Up to March, 1911, it appears that several states prohibited the sale of game, sixteen states permitted the sale of all unprotected game, and in eight more there was partial prohibition.  Unfortunately, however, many of these states permitted the sale of imported game.  Now, since it happened to be a fact that the vast majority of the states prohibit the export of their game, as well as the sale of it, a very large quantity of such game as quail, ruffed grouse, snipe, woodcock and shore birds was illegally shot for the market, exported in defiance both of state laws and the federal Lacey Act, and sold to the detriment of the states that produced it.  In other words, in the laws of each state that merely sought to protect their own game, regardless of the game of neighboring states, there was not merely a loop-hole, but there was a gap wide enough to drive through with a coach and four.  The ruffed grouse of Massachusetts and Connecticut often were butchered to make Gotham holidays in joyous contempt of the laws at both ends of the line.  As a natural result the game of the Atlantic coast was disappearing at a frightful rate.

[Illustration:  EIGHTEEN STATES ENTIRELY PROHIBIT THE SALE OF GAME WHY DO THE OTHERS LAG BEHIND?]

In 1911, the no-sale-of-game law of New York was born out of sheer desperation.  The Army of Destruction went up to Albany well-organized, well provided with money and attorneys, with three senators in the Senate and two assemblymen in the lower house, to wage merciless warfare on the whole wild-life cause.  The market gunners and game dealers not only proposed to repeal the law against spring shooting but also to defeat all legislation that might be attempted to restrict the sale of game, or impose bag limits on wild fowl.  The Milliners’ Association proposed to wipe off the books the Dutcher law against the use of the plumage of wild birds in millinery, and an assemblyman was committed to that cause as its special champion.

Then it was that all the friends of wild life in the Empire State resolved upon a death grapple with the Destroyers, and a fight to an absolute finish.  The Bayne bill, entirely prohibiting the sale of all native wild game throughout the state of New York, was drafted and thrown into the ring, and the struggle began.  At first the no-sale-of-game bill looked like sheer madness, but no sooner was it fairly launched than supporters came flocking in from every side.  All the organizations of sportsmen and friends of wild life combined in one mighty army, the strength of which was irresistible.  The real sportsmen of the state quickly realized that the no-sale bill was directly in the interest of legitimate sport.  The great mass of people who love wild life, and never kill, were quick to comprehend the far-reaching importance of the measure, and they supported it, with money and enthusiasm.

The members of the legislature received thousands of letters from their constituents, asking them to support the Bayne-Blauvelt bill.  They did so.  On its passage through the two houses, only one vote was recorded against it!  Incidentally, every move attempted by the Army of Destruction was defeated and in the final summing up the defeat amounted to an utter rout.