The daily banner. (Cambridge, Md.) 1897-2008, 1916-03-04
Conservation In Maryland

these premises prohibited under pen
atty of the law" read the sign which
Maryland set up in 1910. About as
superfiuous an inhibition, one woulC
imagine, as ii notice were posted il
a public park forbidding visitors to
chop down the trees. But that is te
misconStrue your market gunner
who is a strict constructionist,i if any,
thing, and no mollycoddle. Witness
little addition which he quietly
made to the above sign in the clos
ing hours of the last Legislature by
way of making the meaning clear
The sign now runs thus: Shooting
from power boats on these premises
prohibited under penalty Of the law,
except on the Suspuehanna flats.
Which, you see, keeps motorboats Off
the mountains and out of wheat
fields. This little April fool joke,
which for two years has set the stig-
ma of barbarism on the State, was
so deftly played that the warden
himself did not discover it for mon
tbs. The General Assembly's record
time for repeating an iniquity should
be beaten by fully three minutes in
Wiping this one out.
When thus the State deems 1t be-
meath her dignity to sanction naval
demonstration against water fowl,
it lends Its sanction to the use OF
the machine gun. Batteries, to be
sure, and big bore or swivel guns
in fact, any guns that cannot be fired
easily from the Shoulder-are out
lawed here, as in every other State
in the Union, through our lack of
adequate warden service prevents
their suppression in Maryland. But
the manufacturers Of arms are most
accommodating, and have put forth
new forms of machine guns under
the names Of pump" and AUTO
matte" which yield five or six shots
In as many seconds, and may be fired
with comfort from the shoulder. AS
If the swivel gun, like a baseball bat
ter, had been called out, not for it's
deadly hit, but because it failed to
touch the shoulder.
Military and commercial features
may have been subtracted from the
hunting privilege, and yet the sum
of slaughter remain too high, even
though the number of gunners be re-
duced by the imposition of license
tax. The number of birds and ami
mails killed per day must be limited.
Maryland was one OF the very last
States to recognize this principle.
The time has come when all of the
high figures set in 1910 must be low
cred and limits assigned to all spe-
cies not now thus protected. Of
wood-cock, which is an admittedly
vanishing bird, we allow II day to
be bagged-more than practically
anyone can find, and water fowl can
be shot to any figure. The bill be-
fore the Legislature is ultra-conser-
vative, since there is not a State to-
day in which the bag limits are not
far higher than the natural increase
of species can reach. In reality dras-
tic reduction Is the only decent pro-
cedure.
This restriction Is in turn not
enough. The number of hunting days
in the year must be limited. The
long history of close seasons and
terms cannot be outlined here. Suf-
Ace 1t to say that the patent diminu-
ton of game has forced a steady
shortening, of the open season. Deer.
for example, could be shot 224 days
in Vermont in 1879, while though
the State is we'll stocked, only six
days area allowed annually now.
Maryland took an important step in
1914 in establishing a uniform State
wide season on deer, rabbit, squirrel,
quail, ruffed grouse, pheasant, wild
turkey and wood-cock. Our duty now
concerns migratory birds. Since these
| fly from Canada to Mexico or beyond,
they face a greater number of gun
ners, and are consequently fast van
ishing. The shooting season in each
region visited by them needs radical
shortening and equalization. Evil
IDENTIFY only the National Govern
ment could do this properly. BY act
of Congress in 1913, such becomes
possible, for these birds are placed
under it's care. The Department of
Agriculture according promulgated a
schedule of seasons, in particular
stopping spring shooting. Ours are
not in conformity, and, naturally,
must be made soft This is practically
question of shore birds and water
! fowl.
There are those who are convinc-
ed that our reliance on all the above
protective measures to save our faun
from extinction is misplaced and that
on a considerable number of species
long closed seasons are imperative.
This treatment is being asked now
for deer and elk. That we may make
the beginning of Vermont's great ex-
pertinent, six years freedom from
shot is sought. This is not enough,
since Vermont gave % years respite,
but it is right start.
| The put-hunter and his accomplice
will always be abroad in the land,
whether it be for the market or
score that he shoots. To keep him to
the prescribed species and the lawful
bag, wardens should have right of
search without warrant. Under the
present cumbersome method, evil
dence has a way of vanishing before
the suspect can be brought to book.
OF the approximately 1852 species
and sub-species of birds which inhab-
| 1t North America above the Rio
Grande only about 200 can be prop
erly considered at all as game, and
yet 80 per cent. of the legislation in
the United States has been in refer
ence to this 18 per cent. of the birds.
1t was not till 1850 that birds not
usually killed for food began to re-
ceive the protection now generally
laccorded. Connecticut and New Jer-
..sey led off in that year with special
Legislation in behalf of insectivorous
birds. The fatal defect in all the pro-
itective laws passed during the most
part of the next half century lay in
the endeavor to name the favored
species, with the result that only a
farction got mention, and many va
rieties of high value remained under
persecution. 1t was the American
Ornithologists' Union that in 1886
suggested the method which the Au-
dubon societies have since 1900 been
sweeping through the States, till to-
day all but Maryland, in the t,and
Arizona, Idaho, Kansas, Montana.
Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico and
Utah in the West, have adopted it.
Herein the game species are named,
and protection given to all the rest,
except few which science has
| fonnd fo ho harmful