and the Maritime Provinces. 



433 



CHAPTER XXX. 



Fish and Game Associations and GliUBs. 



Tf4E MASSACHUSETTS FISH AJMD GAME PROTECTIVE 



ASSOCIATION. 



By HENRY H. KIMBALL. 





REAT interest is usually felt in the first steps taken in the 

 establishment of a new organization designed to promote 

 the welfare of the people, or to secure reforms in estab- 

 lished usages ; and the names of the men who have been 

 influential in founding a worthy institution are usually 

 regarded with something like reverence by those who 

 become associated in developing and carrying forward its 

 later work. As I enter upon the presentation, in a very 

 brief manner, of the history of our association and its work during the 

 period of its existence, I must confess to a great admiration for the energy, 

 zeal and wisdom displayed by its founders. They must have realized that 

 they were entering a field of labor at that time untried in this country, 

 as this association was, it is said, the very first of its kind in the United 

 States. 



If not the first, it was certainly among the first ; and since its establish- 

 ment, similar organizations have been formed in the other States which have 

 been modelled after this, our constitution and by-laws, with slight modifica- 

 tions, having been adopted by most of them. Besides these State associa- 

 tions, a large number of county, town and city clubs, or leagues, have been 

 established in all parts of the country for the same purpose, and on plans 

 similar to ours. 



Our organization may justly claim the honor of being the pioneer 

 association in the great work of preserving fish and game, and the man to 

 whom more than any other is due the credit of its formation, was Dr. John 

 P. Ordway, its first president. 



