Page 26 - Our Vanishing Wild Life

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the table, but in the temptation they annually put before milHons of field-weary farmers and desk-weary clerks and merchants to get into their beloved hunting togs, stalk out into the lap of Nature, and say "Begone, dull Care!"
And the inan who has had a fine day in the painted woods, on the bright waters of a duck-haunted bay, or in the golden stubble of Sep- tember, can fill his day and his soul with six good birds just as well as withsixty. Theideathatinordertoenjoyafinedayintheopenaman must kill a wheel-barrow load of birds, is a mistaken idea; and if ob- stinatelyadheredto,itbecomesvicious! TheOutingintheOpenisthe thing,—not the blood-stained feathers, nasty viscera and Death in the game-bag. Onequailonafenceisworthmoretotheworldthantenin a bag.
The farmers of America have, by their own supineness and lack of foresight, permitted the slaughter of a stock of game birds which, had it been properly and wisely conserved, would have furnished a good annual shoot to every farming man and boy of sporting instincts through the past, right down to the present, and far beyond. They have allowed millions of dollars worth of their birds to be coolly snatched away from them by the greedy market-shooters.
There is one state in America, and so far as I know only one, in which there is at this moment an old-time abundance of game-bird life. That isthestateofLouisiana. Thereasonisnotsoveryfartoseek. Forthe birds that do not migrate,—quail, wild turkeys and doves,—the cover isyetabundant. ForthemigratorygamebirdsoftheMississippiValley, Louisiana is a grand central depot, with terminal facilities that are un- surpassed. Herreedyshores,hervastmarshes,herlongcoastlineand abundance of food furnish what should be not only a haven but a heaven forducksandgeese. Afterrunningthegauntletofgunsallthewayfrom Manitoba and Ontario to the Sunk Lands of Arkansas, the shores of the Gulf must seem like heaven itself.
The great forests of Louisiana shelter deer, turkeys, and fur-bearing animals galore; and rabbits and squirrels abound.
Naturally, this abundance of game has given rise to an extensive industry in shooting for the market. The "big interests" outside the state send their agents into the best game districts, often bringing in their own force of shooters. They comb out the game in enormous quantities, without leaving to the people of Louisiana any decent and fair quid-pro-quo for having despoiled them of their game and shipped a vast annual product outside, to create wealth elsewhere.
At present, however, we are but incidentally interested in the short- sightedness of the people of the Pelican State. As a state of oldtime abundance in killable game, the killing records that were kept in the year 1909-10possessforusverygreatinterest. Theythrowastartlingsearch- light on the subject of this chapter,—the former abundance of wild life.
From the records that with great pains and labor were gathered by the State Game Commission, and which were furnished me for use
4 OUR VANISHING WILD LIFE