The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1909-09-16
About Posted Farms.
From Field and Stream

About Posted Farms.
From Field and Stream
At the request of Kansas subscriber
we reprint from the Neosho Falls Post
the following comment upon question
of present interest to nearly all states.
The writer says he is not sportsman,
as proof that he is not biased in his
views by self-interest. He probably errs
in blaming the pot hunter alone for the
determination of game, nor can we agree
with him that the farmer should feel
bound to permit hunting by those who
practice more sportsmanlike methods.
1t is rather difficult to determine where
the line should be drawn, admitting
some and excluding others. Moreover,
Neutrality-suspicious." sign at the
corner of farm is not an infallible in
dication that the fields and covers shelter
more game than is absolutely required
for stocking. If there is surplus, it
will eventually cross the boundary fence
into unprotected territory. But at the
present day and time there is not always
surplus. There are more than two
sides to this question of Farmer versus
Sportsman, and that Of our Kansas
theorist is upheld, we regret to say, by
a great many people who have failed to
imparsially consider the subject in all its
bearings. There is always temptation
to discover what is behind a closed door;
but where game is scarce it should re-
ceive protection, and the farmer who
undertakes the job is public benefac-
tor. When birds become plentiful the
sportsman will certainly get his share OF
them, and the Irresponsible" party who
pays for hunters license can afford to
wait until his investment has had time
to bear fruit. The last paragraph Of the
article here reprinted we can commend
to our thoughtful readers:
Undoubtedly the owner or renter Of
land has legal right to prohibit hunt
ing or fishing on his premises. I'm
doubtedly he has been annoyed by in
experienced and irresponsible hunters,
and the law gives him the right to re-
fuse such the right of his premises; but
from the other point OF view, has a
farmer the moral right to refuse respon-
sible sportsmen the privilege of hunting
and fishing at lawful seasons for the
game and fish that are being protected
by the sportsmen's money? 1t is the
hunters license money which sends
trains over the State, stocking streams
with fish and fields with game. The
hunters license money is used to en-
force the game laws, thus protecting the
farmer from the unlawful hunter OF
/ fisherman.
"There is no one who values the pres
/ ervation of the game and fish OF the
State more highly than the real sports
man, and it is he who has brought about
existing conditions, under which the
farmer can protect himself by law from
the market hunter, the man who hunts
out of season, or in unlawful ways. 1
seems but just that the farmer should
use discrimination in refusing the rur
of his land instead of denying to tht
responsible sportsman the benefits HI
has been chiefly instrumental in bring
ing about.
cit is not the sportsman who goe
: afield with dog and takes only TIN
limit prescribed by law in day who ex
terminates the game. 1t is the Pc
/ hunter who discovers bunch of quai
sitting in hedge and shoots the who'll
, bunch at one shot. Happily the wis
law, which the sportsmen have been in
strumental in passing, destroying tn
market, or rather making it a penalt
to sell or receive game birds at any tim
of the year, has about driven the marke
hunter out of business. 1t has no douh
been this class of shooters which ha
compelled many farmers to post thei
= farms. A true sportsman does not g
onto farm and clean out every chicke
or quail, leaving none for reproductio
: the following season. He is as desirou
as the farmer for plentiful game.
eff the farmers and sportsmen woul
cooperate and endeavor to have Law
enacted which would put bounty Q
8 hawks, crows and other vermin whic
e destroy not only the game but tt
farmers barnyard chickens, it wou
4 result in a closer relationship betWee
&C farmer and hunter"
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