278 REPORT OP" ONTARIO GAME No. 52 



an attraction to the visiting sportsmen. It may be of interest to note 

 that no less an authority than Hon. L. T. Carleton has estimated that 

 the value of a moose running in the woods is quite |500.00, whereas the 

 same moose dead, and looked upon from its food value alone, iB wortli 

 only a fraction of this sum. 



The value of fish and game from a sentimental point of view is of 

 doubtful importance in thi-s commercial age, but your Commissioner 

 would point out that, in addition to the arguments above set forth, the 

 health of the citizens of the more crowded centres is admittedly much 

 improved by a holiday spent in the woods and on the water, and that 

 the attraction of fish and game to draw city folk country wards is of 

 importance to the body politic from this point of view. 



He believes that were the facts and figures above given more thor- 

 oughly understood by the masses of the people of the Province, a Ktrong 

 vigorous, and healthy sentiment would readily develop in all classes of 

 the community, as it has in the State of Maine, and especially among 

 the settlers in the regions where sport is chiefly found, or can best be 

 improved. 



In the United States the importance of educating the people in this 

 direction is recognized. The Department of Agriculture at Washington 

 has been, and is to-day, carrying on this work energetically. Bulletins 

 are issued by it on various subjects, such, for instance, as the value of 

 the quail to the farmer as an insect destroyer, and of the usefulness of 

 other birds in assisting the farmer in destroying noxious weed seeds, 

 insects, and harmful vermin, and are freely circulated. Commissioner 

 Whipple, of the New York State Forest, Fish and Game Commission, 

 stated recently, at a convention of the New York State Forest, Fish 

 and Game Leagues, that at least 100 nights of the year be devoted to 

 giving lectures throughout the state, with the view of advising the public 

 of the objects of his commission and as to the advisability of supporting 

 its efforts. 



The following extract from the 1908 report of the Game and Fish 

 Commissioner of the State of Alabama exemplifies very clearly the 

 necessity of some such action on the part of the authorities : 



"As a result of scientific research of the most extended nature it 

 has been ascertained that the cause of the prevalence of many maladies, 

 and the problem of weed control, is largely attributable to the slaughter 

 of our insectivorous birds, which in the past have been wantonly mur- 

 dered by the million. Birds annually destroy thousands of tons of 

 noxious weed seeds, and billions of harmful insects ; they Avere designed 

 to hold in check certain forces that are antagonistic to the vegetable 

 kingdom. A noted French scientist has asserted that without birds to 

 check the ravages of insects, human life would vanish from tliis planet 

 in the short space of nine years. He insists that insects would first 

 destroy the growing cereals, next would fall upon the grass and foliage, 

 which would leave nothing upon which cattle and stock could subsist. 



