52 Avierican Fisheries Society. 



This in turn leads to another most important duty and 

 privilege of the sportsmen's league, that of educating the 

 general public and our boys and girls, particularly, in true 

 sportsmanship and the necessity for conservation. Do I 

 hear someone ask why the girls are included? If for no 

 greater reason than that some of our sons may enjoy at 

 least one vacation in three with a wife who is a companion 

 in God's out-of-doors as well as at White Sulphur. 



Much good can be accomplished by enlightening sports- 

 men to the necessity of exterminating the natural enemies of 

 fish, such as snakes, turtles, undesirable fishes and fish eat- 

 ing birds and animals. The sportman takes his toll of 

 fish but a few days, a month or season but the natural ene- 

 mies are present for months at a time or throughout the 

 entire season and the damage done by them would equal 

 the combined output of many hatcheries. 



Sportsmen are eager for more knowledge as to the life 

 history and methods of propagation of their beloved finny 

 tribe and all the multitude of aquatic creatures that are re- 

 lated to them and the conditions which govern their exist- 

 ence. If we will but take the time to say a few words at 

 Sportsmen's League meetings and impart a small fraction 

 of the knowledge we possess, be it scientific, fish cultural 

 or commercial, we will be repaid by the thanks of the most 

 attentive and appreciative audience one could wish. 



The American Fisheries Society is organized, "To pro- 

 mote the cause of fish culture ; to gather and diffuse informa- 

 tion bearing upon its practical success and upon all matters 

 relating to the fisheries: to unite and encourage all interests 

 of fish culture and fisheries; and to treat all questions of 

 a scientific and economic character regarding fish." Yet 

 beneath these words is a hidden and greater meaning which 

 might be expressed as follows : To pass to the coming genera- 

 tion a greater knowledge of matters piscatorial ; to maintain 

 the fight against commercialism and ignorance that idealism 

 may not perish and the human race may not degenerate to 

 a mass that knows not God in nature. 



How much clearer life is seen from the porch of the 

 little log cabin overlooking the clear, swift waters of a 

 stream which winds its pleasant way through wooded 

 Ozark hills, than it appeared a week before amid the strife 

 and sham of city life. 



The American Fisheries Society and the Izaak Walton 

 League of America, in their efforts to maintain fish life in 

 the waters of our country, are striving not alone to give 

 recreation and health but to maintain that even balance 

 in the hearts and minds of men so ably expressed in Edgar 

 A. Guest's poem entitled "Out Fishin' ". 



