The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-10-14
TIE KILLING CF CAME
 RECKLESS IN FRANCE Pot Hunters, Teachers and
 Battues Reduce the
 Supply. BIG PRICES IN PARIS Half aMillion Licensed Gun ners This Year Are Shooting.
BIG PRICES IN PARIS

The hunting season begins in France in September, and this year, as for several past, there is an outcry all over the country at the reckless wholesale destruction of game. Some of the sporting clubs have taken up the matter in the hope of finding remedy.
 They have an odd way of starting the season in France. The entire territory is divided into zones, each containing number of departments, in which the climate is similar and the crops mature and are harvested about the same time. The depart ment of the interior at Paris keeps track of conditions in each of these and sets the date for the opening for a day in advance of which it is esti- mated the farmers will have got their crops all in.
 Then the prefects and the mayors make proclamation and the gunners Of all France are at liberty to rush in and begin the slaughter at daybreal1 of the appointed date. And they do
 They have to rush in fact, If they mean to fill their bags. for the crowd is so great that every living thing is either killed in a day or two or rend- cred so timid as to be undiscoyerable. All the railroad companies run spe- cial trains to points in the open zones and for twenty-four hours in advance the army with it's dogs and guns pours into the threatened region.
 The growth of the shooting habit in France is shown by the number of permits issued In 1880 there were only 44,500 in all France; in 1850 there were 150,000; in 1880 there were $50, 1000, and more than 430,000 in 1900.
 In 1905 the authorities compelled those who catch larks and other small birds with snares for the market to take out licenses The number at once jumped to 511,000, and this year It is estimated at 536,o00. As the adult male population of France is hardly more than 16,000,000, it ap- Epears that about one man in every thirty goes hunting.
 But besides the hunters with H. censes there is an organized body of poachers, who devastate the woods and fields and marshes by all sorts of 1 illegitimate methods. The demand for game in Paris Is enormous and 1 fine prices arc paid for it.
 l But besides the pot hunters and 1 the poachers there are other causes for the decrease in Frances game supply There is plague of rats in l the country, and 1t Is said that the supply of cartridges or pheasants would vanish on account of the de- struction of their eggs by the vermin were 1t not for constant stocking.
 As final cause of the depletion of the supply there arc the battues which French sportsmen have adopt 1 ed In imitation of the English. At Q battue givenslast year near Paris, in honor of a royal visitor, 15,000 car tridges were burned and 4,S02 pieces of game were brought down in four 1 hours.
 On another occasion the President of the Republic and King Victor Elm manuel of Italy, shot 6St birds and animals, ranging from deer to rabbits and from partridges to quail, In a private shoot on the estate of Mont calm in Gard, in the south of France held last January, twelve guns brought down in day 4Se red par tridges, 1924 pheasants and 5S rab- bits.
 In the north of France the normal bag of an individual without beaters 1 is regarded as fifteen to twenty pieces for a seven hour day of tramping and shooting behind a dog, though a very expert shot in privately stocked and preserved land might get from 50 to ] 100 at the opening of the season. In Brittany it is not unusual for good shot to get from twenty-five to thirty woodcock in day.
 Recently the head of the Syndicate of game commission merchants in the Paris markets drew up an estimate ! by weight of the game brought in from all the various departments for the nine years from 1898 to 1906 in 1 elusive. The leading one was Loire- t-Cher, in the center of the country, with over 324,0O0 pounds of game. followed by Loiret just north of it, with 320,Oo pounds.
 The sportsmen's societies offer sew eral means of checking the slaughter of game. One is to insist on each hunter taking out separate license for each department in which he hunts. This would make pot hunting expensive
 Another is to divide the country into districts of about equal extent and each year pick out certain ones amounting to one-sixth of the whole surface, in which no hunting should be allowed. The objection to these and other plans comes not only from the dealers, but also from the fear of politicians that they would be unpop- lar with the half million and more of voters who now go out slaughter | .Alaa a-4