Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1911-02-01

sgsSss ssassssaEA $50.
of ducks as this that the hunters
bag their 5000 a day for the mar
kets. And it may we'll be stated here
that 5000 is considered conserva-
tive estimate Many hunters put
the number as high as 10000 on the
"bie days"
As much as $4,000 has been paid
out in one day for ducks at Manila, a
town of about 300 people. At Para
gould, it is not an uncommon thing for
$50 barrels, each containing rs mall
lards, to be sent out at one shipment,
and 10 and 100 barrels are to be ex-
pected every good day during the sea-
son. All Of these ducks come out of
the sunken lands to the east of Para
gould, and an enormous number from
Big lake. In addition, Paragould is
only one, although probably the prin-
cipal, of the shipping points.
One hundred and fifty barrels of
ducks would mean more than 11,OOO
individuals in one shipment. All the
rest of the shipping points must GER
tainly average as many as Para
gould, and on that basis many days
see more than 10000 ducks, as a
conservative estimate, shipped out
of the sunken lands country of
northwestern Arkansas and South
eastern Missouri This would mean
an average Of 5000 daily for four
days in one days shipment. 1t is
asserted that a run of as few as 20
barrels from Paragould during the
season is extraordinary.
Market hunters" among the swamp
angels dispose of these ducks to buy
ers at various points, chiefly at Ma
nilla, for from II to 16 cents per duck,
according to their size, condition and
breed. -------
Buyers ship them to dealers, most
of them going to Chicago. The ex-
press and icing charges average
about five cents per duck. The buy
er gets about So cents each for. them
on an average. Attempt in Chicago
to buy a brace of mallards' and you
will find them priced at from 81 up,
S1.50 being, perhaps, an average price.
Get them in a fashionable cafe and
you will pay from rs cents up per por-
ton.
Arkansas has strict game law,
providing that no hunter shall ship
game out, and, indeed, prohibiting
hunting by non-residents except on
their own land. The kill is limited
10 % ducks per day, and 1t is un-
lawful for anyone to have more than
so ducks = two days KILN his
possession at one time.
Here, however, comes in an ex-
ccpton which makes Big lake the
crying evil it is in the eyes of game
Drotectionists. Four townships In
Mississippi county, into all of which
Big lake extends, are exempt from the
non.shipment clause Of the Arkansas
game laws.
Game killed in these four town.
ships may be shipped anywhere IN
the United States. So long as it
is labeled properly, with the contents
of the package, the owners name
and the place from which 1t originates,
no game warden anywhere can confis-
cate it.
Even this, however, is not the
worst of the situation as seen by the
men to seek to preserve wild
game. If the market hunters"
would kill 25 ducks day and stop,
and confne themselves to the four
exempted townships, the total game
destruction would be materially de-
creased.
But they do not stop with that
number, game wardens assert. Thou
sands of ducks killed outside the
exempted districts arc taken into the
exempted district and sold.
Swamp angels operating around
Big lake live in the swamps. Their
homes-the places they call home
according to hunters who have visited
them, are usually miserable places.
Mere shacks made of logs or rough
boards, with cracks in sides, floor
and even the roof big enough to
throw cat through, are located on
the ridges found here and there in
the swamps.
Usually the house will be right on
the edge of a swamp, near-porch
and sometimes portion of the floor
frequently extending out over the wa
ter far enough to furnish a landing
for a boat.
Although an active swamp angel"
can earn several dollars a day with
his gun, most of them live in the
direst poverty.
Out of the price he receives for his
ducks the Swamp angel" must pay
for his shells, and this reduces his
profits, but practically every shell
he purchases means large fat duck.
To miss more than one shot out of
25 is considered "a disgrace"
Although malaria is rampant In
the Big lake country, the swamp
angels" are for the most part i'm
nunc from it. Hunters coming in
from the outside soon catch it, how
ever. and thus me swamp angels"
find an ally in the natural conditions,
and the shooting OF ducks continues
merrily in spite Of all laws and pro-
tests.