The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-08-04
WAR AND WILD GAME
THE TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
IMPORTATION BUREAU
By Frederic J. Hasiin, Director.
Washington, ID. @.

supply by killing the wild game which
has been increasing enormously ever
since 1913. AS soon as the wa broke
out hunting was prohibited in France
and will be resumed for the frs time
this fall. Not only is the game now
suffice ltly abundant to be a 3onsid-
cradle item on the national OH OF
fare, but it is becoming destructive to
crops. Partridges and hares are nu-
merous, while wild boars are uproot-
ing the turnip fields in some sections.
This strikingly illustrates how quickly
wild nature will claim and ovecrun
country when the controlling hand or
man is lifted for moment
1t is also an impressive illustration
of the far-reaching effect of war that
it has influenced the abundance OF
wild life in all parts of the world.
When Irwin Cobb went to the west last
fall he reported that the coyotes were
getting scarce, and added by way OF
a joke that this was due to the Euro
pean war. AS a matter of fact the
European war has been an impt rtant
factor in the fortunes of Br'er Coy
ote; and for time it operated strong
~ in his favor, for it knocked the
bottom out of the fur market, and so
made it less profitable to trap him.
However, bounties offered by states
and counties, and systematic cam
align of determination conducted by
the biological survey under the direc-
"A. H.. Il
acted any idleneSs on the part CT the
trapper so far as coyotes and wolves
are concerned. But other fur barring
animals undoubtedly. increased as a
result of the low price of fur, and as
nearly all of them we're animals that
preyed upon game, the upland birds
and wild fowl suffered. In 1915 writ
ers were prophesying the near-extinc-
ton of some species of gam as a re-
suit of this condition. Edward T.
Martin, writing in Outing. even went
so far as to calculate the loss in num-
bers. He prophesied that in year
EOS, 00O,O 900 head of wild game would
be destroyed by predacious animals
as a result of the war.
Now the prospect seems to be radi-
cally changed. For one thing, the fur
market has improved, and this ought
to be a pretty good year for trappers.
In the secono place-and this is the
important Observation-Disclosures of
thousands of men who are usually oil
ing up their shotguns and rifles at this
time of the year in preparation for
taking the hunting field will spend the
coming fall in training camp, and the
next one in France.
Hunting is a very popular sport in
the United States, and the lombard
ment to which game has been subject
ed every year is terrific. The army
of hunters that annually takes the
field against the game in this country
has been variously estimated at from
three to five million. In a single year
they bought over half a million new
guns, and about half a billion rounds
of ammunition. Is it any wonder that
thinking sportsmen all over the United
States have been working for the con-
servation of wild life; predicting that
| unless proper legislation is enacted,
| our game will be practically extinct in
a quarter of a century?
| Good laws, game farming and the
creation of game refugees have done
much to stem this tide of slaughter.
The federal migratory law has prob
ably saved the wild fowl for century.
| Some states, like Maine, have more
game now than they had twenty-fiy
years ago, because the people realize
that it pays to protect it. Stocking
the eoverts has also shown some re-
markable results The Monaghan
| pheasant, for example, is now album
| dant in Colorado, not far from Dem
yer, having been introduced and pro-
| tected for term of years.
Yet these are only a few cases of
increase which do not offset the fact
| that all over the country most species
| of game have steadily diminished in
numbers for many years. Ruffed
| grouse, wild turkey and woodcock,
especially, have disappeared where
| they were abundant a generation ago
| well gagged from the action of GER
tain large corporations engaged m the
| manufacture of sporting arms and
| of ammunition. In peace times, they
ara largely dependent upon the sports
| men for patronage. One of these
| great corporations, which manufac-
| lures a great many shotguns, is play
| ing up in all of its advertisements the
sport of shooting at clay pigeons"
/ thrown from a trap It's directors
a q fHof
will not long survive, and that thew
must popularize target shooting Ii
their business is to continue. A great
powder company has taken a differ
ent tack 1t is offering free to all
applicants an elaborate book on game
farming, hoping that the artificial
propagation of game will serve to
stock the depleted coverts, as it has
in England.
: There is only one thing which would
probably save American game for flu
ture generations to shoot at, and that
is period of complete immunity from
hunting. That, together with the
rigid protective laws which are being
enacteo' might save many valuable
species from extinction.
Pointing out redeeming features of
the war mas become something of a
bromide, but one of those redeemins
features certainly seems to be that
it will give American game n rest
II the Germans furnish the SPORT
Tor few years, game will reach an
abundance such as the old timers
talk about.
1t has been estimated that at Ieas,
one out of every dozen of our citizen
soldiers will have had experience in
the hunting field. For the west that
is certainly much too low an estimate
Tor almost every man and boy West
OF Iowa is something of a sportsman
II we put two million men in the
Held. we probably take a quarter OF
million hunters out of the field
: wnleh Is probably 10 per cent of al
, OF them. Then. too, there will be
many factors operating to keep Other
sportsmen at home. For one thing
the price of guns and ammunition has
so advanced as to put them beyond