The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1910-03-31

nv PROTECT the DUCKS
Found In Louisiana They Eat Wild
Rice Which Is the Bane OF
Planters.
New Orleans, March 26.-When
the Louisiana legislature meets the
most exciting question before it will
be the game laws. The matter has
suddenly become a bitter political
issue, and the two factions of the
Democracy are making the deer,
ducks, fish and oysters of the state
a dividing line.
The fact is that it was discovered
a short time ago that the game and
fishing possibilities of the state were
much greater than was general.y
thought. The issue now is between
letting the control of the game rest
with the state or turning it over to
the local authorities of the parishes.
BY those who oppose state control 1t
is charged that the game commission
employs an unnecessarily large army
OF wardens in the parishes, and that
1t has been organized on factional po-
litical lines.
In the meanwhile two questions
have come up In regard to he open
seasons and the protection of game
which show how complicated are the
problems and how many matters have
to be taken into consideration. Two
radical changes are about to be
adopted by the Game Commission,
the one for religious and economic
reasons, the other on an agricultural
matter.
The game commissioner has Just
suspended the law in regard to the
closed season for catfish and buffalo
fish, the most abundant in Louisiana.
This Is their breeding season, and the
the commissioner realizes that they
should be protected, but 1t is also
Lent. the great fish eating season of
the year in a Catholic community
like New Orleans. Moreover the high
price of meat has driven many people
to use fish instead. and the demand
is greater than ever before. To pro-
tect the fish would be to annoy Catho-
lies and naturally to increase the cost
Of living.
The other change is the proposed
protection Of ducks, especially the
Mallard or French duck and the
green-winged teal in the interest of
the rice planters. At first thought this
seems almost as curious as the pro-
lection of the alligator on the ground
that it protects the levees by eating
the boring minks and muskrats.
There r shot in Louisiana each
winter from 100000 to 10000
900 ducks and they constitute not
only the principal sport of the state,
but also a part of the food supply.
Among them the Mallard and the
green-winged teal are the best for
the table and command the highest
prices.
The irds bare not as abundant and
are shot more profusely, partly be-
cause their feeding grounds are
growing smaller. AS the ducks have
been crowded out Of some of their
former territory they have moved
further west into the rice country.
The rice growers have complained
Of this, declaring that the ducks were
changing their diet from the wild
celery and other plants of the
swamps to rice. An investigation has
cleared the ducks of this charge and
has shown that they are the friends
and allies Of the rice industry rather
than its enemies.
They eat not the rice Of commerce,
but the red or false rice, which is
the greatest bane Of the rice planters.
As a matter of fact the rice of com
merce is either not growing or very
little developed at the time the ducks
are visiting Louisiana; but the red
or wild rice is, and the winter and
the early spring the ducks destroy
large quantities Of red rice in the
fields, so that when the commercial
rice is growing it is free from this
false cousin. The ducks are doing
what 1t is expensive or almost impos.
sible for the planter to do-rootine
out the red rice. It is therefore pro.
posed to have the ducks protected by
law. It is a choice between ducks and
rice.
Evidence has also been found tina,
the robin is a friend of the rice grow.
er and needs protection, that the wild
goose is a dangerous enemy to all
agricultural interests on the gull
coast. and that the sap sucker is de.
stroying thousands of dollars worth
of timber annually.
How Good News Spread.
II I'M 20 years old and travel mos,
of the time" writes B. f. FOLSOM. OF