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[[newspaper clipping]] ^[[S. F. Chronicle [[8/26/18]] THE DEPREDATIONS COMMITTED BY WILD DUCKS Editor The Chronicle--Sir; The writer was very much interested in reading the editorial in your paper this morning in reference to the devastation of rice fields by wild ducks. It is surely a menace which is not half appreciated by the Game Commission nor by so-called "sports." In fact it has come to a point whether it is more important to protect the rice for food, or to protect the ducks for the sport of a few men who believe their rights are supreme. The writer is interested, with his brother, in a thousand acres of rice at Dos Palos, and it is safe to say that there are 20,000 ducks on the fields at the present time. The rice is beginning to head out and from now on the ducks will do untold damage. In fact, if left alone, they would ruin the crop, conservatively estimated at $125,000. It will cost us by the time the rice is harvested and hauled to the warehouse, $45,000 cash. Yesterday we bought $300 worth of skyrockets, bombs, and other fireworks, to scare the ducks at night. We have offered the Food Commissioner--through him, the Game Commission--to shoot and ship these ducks to any charitable institution or hospital, and our offer has been refused. The reason given is that no one in California has the authority to grant such permission, stating that there is a certain international agreement between this Government and Canada, which prohibits migratory birds from being killed only during a certain period and that Secretary Lane would be the only man in this country who could grant us relief, and it would be useless to appeal to him, for the time consumed in corresponding back and forth would allow the ducks time in which to absolutely ruin our rice crop. We are credibly informed that these ducks come from Mexico. At any rate, they are there, and we intend to protect our property. If a burglar were to enter our house night after night and steal our flour, we would endeavor to catch him, would also call in the police to assist us, but every time that he would enter our house and steal our flour, he would outrun us, we would resort to gun shot to stop him in his flight. We desire to ask if ducks have a greater right and privilege than human beings? The writer has respected the law in reference to ducks and other game at all times, and no one enjoys shooting them better than he, but when it comes to a matter of financial ruin as above stated, his interests are going to be protected, and public opinion will be with him. Your editorial was ably set forth, and no sensible man having any interest in the welfare of our Nation would condemn a farmer for killing ducks out of season in order to protect food for our boys at the front. We may have that right, but the senseless thing seems to us is that we are not allowed to gather up these ducks and ship them to hospital and homes of the poor. W.J.MORTIMER. BERKELY, August 22, 1918.