Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1909-01-13
MARKET HUNTERS
MUST BE CHECKED
GENERAL MOVEMENT TO PRE-
VENT WHOLESALE DEsTRuc-
TIoN OF GAME.
CENSUS OF ALL KILLINGS SUG-
GESTED AS HIGHLY
IMPORTANT

New York, Jan. 10.-To measure
the contents of Uncle Sans game bag
during the new year is the object OF
a concerted effort in which sportsmen
from every section of the country are
Joining the National Association of
Audubon societies in this city. De-
tailed records of each days shoot are
to be secured from every true sports
man and required by law of every one
else, it is proposed, in all states
where the Audubon and sporting in
| terests will urge the crying need OF
| legislation to this effect. Unless the
annual inroads upon the rapidly de-
creasing game of America are thus
determined, the leaders of the new
movement declared today, shooting as
a healthy recreation will soon be killed
| in almost every region of the CONT
nent
That the health, crops and woods,
as we'll as the sport, of many extern
sive localities are seriously menaced
by the extinction Of game birls, will
be demonstrated by the latest results
of the scientific Investigations of gov
nerment authorities at Washington.
Water fowl and shore birds will be
shown in their natural capacity of
destroying the anopheles mosquito, as
well as other recognized distributors
of deadly germs Gulls and many
other varieties of sea and inland wa
ter birds will be proven by ornitho-
logical experts to be wholesale de-
stroyers of grasshoppers and a multi
tude of the insects which cause an
| annual crop and forest loss of nearly
a billion dollars or more than the en-
tire national debt as recently an
nounced according to the most recent
calculations of the government bureau
of entomology. The case of Salt
Lake City, whose people have erected
a monument to the gulls that saved
all their crops from destruction by an
insect plague, will also be cited.
In every one of the Al state legis-
latures special efforts to obtain legal
provision for this game census are
being planned among organized sports
men and Audubon workers. where a
hunters license law is in force the
addition of a law to enforce the re-
cording of all game birds and animals
shot will be urged tits proposed, in
order to protect the true sportsmen
and to detect market hunters to pun,
e.. 10 SEASON 6
shoot by forfeiture of license, and
false returns by proceeding as against
perjury. Special blanks for the pur-
pose are being prepared as an attach
ment to all hunters license cards.
When the purpose and necessity OF
this widespread and checking up OF
the nations game bag is realized by
the people at large, the labor OF COM
piling the records of the individual
prowess of millions of hunters will be
begun. In this gigantic task the Of
ficers of the National Association OF
Audubon societies have been promised
the hearty assistance Of the director
of the National Conservation COM
mission, a coordinate branch OF
which their organization has become
by the special invitation of the auth
critics at Washington. This conser-
walton movement they will forward
as one of their principal activities for
the new year, together with their reg
ular work of education, bird care on
reservations and legislative cam
paigning for general bird protection.
"The conservation of the dying
races of the game birds and animals
of this continent is an object for
which we are finding every true
sportsman ready and eager to CO.
operate with u.s. said William Dutch
er, president of the National Associa-
ton of Audubon societies, at its head
quarters, 141 Broadway. The pro-
posed census is the only sure way OF
determining the extent of the exist
| ing commercial bird butchery and the
| means to check it. Though we shall,
of course, have to fight the organized
and financially powerful market hunt-
ers at every step toward this end, l
feel sure that the support OF the
sportsmen will help us greatly and
that we may rely upon the support
of every patriotic American as well.
The whole public debt of this nation
has just been reported as $997,349,75l.
With a known annual loss OF many
millions more than this due to the
growing inroads of the insects which
our game birds destroy. do not think
Americans can ignore this subject
much longer