Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1924-01-09
WILD PIGEON FEUD
California Hog Farmers Act to
Save ACornS.
7anchers Demand Open Season So
Thousands Of Birds Can Be
Slaughtered.

S'abNhhOi GU.
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 source of dis
sension in California, and around him
is raging controversy in which
charges and countercharges Of greed
md 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 bandtailed pigeon
IF northern Santa Barbara county.
The housewife who does her own
marketing would not be likely to con-
nect wild pigeons with the price Of
bacon. but according to the hog rails
ers of Santa Barbara the bird is de-
5troyer of the acorn crops on which
the hog ranchers chiefly depend for
iced, 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
2arly 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
commission wrote to Secretary Wal
a.s of the Department of Agricul-
ture in Washington and requested that
an open season be declared on the
pigeons
Farmers, they averred, were unable
70 plant grain because the thousands
Of pigeons devoured the seed as soon
rs 1t was sown. They urged that Janu
airy, February and March be declared
open months for the killing Of the
birds, with a limit of so birds per hunt
ar, and with no limit on farming land
when permission to shoot was OBJ
aimed from the farmer.
An investigation was made by DR.
". +. Taylor, assistant biologist of the
United States biological survey, and
he agreed with the deputy fish and
game commissioner of the Santa Bar
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 miSconception, not to
SAY willful perversion of the facts"
asserted no damage to grain was re-
ported or could be found in the pigeon
.ountry.
Many acorns We're left behind by
The pigeons in the Santa Maria sec
ton" he continued. "There is album
dant green feed this year aside from
The acorns, and the value of acorns
MS food for stock is questionable at
hest, for it is reported on good author
ity that hogs fed on acorns put on soft
tat and lose their marketability
THE granting of this petition would
pave the way for a duplication of the
disgraceful slaughter of 19l1-12, which
IS still n stencil in the nostrilS of CON
servationists 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 question in my mind"
oported the deputy fish and game
commissioner, but what the pigeons
nave in the past done harm to the
farmers in the Haca, Los Olives and
Santa Ynez Valley sections, but not
nearly so bad as reported AS to the
acons, I have talked to cattlemen and
hey 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 it is time to open the season on
Wild pigeons let the sportsmen so state,
proving their contention by show of
statistics as to augmented numbers of
birds and reasonableness of a toll be-
ing taken. But why hide behind the
Co rt,narc"