The evening times., 1899-12-19
Views of the President of the Mary.
land Game Association.
Steps VIII BE Taken to Provide Good
Hunting in the Future-He Does
Not Believe That a Closed Season
for One Year VIII BE of Much Ben
eft Interest of the Farmers.


Dobbin Penniman. Persistent of the Mary
land State Game and Fish Protective As
sociation, said yesterday:
There has been some misapprehension
| of the position taken by the executive COM
mittee of the Game Association toward the
movement looking to a closed season in
partridge shooting for a year. As matter
| of fact, the Game Association has not
taken any official action. and does Tot in
! tend to take any official action as far as 1
| know.
THE question was raised informally at
the last meeting of the executive commit
tee, and in the opinion of most of the MEM
bers present closed season was not
| deemed advisable. Unofficially, l would
like to state my opinion:
Methods of Protection.
Admitting that the extreme cold of the
last winter has seriously decreased the
number of partridges in many places in
this State, l think that there are two
| methods by which the number can be in
creased: One is by prohibiting shooting
for a year. and the second is by affordirg
the present stock of birds every protection
| possible during this winter: by purchasing
birds from the West for propagating pur-
poses and by so caring for the birds during
/ this and the following winters by afIording
| them proper shelter and food that great
number of birds now annually killed
through cold, hawks, &c. will be saved.
THE only thing in favor OF the first plan
| is that certain number OF birds VIII not
| be killed next winter by sportsmen who
will obey the law. The experience OF our
| neighbors in Virginia has been that there
/ har of through
| the country who will not observe the law.
| and as a result many birds will be killed
| in spite of the closed season. do not be
| lieve that the number of birds which are
! killed by shooting seriously affects the
sport in the following autumn.
II the birds are given closed season
for year it means that nothing more Will
be done for them. In my opinion. the DIFF
iculty in Maryland does not arise from
the number of birds which are killed by
Shooting but from the change which has
taken place in the methods of agriculture
in the State which deprives the birds of
cover and protection during both the sum-
mer and the winter.
Old Fences n Protection.
AT present the nests of lsrse numbers
of partridges are destroyed by the mowers
and reapers, and probably this cannot be
avoided tc any great extent; but, in addi-
ticn to that. by the constantly increasing
use of the wire fence throughout the State,
the birds are being deprived more and
more each year OF the protection from
hawks. storms, etc, which protection the
old post and rail and snake fences used
to afford.
The farmers throughout the State are
adopting the practice of cleaning up their
old fields in the fall by the use of a mower,
t1,;, iaat M
which would protec: the birds from hawks
and in cold weather afford them a good,
safe feeding ground is destroyed. Now,
merely closing the season for year viii
not remedy this. The hawks will be as
hungry ard as numerous. the winds will
be as cold and the snow as deep in the
closed year as during the winter in which
shooting is permitted.
I'm addition. farmers and all other per-
sons interested in the birds will not have
the incentive of shooting within a few
months TO urge them to protect the birds.
but, as in Virginia, they will feel that as
the season is closed. the birds can he
safely left to themselves. and even II the
winter be very severe, few people Will take
the trouble to feed them. Again. as hap
pened in Virginia the winter which follows
the closed year may be very severe and
may again wipe cut all the good which the
closed year has produced.
SuggestiOns to Farmers.
Il believe in the second plan, because /
do not think We will ever have good shoot
ing in Maryland until the farmers afford
the birds protection from hawks and SHOWS.
| think in neighborhoods where the birds
are now very scarce. il those interested in
shooting will feed the birds during this
winter, SO that the loss OF life through cold
1uf1 10
they will. by placing small traps on the
tops of poles through the country. catch
the hawks; if, in moving and reaping,
the nests of the brooding birds are avoided
as far as possible; if hundreds of vagrant
ours owned throughout the counties are
destroyed through some effective law which
will protect the farmers sheep as well as
the birds, then the right step will be taken
toward a permanent increase Of birds in
the State.
Where farmers have constructed wire
fences, if they could be induced to leave
a strip of land two feet wide on each side
of the fence to grow up in bushes. 5riers.
and wild grasses, 1t would afford a good
meeting place for many Of the birds in the
summer and a safe refuge from hawks, as
well as well-stocked larder for the birds
during the SHOWS of winter
''If the farmers, instead of clearing their
lands in the fall as bare as a billiard table.
would leave along in the streams and in
protected places patches of high grass. the
birds would find sufficient cover to hide
from hawks and would get seeds for food
Birds From the West.
Il also believe that the residents of the
city who take advantage of The invitations
of their country friends to shoot in the
country should assist in the good work by
purchasing quail from the West to be
turned out for propagating purposes. My
experience in Howard county in this line
exclusively proves to me two things:
First. that a large proportion Of the birds
which are turned out will breed. and sec
ondly, that every farmer on whose land
small bunch of birds was liberated imme-
diately took an interest in protecting the
BIRDS and was willing to do everything
possible to assist them in increasing and
from that time became an ardent advocate
of protecting and feeding the birds.
1.-THE residents Of the city could also very
easily make the necessary pecuniary ar
rangements with their country friends to
have small patches Of grain sown in vari-
ous sheltered spots. to be left uncut for use
of the birds. There are more birds in Eng
land to an acre than there are here on
ten acres, and their winters are at times
even more trying than ours. No one hears, |
however. of closing a season for a year
there, and it is only because the birds are
cared for intelligently instead of being left
to themselves to struggle for an existence
nm hare fields as here