POACHER ORCSTMR 
 
                     In the Hill Country of Texas He in a 
                       Weloomed Customer, When He Paes for 
                       the Privilege ft Havesting the 
                          Annual Gems Crop. 
 
 
      Faellities to? travel imrovesd duriag the last two Uesades hM  mae4

 
 it Possible for the kunter, in numbers to raoeh the heretofore ioseesseible

 
 haunts of gun and in all too many instaees with the comin  of the hunter*

 
 in mmbers the farter and raaean of Texas khy   lost interest in the pro-

 
 teetion of gem.  Many of the famers end renobma regeard ge as purely a 
 
 liability because of its attraction t the hunter and the iagined and ee-

 
 easio   menwe that the hunter to to livestock, range and forest. 
 
      How gam  to the farmer and rancbman in sem  sections of Texas Uas be-

 
man asset rather than a liability and how the farmer and ranhkman bae 
 
boen given an inoentive to weloame ma ioroeat of Sam   n their prenises,
is 
 
one of the interesting stories that ean be told by those who are familiar

 
with tke history of conservation in the lons Star State. 
 
      W legislative declaration in Texas, similar to the declarations that

 
have been made in almest every other State, gem is the property of the pec.

 
ple of the State. Tere are no private rights thereto. It in a        eomati.,
howm 
 
ever, that all native game is on privately owned land, and even tkoug the

 
gm   is not privately owned, the eoupants of the leod could aekieve its es-

 
ertction in a single season i they so willed. 
 
      In the earlier per1los of devlopment in this ftate    ewas deaeed 
 
on farn and range because it affnrded an auxiliary fted supply. In an eer-

 
liar *Poch It was the primry supply, and It io well to reason thet the land

 
would not have been eanquered if it had not been for geme. But with growna

 
rps and ranges well stocked the neeessity that the early pioneer felt for

 
gam, was no longer qpperent* The early Incentive for its increase had been

 
destroyed by the maroh of oivilisation* With the destruction of t3ks imes-

 
tive g    reahed a low ebb in T     moe t     20 years ago. The eonserve-

 
tion maehinery was else weak. Out of this debacle came a realisation, ael-

 
most too late, of the recreational advantages of gens. Tean ame larger 
 
goups of sportsmen over the State, s    of them orgaized, and a conserva-

 
tion departnt better equipped, and the decline was halted. 
 
      Some ten or more years ago groups of farrs and ramebmen banded them.

 
selveos together in the West Central part of Teas, fornulated conservation