Belt Valley times. [volume] (Armington, Mont.) 1894-1977, 1923-09-13
DO THE FARMERS WANT AN OPEN SEASON?

The last legislature decreed that there should be no hunting
jority of the farmers are delighted with the closed season while
great many of the town and city hunters consider themselves
agrieved because of the action of the legislature and recently pc
thioned the head of the game wardens in the state for relief from
the provisions of this act, only to be disappointed
Some ranchers have very pronounced views upon the subject
which are worthy of consideration.
For many years the number of game birds in the state has
been steadily decreasing until during the past two or three years
there were left single birds where there should have been hun
dreds. The present season has been favorable for the Matching
and growth of prairie fowl and enough coveys have grown to ma
turity to fill the souls of hunters with the desire to slaughter
them. All this is wrong. There are birds in the country but
nothing in comparison with former times, and an open season this
year would mean the extinction o. the species practically in Cas-
cade county.
How does this affect the farmers? We will pass on the rea-
soning of one of Cascade county's most prominent and respected
ranchers. Some years ago prairie chickens were so thick and grass
hoppers SO scarce that the former made serious inroads into the
wheat fields. AS the wild fowl decreased in number the grasahop-
pers increased until during the past two or three years when the
number of blue. ruffIed and pin-tail grouse has been at a minimum
the insect pests, increasing in the same proportion, have made the
farmers life one of continual anxiety. In many sections of the
state the hoppers have left nothing but ruin and chaos behind
them while in others crops have yielded only fractional parts of
what they should have yielded.
Tame fowl are usually well fed and lazy. They seldom stray
far from home but. in their radius they keep the hoppers clean. In
the city of Belt, ~neighbors chickens have been welcomed in gar
dens because they have rid them of the grasshoppers and it has
been clearly demonstrated that if there are sufficient hoppers the
chickens will bother no vegetables. 10
Recently a moving machine cut off a prairie hens head. The
driver picked up the body and was curious to know what the fowl |
had been eating. He opened the crop and found hundreds of hop h
pers and three grains of wheat. T
Unless the hoppers can be controlled there will be trouble in
Cascade county. A prairie hen will hatch from eight to 20 chicks
Just at the time when the grasshopper eggs are Matching and the
tiny hoppers are appearing above ground. The mother hen leads Ii
her flock afield in search for food. She finds the Matching ground | d
of the grasshoppers, the small ones being the proper size for the 7
diet of her children who thrive upon them and return day after c
day to satisfy their hunger upon the fast growing insects. This
is natures way of keeping the pests from devouring crops. One N
small covey of wild chickens will destroy as may hoppers as a ton "
of poisoned bran. Nature plans on equilibrium and keeps it nearly
perfect until man comes along and disarranges her plans with the
consequent loss of balance. The wild fowl have kept the hoppers
in subsection until the hunters, thinking only of their own selfish II
pleasure have destroyed them leaving the farmer and his crops un- ia
protected. ca
Years ago a man could leave Belt in the morning afoot with a
gun and no dog and by noon have his limit, which at that time was
20. No crop was troubled by grasshoppers those days.
Wild fowl eat grain but only when other food is scarce. Would
it not be proper to allow them to multiply until in the fall they be-
gin to congregate in the stubble fields in flocks of a thousand or
more again and then give an open season of a couple of weeks. If
this were done we are confident that never again would the grass
hopper menace the grain crops in the Belt Valley. When the
prairie fowl shall have been given their legitimate standing as the
friend, when poachers and pot-hunters shall receive no
more consideration than horsethieves, when the pheasant in the
of the brush along the stream startles you with his head
ong rush as you walk through his haunts Or calls your attention
With pathetic voice or broken wing as she trails you away from
Ter little ones, when the Chinese pheasants glorious plumape
han De a familiar sight in every meadow, when the forest re-
erves become overstocked with blue grouse and they drift in
warns to the foot hills, when the grasshoppers no longer ieopar-
ie the grain fields of Cascade county-then, and not until then
1t right to allow the hunters to thin out the birds. -