OUR SNAKES A NATIONAL ASSET 



BY GAYNE T. K. NORTON 



HE fear of snakes, or to speak more exactly, the the nuniher of snakes that will be killed by the well- 

 very general tendency to kill snakes on sight, is as meaning btit misinformed gardeners will be very large. 

 universal as war. Some ])eople associate the fear Our snakes, and we are rich in reptile life, are a national 

 with mythology ; others blame the 

 misinformation that has been spread for 

 generations. This state of affairs has 

 existed — with disastrous effects to the 

 snakes and injurious reactions upon our- 

 selves — principally, I believe, because 

 editors have not seen fit to change it. 

 'J hey have reasoned, and correctly, that 

 the public, with few exceptions, would 

 rather not be educated in herpetology. 



With this summer, however, the mil- 

 lions of war gardens have given the 

 snakes popular interest — a "news angle" 

 editors must consider. The gardens are 

 bringing outdoors many people who ordi- 

 narily would not tread from the paving 

 blocks. Tremendously increased tillage 

 is bringing people and snakes together. ^^^^ ^^^^ j^^^ oo" ^^^ ^^.^^ g^.^j.^s 



TTnlesS nilich edllCcltioilclI work is done "^ group of hunters with some pet snakes from private collections. Allen Samuel Williams, 



founder of the Reptile Study Society, is seated in the foreground. 



asset worth many millions of dollars. Snake killing 

 will never become a national issue — conserved as an eco- 

 nomic factor, destroyed as a menace — yet the snake, par- 

 ticularly at this time, should be conserved. The relation 



A CHARMER CHARMED 



A khaki clad, soft shirted hunter who had never touched a snake until five 

 minutes before the photograph was taken. 



WITH THEIR PET SNAKES 



Allen Samvivl Williams (left) with a large pet pine snake. Mr. Williams 

 IS an emineni herpetologist and naturalist, an authority on the American 

 Hidian, and a well-known author and lecturer. His knowledge of the ways 

 of the wild things verges on the uncanny. He is perfectly fitted to lead 

 the boys in the work of snake conservation. The writer is holding a large 

 bull snake, another pet caught by Mr. Williams in the South, 



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