Page 384 - Our Vanishing Wild Life

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362 OUR VANISHING WILD LIFE
geese without interference. In no sense whatever are they intended to preserve or increase the supply of wild fowl. The real object of their existence is duck and goose slaughter. For example, the worst goose- slaughter story on record comes to us from the grounds of the Glenn County Club in California, whereon, as stated elsewhere, two men armed with automatic shotguns killed 218 geese in one hour, and bagged a total of 452 in one day.
I shall not attempt to give any list of the so-called ducking "pre- serves." The word "preserve," when applied to them, is a misnomer. Thirteen states have these incorporated slaughtering-grounds for ducks and geese, the greatest number being in California, Illinois, North Caro- lina and Virginia. California has carried the ducking-club idea to the limitwhereitisclaimedthatitconstitutesanabuse. Dr.Palmersays that one or two of the club preserves on the western side of the San Joaquin Valley contain upward of 40 square miles, or 25,000 acres each! With considerable asperity it is now publicly charged (in the columns of The Examiner of San Francisco) that for the unattached sportsmen there
is no longer any duck-shooting to be had in California, because all the good ducking-grounds are owned and exclusively controlled by clubs. In many states the private game preserves are a source of great irritation, and many have been attacked in courts of law.*
But I am not sorrowing over the woes of the unattached duck-hunter, or in the least inclined to champion his cause against the ducking-club member. As slaughterers and exterminators of wild-fowl, rarely exer- cising mercy under ridiculous bag-limits, they have both been too heedless ofthefuture,andoneisjustasbadforthegameastheother. Ifeither of them favored the game, I would be on his side; but I see no difference betweenthem. Theybothkillrightuptothebag-limit,asoftenasthey can; and that is what is sweeping away all our feathered game.
Curiously enough, the angry unattached duck-hunters of California are to-day proposing to have revenge on the duck-clubbers by removing allrestrictionsonthesaleofgame! Thisisonthetheorythattheduckless sportsmen of the State of California would like to buy dead ducks and geese for their tables! It is a novel and original theory, but the sane peopleofCalifornianeverwillenactitintolaw. Itwouldbeastepjust twenty years backward!
The Public vs. the Private Game Preserve.—Both the executive and the judiciary branches of our state governments will in the future be called upon with increasing frequency to sit in judgment on this case. Conditions about us are rapidly changing. The precepts of yesterday maybeoutofdateandworthlesstomorrow. Bywayofintrospection, let us see what principles of equity toward Man and Nature we would lay downasthebasisofouractionifwewerecalledtothebench. Named in logical sequence they would be about as follows
1. Any private game "preserve" that is maintained chiefly as a
"Private Game Preserves and their Future mi the United States," hy T. R. Pahner, United vStates Department of Agriculture, 1910.