The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1901-09-06
SHOOTING AND GAME LAWS.
Efforts for Protection of Game in the
West Growiog More ia Favor.
MINNEAPOLIS journal

West Growiug More ia Favor.
Minneapolis Journal:
The opening of the open season for
grouse, or prairie chickens, as they
are Familiarity known, is sending large
numbers of men, dogs and guns to the
stubble fields of the state. Our laws
fix no limit upon the size of bags
which may be brought in, and the
slaughter will be, as usual, enormous.
A man may shoot twenty, thirty or
forty brace to his gun, or more, if he
has the luck" term generally ap-
plicable to the hunter who knows the
birds and their haunts best, has the
best dogs and knows how to shoot and
when to shoot.
1t is we'll that public interest in
the protection of game is increasing.
In our country it has been uphill
work, except in the older eastern states,
to legislate successf ully for the protec-
tion of game birds and game animals.
Americans generally regard such legis-
lation as wilful obstruction of their
rights. A similar view is largely
taken of attempts to protect the forests
from utter extinction. Witness the
bitter opposition to the legislation set
ting apart forest reservations for the
nation. Game protection, however,
is increasingly favored, and, according
to the agricultural department. which
has issued digest of the game laws,
four-fifth of the states and territories
have legislated on the subject, or,
within the last few years, have amend
ed existing laws and made them strict
er, and have placed restrictions upon
the methods of taking and selling,
storing and shipment of game, some
of the restrictions being rather too
stringent and impracticable, and,
therefore, frequently violated. All
this legislation denotes deeper inter
est in the subject which is to be COM
mended. Without reasonable and en-
forced restrictions, our best game birds
would disappear and deer would meet
the fate of the once numerous buffa-
loes Maine has protected cher moose
by judicious legislation so that there
is still good supply of this fine game
in the northern counties. In Mime
sofa the laws as to moose are stringent
enough, but they came too late to pre-
vent rather ruinous onslaught upon
the big game, of which, however,
there is still enough to develop large
future herds The public is waking
up to realization that without game
laws and game law enforcement,
shooting seasons will, sooner or later,
become aching voids by reason of the
fact that there is no game to shoot.
In some of the states, indeed, the laws
require that the game laws and all
matter relating to the introduction of
game and game preserves shall be read
two or three times year in the pub
lie schools.
The old game laws of England re-
suited in the. excessive preservation of
game birds and small animals, which
preyed disastrously upon the crops of
the farmers, and the existing laws, al
though modified, are the subject of
constant grumbling among rural popu-
lations where restrictions of any kind
are denounced, and the poacher takes
his risks as matter of business. Peo-
pie in this country could not endure
the system of gamekeeper espionage
which obtains in England. In Mrs.
Humpry Wards "Marcella, the
stringent nature of the English game
laws is interestingly brought out.
Those laws are more in the interest of
class than Of the public generally. In
our country this cannot be said of the
game laws. They hit the pot-hunter
hard, as general thing, and that in
dividual ought to be hit hard. He is
no friend of the public, who are in
ceasingly of the opinion that restric-
tive legislation to protect game is very
much in the publie's interest.