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^[[Sacto Bee 10/2/18]]

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RICE GROWERS WIN FIGHT TO SHOOT DUCKS

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Defeat State Fish and Game Commissioner in Long Controversy

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BIOLOGICAL SURVEY ISSUES PERMIT AND RESTRICTIONS

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Growers' Employes Given Right To Shoot; Consumption To Be Permitted

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SAN FRANCISCO (Cal.), October 2.—The rice growers of the Sacramento Valley, who have waged a long fight for the right to protect their rice crops from the depredations of ducks by the use of guns, if necessary, have won a decisive victory over the State Fish and Game Commission.

The news of the victory comes in an order issued by the Biological Survey at Washington, D. C., permitting the rice growers to shoot and kill ducks invading their rice fields. This was granted over the opposition of the State Fish and Game Commission, which fought the request for permission to shoot ducks, holding the birds could be kept off the fields by the use of rockets, bombs, etc.

Growers and Merritt Win.

The authorization from the Biological Survey is a direct result of the appeal made by the rice growers to California Food Administrator Ralph Merritt. Growers of the Willows district appealed to him to aid them in saving the crop from destruction after the State Fish and Game Commission had announced the Biological Survey was sending a Federal Game Warden into the district to arrest and prosecute any grower killing ducks before the season opened.

Merritt took up the matter with Herbert Hoover, National Food Administrator, recommending that the growers be given permission to shoot the ducks and that the slain ducks be made use of as food by the families of the growers and in charitable institutions. The order permitting shooting, just announced by the State Fish and Game Commission as received from the Biological Survey, is believed the result of the steps taken by the Glenn growers and Merritt.

Growers Only to Shoot.

The telegram announcing the permit is given out by Carl Westerfeld, executive officer of the State Fish and Game Commission, and is as follows:

Washington. October 1. Carl Westerfeld, Fish and Game Commissioner, San Francisco.

Blanket Federal permission granted rice growers members and immediate families and employes in Butte, Colusa, Glenn, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba Counties, California, to kill ducks from September 30th to October 15th, inclusive, 1918, in open fields of rice when necessary to protect rice crops from damage by ducks. No ducks to be shot at from artificial or natural blinds or from or in fields from which rice has been harvested.

Ducks killed not to be sold, offered for sale, shipped for purposes of sale or be wantonly wasted or destroyed, but may be used for food purposes by persons killing them, and may be transported to hospitals and charitable institutions in California for use as food.

Must Mark Packages.

Any package in which ducks are transported must have name and address of shipper and of consignee and accurate statement of number and kinds of ducks contained therein clearly and conspicuously marked on outside thereof.

Each owner or lessee of land on which ducks are killed must on or before October 25th submit sworn statement of number and kinds of ducks killed each day on such land, manner of disposition of ducks and cost of ammunition used.

Make public foregoing. Full text permit by mail.

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VOLUNTEERS TO KILL DUCKS.

MARYSVILLE (Yuba Co.), October 2.—Mayor Mat Arnoldy has received from E. Winters of the Motor Transportation Corps, at the Presidio, San Francisco, a letter volunteering to kill ducks for the rice men, in order to conserve meat for the soldiers.

Original copied by Smithsonian Archives