494 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



and the "crack shots", had a definite standing in the early American 

 community life. The Thanksgiving turkey came from the wild 

 unmangled by poor marksmanship. These attributes of the hunter, 

 when hunting was an essential factor of livelihood, have been trans- 

 mitted more or less to succeeding generations as traditions of Ameri- 

 can life. They in part inspire the hunting urge today, which, however, 

 is directed primarily for the purpose of sport. 



Our early American stock lived in the country. It was essentially 

 rural. The movement to- the cities came with later industrial 

 development. The man who moved from the rural district to the 

 city retained the desire for the sport to which he was accustomed. 

 He reverted to it' when opportunity arose, and he in turn taught 

 his sons to appreciate and enjoy it. 



Additional leisure for the average man, through the seemingly 

 inevitable shorter hours and fewer days of work, will add tremen- 

 dously to the number of those who seek out-of-doors recreation. 

 Hunting and fishing will attract large numbers of these folk. These 

 sports have an attraction not akin to formalized recreation. Some 

 kinds of hunting especially offer a means of satisfying the human 

 urge for temporary return to the primitive. They offer variety. 

 They demand virility, courage, and fortitude. They are a test of 

 skill, and require arduous endeavor, wherever man pits his skill 

 and endurance fairly against those of the game he pursues. In- 

 sofar as a return is made to original methods of hunting, the sport- 

 ing aspect of hunting is improved and chances for survival of game 

 are increased. 



The human need for recreation is given detailed treatment in 

 the section of this report entitled "The Forest for Recreation." 

 Wild life in general affords enjoyment, the opportunity for building 

 health and character, and for increasing scientific knowledge for 

 all who care to pursue as well as for those who care only to observe. 



The report of the Senate Committee on Conservation of Wild Life 

 Resources (S.Rept. 1329), estimates that there was during the decade 

 ending in 1930 a 400 percent increase in the numbers of people who 

 enjoy the pastimes of hunting and fishing. The report also contains 

 information collected by a representative of the Southern Newspaper 

 Publishers Association, who, seeking to determine for purposes of 

 publicity the relative news value of hunting and fishing as compared 

 with baseball, football, golf, and tennis, assembled figures available 

 for 14 Southern States. These showed that there were 4,420,876 

 hunters and fishermen in 1929 against a combined total of 4,916,652 

 for all other sports mentioned. The report estimates the number of 

 licensed hunters in the United States in 1929 at 7,000,000, and the 

 total of all hunters and fishermen as probably 13,000,000. 



The maintenance of satisfactory hunting conditions in the face of so 

 great a demand for hunting privileges will require more and more 

 effective game and land management on all lands usable by game, in 

 consistent relationship to other uses. 



ECONOMIC VALUES 



This discussion is concerned primarily with positive values of wild 

 life as a whole rather than destructive tendencies of certain species 

 that may require control in any effective wild life program. No 

 attempt has been made to segregate the economic value of wild life 



