Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1907-02-26
Hunters Fight Fipe
Years Closed Season
Sharp in Their Criticisms of the Bill
Which Passed the Senate This Week

an hour or So they would soon come
to believe what every hunter knows
that 1t is not the shooters who kill the
quail-it is the severe winters. When
the winters are mild there are lots of
quail.''
Severe Winters Kill Quail.
ITO pass law prohibiting the shoot
Ing of quail for five years in Iowa
would be Ridiculous said ]. F. Powell.
IF the Iowa legislature can pess law
| that will prevent sleet and snow
storms. then it will be a good thing
for the quail for that law to be put on
the books as soon as possible. How
ever it is not the hunters that kill off
the quail: it is the winters. In the
Carolinas. Virginia and Maryland and
other of the southern states, where the
winters are mild, quail are more plen-
ty than they are in Iowa and they have
been shot and hunted in those states
for two hundred years. These states
are not worrying any about five veal
close laws. The fact is that where
quail are hunted the most they are the
thickest. because where there are lots
of hunters. the close season on game
is more rigidly enforced The sleet
and snow storms that cover the ground
for a week or ten days will kill lots of
quail The quail law is all right as it
stands and there is no need Of any
change"
Likes License Law
F. M. Hunter: 81 like the idea of a
license law. It looks like the best
step to me. The cold winters are
where the quail are killed. not especial
ly by the hunters. If we could apply
the money derived from the licenses to
propogatirg game and taking care of
it, and protecting it, that would be
the best thing that could be done. l
don't think the five year closed season
is any good for quail, since there is
the danger of a hard winter carrying
them all off after the term is up. 1t
would be all, however for the
prairie chickens, since there are so
very few of them in this state, and
they do not die in the winter like
quail do AS far as the chickens are
concerned l would be in favor of a
five year season, but not for quail"
Law an Outrage
"The proposed game law is an out
rage" said Attorney Jo jacques this
morning III speaking of the bill re-
Gently passed by the senate, providing
for a five year closed quail season
"In my mind it would be much better
| to have Il license law, and provide a
fund for the game wardens to stock
the state with more chickens and
pheasants. In fact, l have advocated
a law to that effect, giving a man a
right TO hunt on his own grounds, but
making it necessary for him to obtain
a license to hunt elsewhere. AS 1t Is
now, the farmers will kill all the quail
they want anyway, and why not let
! the sportsmen do some hunting as
long as they keep to the required limit
of birds? No, am decidedly not in
| favor of the new law; a rigid enforce
ment of the present law would be far
better in my mind"
| Quail Will Be Nuisance
| "In five years the quail will be a
nuisance to the country" said James
Templeton another Nimrod, in talking
of the game bill which passed the
senate Wednesday. Iowa has lots of
quail right now and if this law is
rigidly enforced for years the coun-
try will be pestered by the birds. 1t
will he too easy to get them to make
good SPORT This law was probably
made by men who knew nothing what
ever of the habits of the birds. No,
| am not in favor of this law"
Not in Favor Of Law
A. g. Steck: 81 am not in favor of the
five year law. If the legislature could
control OUT seasons and make them
warm like they are in the South quail
might become a nuisance in Iowa, as
they have at times become in the
southern country. But the five year
proposition won't work, since at the
end Of it, with a hard winter or two
intervening, we may have less quail
| then when we started. What l do
think is, that our game Legislation
should be made as near like that OF
the sister states IS possible
"The open season now on quail is
only six weeks said L. T. Crisman,
land the number killed by the hun
tiers does not materially lessen the
number of birds that will live from
one season to another Quail and
prairie chicken are nothing alike and
the same restrictions will not answer
for both. Quail thrive where the coun-
try is thickly populated, while the
chickens do not. You can't raise
chickens by law any more than you
can make mild winters by law. Sleet
and snow and cola weather, not the
hunters, kill quail. 1t is very probably
| that il there was not another quail
shot in Iowa for the next five years,
that there would not be any more at
the end of that time than there is
now"