Section 158. Power to Take Birds and Quadrupeds.  In the event that any species of birds protected by the provisions of section two hundred and nineteen of this article, or quadrupeds protected by law, shall at any time, in any locality, become destructive of private or public property, the commission shall have power in its discretion to direct any game protector, or issue a permit to any citizen of the state, to take such species of birds or quadrupeds and dispose of the same in such manner as the commission may provide.  Such permit shall expire within four months after the date of issuance.

This measure should be adopted by every state that is troubled by too many, or too aggressive, wild mammals or birds.

But to return to the subject of big game and farming.  We do not complain of the disappearance of the bison, elk, deer and bear from the farms of the United States and Canada.  The passing of the big game from all such regions follows the advance of real civilization, just so surely and certainly as night follows day.

But this vast land of ours is not wholly composed of rich agricultural lands; not by any means.  There are millions of acres of forest lands, good, bad and indifferent, worth from nothing per acre up to one hundred dollars or more.  There are millions of acres of rocky, brush-covered mountains and hills, wholly unsuited to agriculture, or even horticulture.  There are other millions of acres of arid plains and arboreal deserts, on which nothing but thirst-proof animals can live and thrive.  The South contains vast pine forests and cypress swamps, millions of acres of them, of which the average northerner knows less than nothing.

We can not stop long enough to look it up, but from the green color on our national map that betokens the forest reserves, and from our own personal knowledge of the deserts, swamps, barrens and rocks that we have seen, we make the estimate that fully one-third of the total area of the United States is incapable of supporting the husbandman who depends for his existence upon tillage of the soil.  People may talk and write about “dry farming” all they please, but I wish to observe that from Dry-Farming to Success is a long shot, with many limbs in the way.  When it rains sufficiently, dry farming is a success; but otherwise it is not; and we heartily wish it were otherwise.

The logical conclusion of our land that is utterly unfit for agriculture is a great area of land available for occupancy by valuable wild animals.  Every year the people of the United States are wasting uncountable millions of pounds of venison, because we are neglecting our opportunities for producing it practically without cost.  Imagine for a moment bestowing upon land owners the ability to stock with white-tailed and Indian sambar deer all the wild lands of the United States that are suitable for those species, and permitting only bucks over one year of age to be shot.  With the does even reasonably protected, the numerical results in annual pounds of good edible flesh fairly challenges the imagination.