Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1901-02-07
THE DELAWARE GAME LAWS

Mr. 16ury DaVfH Oh 0FOrpb, mllIOru,
Del.-My Dear Sir: have noted With |
a great deal of interest your letter to |
me Of January 2Sth published in the
Every Evening, and hasten to reply to
1t, as you raise some points that at
first thought, might seem to be as your
letter indicates, hut which after more
careful consideration assume different
aspect, as / think you will agree with
me.
In the first PLACE, regarding the
change in the time of the season for
shooting birds and rabbits. The results
OF the season just past would seem to
favor moving forward OF the ds es a
fortnight, but it Is not fair to Judge by
| this year alone. AS general rule birds
are full grown by the 18th Of Sovem-
her, and think you will find that it
| HIS been long time since go many
| young birds were found at the opening
| of the season as were found this year.
| The season was unusually late, and
favored the raising of a second brood of
| young, SO that many "squealers, = so
called, wers found in November.
think, however, that the condition Of
the birds IN other years at the opening
of the season war ants our retaining
the 10th of November as the opening
day. Not only this, but a change In
the opening day is undesirable for the
reason that some gunners never learn
of the change, and stick to the old
date and others take advantage of the
uncertainty that always exists for the
first year or two after the date is
changed and shoot in conscious viola
| ton OF the law. You would be sur.
| prised 10 learn how many people there
4 "a rQ inof1,rtt1n 10 tha
opening day has been changed from
| November LIST to November 18th, and
yet this change was made in 1895.
My principal objection to the change,
though, is in moving the season foI
ward into January, for much 30 we all
agree that it Is q pleasant time to
shoot yet cannot help feeling that
any change In the game season should
be in the direction of shortening it
rather than lengthening it. Our game
is getting more scarce every year, not
only in Delaware, but this is the cry
that comes from all parts Of the
country, and IL behooves us to be more
active Ia the preservation of cur game
than ever before. 1t is a reasonable
proposition, too, that the longer our
open season is, the more game will he
killed. Our season now lasts for six
weeks, and looking as we must to the
best interests of our game, / cannot
feel that it should be extended to two
months. Not only this, but snow 10
likely to come In January, condition
that renders quail particularly helpless
and liable to destruction; SO much SO
that our present law protects them from
being hunted while snow is on the
ground. But when a hunter has set
aside week for a shooting trip, he is
likely TO shoot that week, even though
there be snow on the ground. making
it violation of the law, much to the
of tho probability of snow In January,
this temptation would be oftener
thrown in the way of gunners than it
is at the present time. We lind that il
is not POI sible to punish every violation
of the game law, though we have done
some good work this season in prose-
cutting offenders, but rather is it to our
advantage to make the conditions such
that there will not be great temptation
to break the law protecting game. and
to have laws that will appeal to the
Hportsmen as being just and reasonable.
Another disadvantage of having our
season open on the. LIST Of December
would be, that then our season would
upen later than that in New Jersey,
Pennsylvania or in adjacent counties Of
Maryland, the result being that after
they had opened their season on the
, LIST and 18th OF November by paying
their license fees, they could come over
| and have another opening day on Della
, ware soil. The season now opens uni
, formly with ours ON the 10th OF Novenl-
. Der in Caroline, Queen Anne, Wicomicc
! and Worcester counties of Maryland.
Ii our season is changed to open on
. December 1st, the sportslneu In these
counties will take an opening day in
Delaware as we'll, whereas now they
! stay at home Then again extending
. the season to January 31st would carry
Y it later than the open season In oui
| neighhoring States, SO that our State
{ would be -overrun with nonresident
0 gunners whose season at home hao
closed. The bird season closes on Jan,
d uary LIST Ia New Jersey; on December
y 18th in Pennsylvania; on December
Z 25th in Dorchester, Kent, Caroline anc
/ Queen Anne's counties. Maryland; or
8 January 10th in Cecil county, and OF
Y January 10Th In Wicomico and Wor
!, cester counties, Maryland.
Q There is always discomfort among
o some at the close of the shooting
: season. II we have a good season Their
> the cry is for longer open season
with more chances to Kill the birds
2 after a poor season the cry is tn,
5 same, when probably they need all thu
r more protection. We cannot hope To-
r good shooting season every year
there were undoubtedly many birds il
Delaware this year yet the genera
complaint was that it was poo
season. This was due to the dry an,
warm weather, which made it Difficult
for the dogs to find birds, and also t,
q the TACT that nearly all the birds werl
/, in the woods. This year there was
= large crop Of acorns in the woods, ant
d many were found in birds that wer
n killed, showing the birds had beef
feeding on them. The birds are here
u and l believe that next year with NOR
d favorable weather conditions we shall
Q have great season. all the better TO
g only a few birds having Eeen kille'
d this year. The Delaware Game Pro
teotive Association at an outlay o
!, S1,242.6 &C released 4,2S4 quail In th
D State last spring, and the evidences ar
l. that these birds have been Keeping t
9 tho woods this fall, so that we shoull
d have great many birds for the mex
shooting season. 1t is quite likely tina
the present laws will prevent our buy
) ing any more Western birds, so that
!, our covers are once depleted it will b
:, a difficult matter to restock them.
:, We believe that we had more effeotiv
y enforcement of our laws this year tina
- we have had for long time. II W
= can only bring the people and tn