Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1915-09-29
SAVE THE GAME.

+" ~ SAVE THE GAME.
An Appeal to Hunters to Be True
Sports and Spare Some speei- /
mons Of Game.
Frank D. Blair, Field. Secretary of
the Minnesota Game Protective Asso-
citation Of Minneapolis, makes the un-
iQue plea to hunters to be true sports
men and spare game which even the
game laws permit to be killed. Mr..
Blair writes:
much has been said and written
about the fast vanishing wild life OF
the United States. Laws have been
made in every state of the Union pro-
tectlng the game birds and animals |
and more stringent laws enacted ev-
cry year and what has been the re-
suit. Let 1t to any sportsman who |
knows conditions and he will say that |
the game is becoming more scarce |
each year, except some few species
here and there that may show some
little increase, but take the country as
a whole and conditions are gradually
becoming worse.
'There was time when the game
found refuge away back in the wilds,
then came the railroads which made
it possible for the hunter to go fur
Their back and cover districts that
could hardly be reached before. The
game was pushed further into the
woods but still had places where it
could go and be undisturbed, but then
came the automobile and now every
remote district in the country may be
reached and the automobile huntina
is beginning to make inrOads on the
game supply. The game birds and an
imals are safe nowhere any more ex-
cept upon established game preserves,
where hunting is prohibited. The game
preserve is really the only solution for
the present if we are to give the wild
life chance. These breeding CEN
ters soon show their worth if properly
cared for. There is mo use establish
ing the so-called game refuge unless
they are to be we'll taken care of by
experienced men, men who not only
will enforce the game laws, but men
who understand the trapping and kill
ing OF vermin or predatory animals and
birds and the propagation or breeding
OF game.
1.-THE scarcity of game cannot be at
tributed to the hunter any more than
it can to any other individual. The
balance Of nature has been upset and
it is the duty of every right thinking,
4 conscientious man and woman to help
| in every possible way to restore that
balance, for the laws of nature cannot
\ be broken with IMMUNITY. The lum-
bermen, the mining companies, manu-
featuring companies, railroad men,
etc., have all done their share in un-
balancing nature. When nature was
undisturbed, one species of predatory
animals preyed upon the other, which
kept every species on it's proper level.
Man found the larger animals first,
they were more easy to kill than the
smaller animals and in fact many of
x them dangerous to settlers, conse-
= quently the majority of the larger
predatory animals have been killed off
= which has allowed the smaller species
:, to increase and prey upon the useful
creatures in the wilds. The weasel,
the mink and the house cat may hunt
- in and out of season and they do more
damage to the small game and birds
in one day than the hunters do in a
week. The weasel will kill as many
as twenty-five birds in night, they
can locate their quarry and go into
y places where the hunter may never
find, so it is just as necessary to kill
q off these small predatory animals as
it is to have game laws if we are even
to hope to perpetuate our present val
= liable species Of wild life.
"The English and Germans recOg
q ha
necessity of keeping nature balanced
by encouraging bird life and holding
insect life in check. They have sue
cessfully practiced methods of wild
life protection and propagation ever
since to the pleasure of thousands OF
sportsmen and to the incalculable ad
vantage Of the nation which depends
upon the farmers crops for the neces
!, sites of life.
g "Conservation and propagation &c
hand in hand and the forces of de-
\ struction, disease and shooting, must
~ be limited and regulated until bal
y ance is reached that will show an an
~ nual healthful increase.
1.-THE prairie chicken and the ruffed
II grouse can be semi-dOmesticated and
~ raised in captivity, the farmers and
- those in position to do so should get
- into the game raising business, the
" sooner the better for unless something
y is done our quarry will escape by the
- way of the great aux, the Labrador
~ duck and the passenger pigeon; the
:. way the heath hen, wood duck and the
~ grey squirrel in the East, the native
q grouse and the antelope Of the West
and the wild turkey in the South are
II going.
- ut is up to the sportsmen, it is they
= who must show their true colors and
4 come to the rescue. To start with the
sportsmen of the great Northwest
should show their brothers of the bal
ance of the United States a. higher