The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1923-09-20
WILD PIGEON FEUD
California Hog Farmers Act to
Save AcornS.
Ranchers Demand Open Season Sc
Thousands Of Birds Can Be
Slaughtered.

The wild brother Of the pigeon who
| struts and COOS in front of Madison
Square Garden and shares the lunch
cons of his admirers is a source of dis
Sension in California, and around him
is raging a controversy In which
charges and countercharges of greed
and political activity are banded back
and forth. Even the federal govern
ment has been forced to take cogni-
zance Of the feud between friends and
foes of the wild or band-tailed pigeon
Of northern Santa Barbara county.
The housewife who does her Own
marketing would not be likely to con
meet wild pigeons with the price Of
bacon. but according TO the hog rails
ers of Santa Barbara the bird is a de-
stroyer of the acorn crops on which
the hog ranchers chiefly depend for
feed, and hence a factor in the crop Of
porkers and their attendant selling
price.
Last November and December, ac-
cording to some hog ranchers and
farmers, the wild pigeons were SO nu-
merous and hungry that they proved
disastrous to the acorn crops and the
early paintings Of farmers. In fear
that the flight OF countless thousands
Of wild pigeons would continue daily
for three months, 16 farmers, accord
ing to the California fish and game
conn <Ssion. wrote to Secretary Wal
- of the Department of Agricul-
ture in Washington and requested that
an open season be declared on the
pigeons.
Farmers, they averred. were unable
to plant grain because the thousands
Of pigeons devoured the seed as soon
as it was sown. They urged that Janu-
airy, February and March be declared
open months for the killing OF the
birds, with a limit of 80 birds per hunt
er, and with no limit on farming land
when permission to shoot was OBJ
tanned from the farmer.
An investigation was made by Or.
w. T.. Taylor, assistant biologist Of the
United States biological survey. and
he agreed with the deputy fish and
dlli NOiilllioSIoliti VI lHt NuDld a
bara district that sportsmen were try
ing to hide behind the farmer and en-
~deavoring through him to get acorns
instead Of chestnuts out of the fire.
Doctor Taylor, stating the petition to
be based on a misconception, not to
say willful p~erversiOn of the facts"
asserted no damage to grain was re-
ported or could be found in the pigeon
country.
Many acOrns were left behind by
the pigeons in the Santa Maria sec
tion," he continued. There is album
dant green feed this year aside from
the acorns, and the value of acorns
as food for stock Is questionable at
best, for ii is reported on good author
ity that hogs fed on acOrns put on soft
fat and lose their marketabillty.
THE granting Of this petition would
pave the way for a duplication of the
~disgraceful slaughter Of 19l1-12, which
is still "A stencil in the nOstrlls Of con-
Servatlonists as well as in those of
the better balanced residents in the
pigeon sections themselves. | talked
with numerous petitioners, but not
one, on conversation, argued for the
large limit here proposed, or for I'M
limited killing on farm lands.
There is no questl6 in m y mind"
reported the deputy fish and game
commissioner, "but what the pigeons
have in the past done harm to the
farmers in the Zaca, Los Olives and
Santa Ynez Valley sections, but not
nearly so bad as reported. AS to the
acorns, | have talked to cattlemen and
they do not think much of the acorn
rs a food for cattle and hogs"
The attitude of the California fish
and game commission on the question
Is thus expressed:
IF 1t is time to open the season on
wild pigeons let the sportsmen so state.
proving their contention by a show Of
statistics as to augmented numbers of
birds aud re~asonableness of a toll be-
ing taken. But why hide behind the
1armer?'