GAME 1'KE.SI-:RVATI0N in MINNESOTA FORESTS. 455 



at his post as a soldier and had been sentenced to death. Lincohi 

 sent a note to Stanton sa3ang, "Have you nothing better to do 

 with this boy than to kill him ?" 



So I imagine we can study the latter instance as well as the 

 fornaer and learn the lesson that out-doors appeals stronger to 

 us all and particularly so to children. It is evident that it ap- 

 peals to childhood more than to age, and it is very fortunate that 

 out-doors appeals to us so strongly. A thousand and one things 

 suggest themselves to me as to why it is that middle aged men 

 and women fail to appreciate the great out-doors as fully as they 

 ought. The strength of the nation has come from men who have 

 lived out of doors. One of the strongest men we have today, 

 and whom we delight to honor, owes his health and his vigorous 

 strength to the fact that his life has been an out-door life. You 

 horticulturists here can appreciate better than any one else the 

 great advantages of out-door life. We all know that physical, 

 moral and intellectual strength comes largely to those who live 

 out of doors. What does it suggest to us? It suggests that peo- 

 ple see the value of this mode of living, and it leads in many in- 

 stances to the organization of clubs and societies for the purpose 

 of beautifying the parks and grounds and drives and supplying 

 them with flowers and music and other attractions at public 

 expense. Why? Because the congested population of the city 

 does not appeal to the people as the best way of living, and for 

 that reason it is wise to develop our great park systems, and we 

 honor the men who devote their lives to this work. 



Parks are the breathing places of the people of our cities, and 

 public money is expended in providing them, and their develop- 

 ment should be encouraged for the general welfare of the public 

 at large. If this be true, is it not also true that the preservation 

 of game in our forests would be an appeal to the people to take 

 advantage of the great out-doors, and would it not be wise and 

 proper to take steps to protect and preserve that game for this 

 simple reason, that it has been efHcient in luring the people out 

 of doors? From this standpoint why is it not well for us to say 

 that they should be preserved from a public standpoint? If there 

 is one particular thing that leads people into the open it is the 

 existence of game in the forest and in the field and of fish in the 

 rivers. The quest of game and fish was one of the duties, one 

 of the necessities of our ancestors, and I imagine the people of 

 this country are stronger because of it. 



Our wild animals must be preserved in the forests, and the 

 fish must be preserved in the lakes to furnish this recreation and 

 also in a measure the food supply. Nature has preserved the deer 

 in the forests that they may assist the pioneers because they are 

 his meat, and while game is not so plentiful as in the early days 

 yet the preservation of what is left is worthy of careful consid- 

 eration. 



