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FIGHTING DUCKS

^[[Sacto Bee 9/23/18]]

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Sutter Rice Growers Find Bombing Campaign Expensive

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Dodge Company Spends $4,000 for Supplies; "Game or Food—Which?" Asks Official

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LIVE OAK (Sutter Co.), September 23.—Rice growers in this section are making a strenuous fight against ducks that infest their fields in great flocks.

Bombs are being freely used night and day. These bombs cost $5 per dozen, and rice men declare their ammunition bills will make as sad havoc with their finances as do the ducks and geese with the rice.

Farmers in the vicinity of the rice fields are kept awake nights by the heavy cannonading.

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COSTS LAND COMPANY $4,000 TO FIGHT DUCKS

CHICO (Butte Co.), September 23.—"The Dodge Land Company is paying approximately $1 per acre to keep ducks out of its rice fields. We have invested $4,000 in paraphernalia."

This is the statement made here by H. O. Jacobsen of the company in discussing the situation arising from the announcement by the State Fish and Game Commission that the Biological Survey is sending a Federal Game Warden to Willows to arrest and prosecute any rice grower who shoots and kills ducks out of season.

Fears They Have Dyspepsia.

"If the Federal Game Warden comes onto our property, we will expect him to do his sworn duty and preserve the life of the ducks by keeping them out of the rice fields. They may get dyspepsia from overeating of rice," says Jacobsen as a pleasantry.

"Our company is using bombs and searchlights. So far this season we have had no difficulty, but last year we had a terrible time.

"Our men have been given no orders to shoot ducks. They have guns and shells, but have been instructed not to shoot ducks or game wardens. If a duck dies of fright, they are not supposed to pick it up. I have not seen a dead duck this season.

Game or Food—Which?

"We ask legal means to protect our property and be enabled at the same time to follow the requests of the Food Administration to the best of our ability. Whether or not the protection of game is more vital than the protection of food is the question that must be determined."

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