's report has no concern
1t belongs to a social and political condi-
ton remote from our own, and the imperia
and grand ducal preserves cover but j,
small portion of the German territory. III
vast bulk Of it is possessed by individual
farmers and commoners, and ia leased, &c
far as shooting privileges are concerned, tc
individuals or small clubs of professions
and business men in the neighboring towns
and cities for an annua rental which
amounts in the aggregate to many millions
of marks. and constitutes one of the i'm
pertant revenues Of the agricultural class.
One of the important provisions of the
Prussian code permits any proprietor OF
landed property to kill game at proper sea-
sons in any part of his premises that may
be inclosed by q fence or wall, but which
denies him this privilege on any piece Of
uninclosed land which is less thar 200
acres in extent. In such a case the game
on the farmers and reverts to the care of
the in which he lives. which
rents the shooting privileges of all such
territory within its limits, crediting the
farmer his due share of the aggregate rent-
al, proportionate to the area of his land.
AS nearly all these forming lands are held
in small tracts by the peasant farmers liv-
ing in the villages, they are rarely inclosed
by either hedge or fence, and the COM
munal authorities rent or lease the
cents an acre annually. the leases
running from six to twelve wears.
The lease goes to the highest bidder, who
furnishes security for his responsibility.
The Lessee becomes responsible for the
proper care of tho game in the fields or
woods, and also for any damage the game
may infict on growing crops. Should hares
injure the turnips or deer injure the wheat
communal assessors decide how much the
lessee has to pay. The lessee also employs
q loca! eamekeeper at a salary of scom 5000
to $500 a year, whose business it il to kill
foxes. hawks and other carnivorous crea-
lures and prevent poachipg. The peasant
farmer is satisfied with a system which Sc
cures him a full cash value for all the game
on his premises and damage to growing
crops. No man can aunt without a license,
and to be found outside of ones own prem
Uses with q rifle or fowling piece involves
the oonfiscation of the gun and accoutre-
ments. The license costs from rs cents to
S3 a year, and eliminates the professional
poacher or the small boy with the shotgun
who kills the singing birds as we'll as other
game in other countries.
Game birds and animals of Germany for
the most part consist of the stag, the fall
low deer and roedeer, hares and rabbits,
the capercailzee, or cock of the woods, a
species of grouse, pheasants, partridges,
snipe. woodoock, wild duck and swana and
other varieties of birds, besides fish offers,
foxes badgers, and other animals valuable
for their fur or killed because they destroy
other game. The pheasant, gray partridge,
hare and roedeer live and thrive in close
proximity to man, and may be easily trans
ferred to any locality suitable to their ex-
istence. The gray partridge of northern
Europe is about midway in size between
the quail and the prairie chicken of the
United States, resembling the former in ap-
pearance and disposition. The flesh is de-
licious. 1t lives i'll the open fields and
meadowa of Germany, even close to the viii
lagos and farm houses, and subsists on the
same kind of food as does our native quail
and prairie chicken. The female lays, in
May or early June. from sixteen to twenty
eggs, and it her brood is destroyed she
brings forth another Matching in July.
Partridge shooting in Prussia begins Sep
TENDER l. They sell in market from 80
thing to kill from 200 to 800 birds on a farm
of LOO acres Ia one season, and there are
preserves along the Rhine where tho aver
age score will exceed a thousand.
The German pheasant is the same as that
Of England, France and Austria. 1t was
introduced centuries ago from the Hlmn-
layan districts Of India. 1t is more es-
teemed for it's beauty than for its eating,
having but moderate merits for the table,
They are easily bred in Germany from birds
or eggs obtained in Bohemia, where
females cost from Sl.75 to 81 each, the
ten hons, costing something less. 4 few
acres of thick wood with undsrbrush or
open thicket, in which they can obtain wild
berries, buds or the grain they can pick up
in the adjoining fields is all that is necessary
for growing pheasants. The cock pheasant
may be lawfully shot in Prussia during the
whole year, except June, July and August,
but the female may only be killed lawfully
from the LIST of September until the end Of
January. The pheasant is a prolific bird,
and eggs for breeding purposes may be OBJ
tanned from dealers in Bohemia in almost
uiJ AhuittlNys
The roedeer is the smallest and most
nearly domesticated of the three species of
deer which inhabit Germany. Its flesh is |
the dalntiest yenison known to the ~epicure.
The roebuck may DO killed ut any time ex-
cept during March and April, but the doe
can only be shot between October Is and
December Is. Roedeer live close to cult
waited fields, and as they destroy tho grain
the thrifty peasant makes n note of it and
assesses damages On the lessee.
Tn reliable, everyday game OF the av-
erage German sportsman 10 the hare. 10
resembles the American field rabbit, but is
much larger and tho flesh is greatly super
Tor. 1t never burrows, but lives altogether
above ground, it's protection being a clod or
stone, and sometimes it resorts to thickets
and small woodlands, but very seldom to
deep dark woods. In the open fields of
and western Germany it swarms.
1t ID not greatly In favor with tho rich for
table use, but it is a coveted luxury with the
poorer CLASSES and Ill some markets il al
ways in demand. The mother hare bears
annually two and sometimes three litters
of from eight to a dozen ~leverets, and, al
many die from cold, wet weather
or are killed by foxes, hawks and othor
enemies, they multiply until they are as
plenty as field mice. A few are killed by
during that time of partridge
shooting, but the grent slaughter takes
place in December, when the q. oat bat
or drive-hunts nre made. They nre
less destructive to trees and gardens than
our rabbit, but they aro 80 prolific that
they nre a source of great anxiety to the
For thisr reason the law compels
The lessee to dFiye- hunt thu autira araa ~