FIRST BIENNIAL REPORT [w. VA. 



meaning, and a few changes that may be necessary, Wtest Virginians can 

 well feel proud that our law compares most favorably with the most 

 progressive states in the Union, along the line of protecting and con- 

 serving our natural resources. 



So it will be seen, that for more than a century it has been the policy 

 of law-makers, to throw some protection around our game, birds acid 

 fish, and in many respects, our own State law has been as strict and 

 drastic for many years, as it is at the present time, but without some 

 organization, whereby the law could be enforced, it remained a dead 

 letter on the statute books. The trend of public opinion throughout, the 

 whole country, for many years, has been decidedly in favor of protecting 

 our game, but legislators have been slow in providing sufficient funds 

 to carry on this work. And not until the license system was introduced, 

 whereby game and fish departments could be made self-sustaining, by col- 

 lecting sufficient funds from the hunters to carry on this work, have our 

 game laws ever been made a success. No law is automatic, but must 

 be entrusted to some special constituted auhority, for enforcement, or 

 it will be a nullity. 



No state, after adopting the license system, has ever repealed the law, 

 which proves that in all the different methods that have been inaugu- 

 rated to provide ways and means for this work, the only fair and suc- 

 cessful one is by the license system. 



West Virginia as a Game State. 



It is often remarked that West Virginia is neither a game nor fish 

 State, and that it is useless to spend time and money in trying to pro- 

 tect our game and fish, our forests or streams. 



With over eleven million of acres of forest lands, admirably adapted 

 to raising deer and other game animals and birds, and with a variety 

 of altitude ranging from 240 feet, at the lowest point at Harper's Ferry, 

 to 4,860 feet at the highest mountain peak, in Pendleton county, we 

 are blessed with a diversified climate, and our valleys, hills and moun- 

 tains afford the most beautiful hunting grounds to be found in any coun- 

 try, and our great mountain range, for picturesque beauty, is not sur- 

 passed in the whole world. 



While it is true that conditions have materially changed, since the 

 Indian chased the buffalo through the unbroken forests, and w are 

 not blessed with the abundance of game that we had centuries ago, but 

 according to the statements of Dr. T. L. Palmer, Washington, D. C,, who 

 is in charge of game preservation, under the Department of Agriculture, 

 and the one man in the whole United States who is informed on this 

 subject, West Virginia is the best adapted and suited for raising deer, 

 of any state east of the Rocky Mountains. It cannot be denied that 

 for the wild turkey, the grouse, the bob-white, and all small gamie ani- 

 mals and birds, that we are far in adcance of many of the other states. 

 While many states aw already spending vast sums of mpney, in re- 

 stocking their fields and forests, we have but to retain our present 

 laws, and rigidly, but sensibly enforce thiem, and without spending a 



