The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1916-08-28
NEW REGULATIONS
ARE IN EFFECT
Federal Advisory Committee Recon-
mend Rules Which Were
Approved by The
Department.
TRYING TO SAVE GAME
Spring Shooting 10 Refused, BelIev-
ing That It Is to the Best
Interests Of
Sport.

Ac lcucIdl C1uVlSOTy- OIi
the migratory bird law met in New
York on August 7th, and recommend
ed to the department of agriculture a
new set of regulations covering the
taking of migratory game These reg
ulations, with the approval Of the de-
partment of agriculture, became, eff
fective August 81.
The advisory committee has issued
statement of its reasons for the
recommendations. 1t has tried to
conserve both game and sport. 1t
has been unable to make all the con-
cessions asked. Game is fast van
fishing. and some species of it have
already become extinct. Others are
upon the verge of determination.
Facilities for killing it rapidly i'm
prove. The number of hunters con-
stantly increases. State laws are in
many instances inadequate, and in
others feebly enforced. In the judg-
ment of the committee there will be
little game left in the United States
within very few years unless the
regulations under the federal law are
enforced and respected.
Spring shooting has been every.
where refused. 1t has been adopted
as fixed rule for the present that
no part Of the country may shoot
after the game has started Cor its
breeding grounds in the north. That
this works a hardship upon some
are not always favorable to sport,
the committee very we'll knows. Yet
| it has not discovered how 1t can
make special concessions to these
| sections without arousing the rest of
the country to demands for the same
thing.
1t has recommended q maximum
shooting season of three and one-half
! months for any section of the coun-
| try, and tried to equalize opportunity
as best it can in fixing that season.
| The committee knows it cannot
satisfy every enc. 1t can however,
| approximate Justice to everyone. 1t
! faces in :wasteful country the ire
mendous task of saving the game.
| 1t wants to save 1t alike for the
sportsman of today and the sports
| man to come. 1t asks the people OF
| the country, who have rallied around
every one Of our tardy movements
for conservation, to sustain and sup
| port it in that effort.
| Statement Of Committee.
NEW YORK, Aug. 21.-The mem
beers of the advisory committee to the
department of agriculture on the
migratory bird law, in view OF the
fact that new regulations setting forth
closed seasons on migratory water
fowl and birds were today made pub
lie, issued statement as follows:
To the people of the United States
| The advisory committee appointed
by the secretary of agriculture, Hon
III. F. Houston, to cooperate with the
| bureau of geological survey in fixing
4 the regulations for closed seasons on
migratory birds, as authorized by the
| federal migratory bird law, desires
to state to the people of the country
that after the most exhaustive fnves
tigation and the most careful consid
Grafton of every point raised, the reg
ulations as promulgated Were unan
imously recommended by the mem
bers of this committee. We realize
the utter impossi5ility of even at
tempting to satisfy all that desire tt
shoot migratory birds.
The Recommendations.
In Recommending the regulations
we were controlled by the following
considerations:
First-A most earnest desire tc
save from certain depletion anC
threatened humiliation the valuable
waterfowl, game and insectivorous
birds which migrate across the Unit
ed States twice each year.
| Second-To accord the hunters II
the various states as nearly as pos
sible an equal opportunity of taking
migratory waterfowl and nomadit
game birds.
Third-To open the seasons during
which these birds can be legal!
killed in those months when under
normal weather and food conditions
the largest number Of migratory wat
er fowl and birds sojourn in partic
ular state.
Fourth-To absolutely eliminate
spring shooting, when migrator!
water fowl and birds on the north
ward migration are journey1ng to
wards their breeding grounds, thus
impelled by the resistless force o
nature, to mate, nest and reproduce
their species.
Fifth-To recognize unusual ant
extraordinary conditions existing II
a few of the states, without effect