The Van Buren press., 1895-07-06
GAME PREsERvEsiN GERMANY.
The Systematic Way In Which Hunting 10
Managed There.

GAME PRESERVES IN GERMANY.
The Systematic Way In Which Hunting 10
Managed There.
IN Prussia the game law allows the
owner of every piece of land that is in
closed by fence or wall the right to
shoot birds or animals on it or to rent
the privilege out to those from the
towns and cities. All of the land less
than two hundred heres iii exteht
which is not enclosed may belong to
one according to law, but the shooting
privilege is owned by the commune in
which the land is located. The result
is that there is not free and indiscrim-
mate hunting. The sportsmen from
the towns or cities, however, for a
mere nominal rent can find excellent
hunting by hiring from any of the
farmers along the line of the railroads.
The game is generally preserved and
fed by the farmer until the shooting
season, for the abundance of the game
determines largely the price he can OBJ
tain for the shooting privilege. A
great deal Of the shooting land is
owned by the farmers, who do not
enclose it, and the communal authori-
ties usually have the renting of the
shooting privileges These renting
privileges amount to many millions of
marks every year, and they constitute
very important revenue of the agri-
cultual class The communal authori-
10 ~, fo, l. .c l,.o e1,
of the aggregate rental in proportion
to the area of his land.
The leases of the shooting privileges
are usually from six to nine or twelve
years, and, by furnishing proper finan-
cial guarantee that the rent will be
paid, the privilege goes to the highest
bidder at a public auction. The club
or individual leasing the land then as
sumes all responsibility, both as to the
rearing and preservation of the game
and to the damage done to growing
crops. Two communal assessors de-
termine the amount of damage done to
farm crops by the hares, birds or deer,
and they levy the tax to be paid to the
farmers. Generally local game
keeper watches over the small preserve
to see that the game is not molested.
The great principle which has been
inculcated by this system is that game
birds are just as much private prop
erty as the poultry or cattle of the
farmer, and that it is just as punisha-
BILE an offense to kill them without
power from the authorities as it is to
rob hen roost or kill farmers COW
or pig. A long course of public educa-
ton would be required in this country
before people could be induced to look
upon wild game in this light. Natur-
ally there is poaching in Germany, the
same as there is chicken stealing in
America, but it is doubtful if the
former is much more general than the
latter. Moreover, by this system the
farmers crops are protected from all
injury by irresponsible depredators in
search of game. The law forbids hunt
ing on the farms while the crops are
growing The field shooting begins
late in the fall, when the crops are all
harvested
No one is allowed to wander over the
fields with shotgun and hunters ac-
coutrements without license from
the local authorities. In order to Sc
cure license the applicant must be a
man in good standing and not under
eighteen years of age. These licenses
to shoot on certain fields cost from sew.
enty-five cents to three dollars year.
Any infraction of these rules is pun
ishable by fines, confiscation of the
gun and accoutrements, and by i'm
prisonment. Poaching is thus kept
down, and the professional bird and
animal killer is abolished.
Sportsmen who pay for shooting
privileges are not governed by any un
written code such as prevails in Amer
lea, that it is not good form to sell
their game in the open mar ket. Ir
Germany they kill the game for the
sport, and then sell it to help pay fol
the expenses of the preserves. On some
of the best preserves the returns from
the farms more than pay all the ex
penses. Men of limited means can in
this way enjoy shooting to their hearts
contents by using little business
shrewdness in conducting preserve
Without this system many lovers OF
the sport could not afford to indulge II
the chase at all. The game is plenti
full and very gentle when the shooting
season begins, and every owner feels
assured that the multiplication of the
birds and animals will go on withou
| interference from poachers.
The principal wild game in German,
are the stag, the deer, hares and rab
bits, pheasants, partridges, snipe, wood
cock, wild ducks, swans, foxes, badg
ers, fish-otters, and many others. Th'
hare is the great national game ami
NAL, hunted alike in every part of tn
empire by the plain, average German
sportsman. 1t is superior animal
both in size and quality, to the com
mon brown American rabbit. 1t doe
not burrow, but seeks shelter in coli
weather behind stones and roots o
trees The small animal is in grea
abundance, and it forms a staple arti
Gle of food for the lower classes. The,
are very prolific, one mother oftel
| bringing out from fifteen to twenty
four young ones in one season. The.
are preyed upon by hawks, foxes, an
other enemies besides man, but the.
multiply SO rapidly under the fostering
care of the laws that in December
when the shooting begins, the hunter
find plenty Of game. Paris is grea
market for hares, and it is not unusua
for game-keepers in one place to orde
a special car each day during the shoot
ing season to send straight through t.
the French capital. In Prussia alon
as many as two million five hundre'
+boucaud hares have been killed in on