Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1914-07-07
FEDERAL RULES
ARE CRITICIZED
State Game Commissioners Hear
Report by DR.. KaIbfus on
Game Regulations

1i1lSSlOIl are III SeSSlOn IO-udy ulSCuSS-
ing the game propagation work for
the coming half year n the effect
of the federal regulations regarding
the shooting of wild fowl. h COM
mission has before it an elaborate re-
port by DIR. Joseph Kalbfus, secretary,
in which he says that the closing of a
number of counties in the central part
of the State to deer hunting has re-
suited in an increase of deer and
brought about good prospects. The
commission secretary also says that
in his opinion the liberating of elk
in a wild state was a mistake. The
project of having game farms is criti-
cised as not possessing the advantages
of the system of game preserves in
which game is protected at all seasons
of the year and allowed to breed nat
urally.
The question of federal regulations
is to be given much consideration as
it is held that the rules promulgated
are not what they should be. DR..
Kalbfus to-day urged that sportsmen's
ideas should be given some ~considera-
ton in framing rules inasmuch as the
sportsmen are paying literally through
the hunters license act.
Much of DR.. Kalbfus' report is de-
voted to consideration of establishing
a game farm wherefrom the fields and
| forests of the State may be restocked
with animals and birds. Because of
State laws forbidding the shipment of
game, either living or dead, out of
almost every State IN this Union" says
Secretary KalbfuS, lit Is now impossible
TO secure game birds such as quail and
wild turkeys even in limited numbers
for propagating purposes DR.. kalb-
fus takes the view that not only must
the State be stocked with game under
ordinary circumstances. but that 1t is
due the hunters who pay the 81 tax
n that the licensed hunter who de-
lights in pursuing quail, for instance,
ought to find this quarry just as much
as the deer hunter ought to find deer.
Ruffed grouse have wintered we'll
naturally Notwithstanding deep SHOWS
and cold. wild turkeys have, because
of help given them through the dis
tribution of food by this office and by
sportsmen, wintered Well n the
supply of wild turkeys is greater than
1t would have been if last year would
have been an open season for these
birds. DR.. kalbfus finds that quail
have almost entirely disappeared from
certain sections of the state. In other
sections of the state, through the care
given them by this office n sports
men, many birds have been saved, but
not enough to supply good shooting
during the coming season." ..l
The commission proved hat turkeys
can be raised in semicaptivity by rails
ing sixty on the Perry county preserve
last year. Half of them retreated into
the woods and could not be captured.
About twenty were set free in Frank
lin, Northampton, Lehigh and Clinton
counties. while ten or more were kept
on the Perry county preserve inc are
now propagating. A number of wild
turkeys were also raised by the COM
HaiGGinn m tho ionnfAn r1-o.,, H,,N
none were distributed from that point.
DR.. kalbfus a very serious
doubts about the possibility of raising
quail In captivity and from OBJ
servations which he has made at the
preserve of the American Game Pro-
tective and ~Propagating Association at
Cape Core, Mass, and at the New Jer-
sey state game farm on Barnegat Bay
he doubts the feasibility of raising
them in Semicaptivity. He saws that
rather than attempt to raise quail on a
game farm a greater number of birds
can probably be obtained for the same
amount of money by leasing hunting
privileges on certain farm lands and
giving the game increased protection
from vermin and by giving them feed
when necessary.
Information about Hungarian quail
and ~ring-necked pheasants differs
widely and DR.. Kalbfus is unable to
obtain any very encouraging data
about raising these birds anywhere in
the United States except in a few
isolated spots and he knows of no
place in Pennsylvania where any sue
cess has been attained.
DR.. Kalbfus says that If the commits
sion decides to introduce more game
into the state 1T will be better to our
chase mature game, either birds or
animals, than to attempt to raise the
same on a game farm in this state
and that the methods already adopted
by the Game Commission are the best
under all the circumstances except for
quail. In order to increase the num-
Der OF quail some other method must be
devised. He recommends that a game
preserve such as now exists on forestrv
reservations in six counties should
be established in every county. for tht.
State owns sufficient land. The ex-
pertinent of re-estab1ishing elk in a.
wild state. which was Started In Clear
field county, is not an unqualified sue
cess, particularly because the dis
position of the elk to raid the farmers
grain fields. The elk which were
brought here from Wyoming, however.
seem to be increasing slowly.
Fayette, Somerset. Westmoreland.
Cambria, Jefferson, Clarion. Forrest.
warren and Chester counties have been
closed to the killing of deer for a
term of years under the act of April
20. 1913. and ninety-eight deer from
the Mosser preserves in Clearfeld
county have been raised in Fayette
Somerset. Cambria, Westmoreland and
Jefferson; 1t is expected to put deer
into the other -four counties next fall.
The deer from the Mosser preserve
were obtained on credit through the
intervention of Colonel H. c. TrexIer.
OF Allentown, as one of the hunters
license tax money. was available. and
Or. kalbfus recommends that early in
the next session of the Legislature an
appropriation be made to pay this bill
and also to a for such other game as
1t may be necessary to purchase and
to pay for feeding birds for next win
ter, If 1t should be a severe winter
Funds were limited last winter SO that
Dr.. Kalbfus could buy no food for
birds except to be distributed by the
employees of the Game Commission
but he says many sportsmen them
selves bought grain and fed the birds.
DR.. Kfbfus sets forth at some length
the troubles which have arisen over
the national regulations controlling the
lFiI1fnp Of raturafor1r Hf.5n