196 WILD LIFE CONSERVATION 



Many of our American fads become little less 

 than manias, and all such are quickly dropped. Too 

 much motion is little better than lost motion. The 

 rich man who must live near New York or Boston 

 takes up farming, seriously; and when he has fin- 

 ished fertilizing with gold dollars the sterile acres 

 of his collection of New England deserted farms, 

 he has paid the price of the richest farm or fruit 

 land in California, and he has very little in the end. 

 The moment the golden stream ceases to flow his 

 land reverts to steeplebush, hardback, gray birch 

 and sumac. Much of this land is admirably suited 

 for wild life and, if left alone, or encouraged in its 

 wild habit, will generously do its share toward pro- 

 tecting and increasing the wild game of this and of 

 other countries, for the ultimate benefit of man- 

 kind. Let us then consider the state and private 

 game preserve as a means of increasing our wild 

 life, our food supply, and at the same time utilizing 

 waste places that now are of little value to anyone. 



Take the state of Connecticut as an example. 

 Although situated in the center of the most popu- 

 lous district of the United States, with an area of 

 approximately three million acres, about one-third 

 of this, or one million acres, is utterly unsuited for 

 agricultural purposes. It is either marshland, 

 second-growth hardwood, or rough, wild pasture. 

 Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire have 

 many areas of the same general character thickly 

 populated, but dotted everywhere with deserted 

 farms and waste acres. 



