2 Ts Oame of any Value to the Farmer / 



The question arises whether it will not pay to en- 

 courage the preservation of game on lands fitted for it by 

 nature, and even to discourage entire dependence upon 

 farming in unfitted localities where farming and starva- 

 tion are synonyms. 



An abundance of ^ame increases the market value of 

 land, it enriches and has a tendencj* to enliven the country 

 and by adding to the food supply produces content and a ; 



spirit of independence. 



If the farmers were encouraged by protective legislation 

 to preserve and protect, not only would the cultivated 

 farms soon abound in game, but the wilder parts would 

 become stocked, and of greater value ; our food supply 

 would be increased, the local demand supplied, and an ex- 

 port trade established. The new enterprise would 

 receive encouragement from many influential quaiters, 

 capital would be invested in or advanced to aid in stock- 

 ing properties, county clubs, leagues, and associations 

 would be formed, young birds would be protected and arti- 

 ficially bred, trees, valuable for wind-breaks and shades. 

 Would be planted for cover, vermin — more destructive 

 than man to game — would be destroyed, and an ovei^ow 

 soon created tendmg to stock the surroundings, and an 

 immense extent of countiy would be educated into the 

 mysteries, business and profit of game preservation. 



In Ontario, our fields and forests, rivers and streams, 

 are becoming a desolation. A country place without either 

 fishing or shooting is like a house without books, music 

 or flowers. 



Our cities and towns are largely made up of men 

 country born and country bred, but the thousands of em- 

 ployes in financial, commercial, legal, medical, educational 

 and other institutions,, chiefly sons of farmers, leave "the 

 " old homestead " never to return. Town and country 

 are becoming as far apart as in the days of Pharaoh when 

 shepherds were an abomination. There is no country in 

 the world where shooting and fishing have become more 



