Page 307 - Our Vanishing Wild Life

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NEW LAWS NEEDED IN THE STATES 285
campaign fund, and tireless energy and persistence. Massachusetts is to be roundly congratulated on having so thoroughly cleaned up her sale-of-game situation.
Incidentally, five bills for the repeal of the IVIassachusetts law against spring shooting were introduced, and each one went down to the defeat thatitdeserved. Therepealofaspring-shootinglaw,anywhere,isastep backward ten years!
Massachusetts needs a bag-limit law more in keeping with her small remnantofwildlife; andthatshewillhaveerelong. Verysoon,also, her sportsmen will raise the standard of ethics in shotgun shooting, by barring out the automatic and pump shotguns so much beloved by the marketshooters. Asmattersstandatthisdate(1912)theOldBayState needs the following new laws:
Low bag limits on all game.
Five-year close seasons on all shore birds, snipe and woodcock. Expulsion of the automatic and pump shotguns, in hunting.
Michigan:
On the whole, the game laws of Michigan are in excellent shape, and leave little to be desired in the line of betterment except to be simplified. All the game protected by the laws of the state is debarred from sale; squirrels, pinnated grouse, doves and wild turkeys enjoy long close seasons ; the bag limits on deer and game birds are reasonably low ; spring shooting still is possible on nine species of ducks; and this should be stopped without delay.
Only three or four suggestions are in order
All spring shooting should be prohibited.
All shore birds should have a five-year close season.
The use of the machine shotguns in hunting should be stopped.
The laws should permit the sale, under tag, of all species of game that can success-
fully be reared in preserves on a commerciTl basis.
Two or three state game preserves, for deer, each at least four miles square, sliould
be established without delay.
Minnesota:
This state sliould at once enact a bag-limit law that will do some good, instead of thestatutoryfarcenowonthebooks. Makeitfifteenbirdsperdayofwaterfowl,all species combined, and no grouse or quail.
There should be five-year close seasons enacted for (]uail, grouse, plover, woodcock, snipe, and all other shore birds.
A law sliould be enacted pro]iil:)iting the use of firearms by unnaturalized aliens, and a S2() license for all naturalized aliens.
Provision should be made for a large state game refuge in southern Minnesota. The state should prohibit the use of machine guns in hunting.
To-day, direct and reliable advices show that the game situation in Minnesota is far from encouraging. Several species are threatened