400 



RECREATION. 



ALL FARMERS SHOULD BE GAME 

 PROTECTORS. 



One of the greatest opportunities for ef- 

 fective work in the interest of game pro- 

 tection is in educating the farmers of this 

 country. If I could only reach a large per- 

 centage of these good people, if I could 

 only afford to print 1,000,000 extra copies 

 of Recreation each month and mail them 

 to farmers, we should soon have them all 

 on our side. I would then run a series of 

 practical talks to farmers as to the need of 

 protecting the game on their lands, of feed- 

 ing the birds during the winter months. If 

 we could only convince each farmer that a 

 covey of quails is worth 10 times as much 

 to him alive as it is dead, we would 

 then have him on our side. Any large land- 

 owner can sell shooting privileges at a lib- 

 eral price per acre if he has plenty of game. 

 Not only this, but there are thousands of 

 sportsmen who, after buying the shooting 

 privileges on a farm, would pay the farm- 

 er's boy liberally to go with them over the 

 fields and through the covers to find the 

 birds. Furthermore, the sportsman would 

 board with the farmer and buy feed for his 

 team. Thus the game would become a val- 

 uable asset to the farmer. 



Not one sportsman in 100 who went after 

 the birds would kill any large number per 

 day. Any reasonable man would be satis- 

 fied with half a dozen birds for a day's 

 shooting. If the birds were properly 

 guarded and the shooting privileges limited 

 to a few, there would be a fair number of 

 each covey of quails left at the close of 

 each hunting season to breed. TV en by put- 

 ting out a small quantity of feed during the 

 winter ; by leaving a few shocks of corn, or 

 rye, or oats, with openings in them, where 

 the birds could find shelter, and by leaving 

 out a small patch of standing grain, the 

 birds would rendezvous about the fields, 

 or even about the house and barn. 



There are a few farmers in every State 

 who have learned the value of live game, 

 and who are leasing their shooting privil- 

 eges as outlined above, and they find that, 

 to reverse an old adage, a bird in the bush 

 is worth 2 in the hand. There are other 

 farmers who continue to kill or trap and 

 sell all the birds they can find, or who al- 

 low their boys to do so. These latter are 

 the men we should reach. 



As I have frequently said, one of the 

 greatest opportunities that exists for effec- 

 tive work on the part of the gun clubs or 

 individual sportsmen is in having Recrea- 

 tion sent to farmers who are known to 

 have quails or other game birds on their 

 lands. If the brethren would only take up 

 this line of work systematically and earn- 



estly, they would find that in nearly every 

 instance they would make a game protec- 

 tionist of each farmer to whom they might 

 send this magazine. 



I am prepared to make a liberal discount 

 on clubs of twenty-five or more copies of 

 Recreation to go to farmers. Think this 

 over, brethren, and let me hear from you. 



A POST CHECK. 



_ Congress is attempting to perfect a de- 

 sign for currency intended especially for 

 transmission through the mails, and the ac- 

 tive people of the country wish it success. 

 The committees on post-offices and post- 

 roads have before them a measure provid- 

 ing a Post check in denominations of $5 

 and under, down to the denominations of 

 fractional currency. It is proposed to re- 

 tire the $5, $2 and $1 dollar bills now is- 

 sued by the Government and substitute the 

 Post check, and make the latter the regu- 

 lar paper money for those denominations. 

 The Post check was devised by Mr. C. W. 

 Post, a prominent and public-spirited citi- 

 zen of Battle Creek, Mich. " He was assisted 

 in its perfection by a number of publishers, 

 and the plan has been earnestly endorsed 

 by the American Newspaper Publishers' 

 Association. 



The general appearance of the Post 

 check is that of the present $1 or $2 bill. 

 On one side are blank lines on which the 

 holder may write the name and address of 

 anyone to whom he desires to make pay- 

 ment by mail. The payee, on receipt of the 

 money, attaches his signature and collects 

 the money at the office named. To forge 

 the signature of the payee is a peniten- 

 tiary offense, same as counterfeiting. As 

 rapidly as the signed bills come into the 

 possession of postmasters they are sent to 

 Washington for redemption. By this pro- 

 cess, one can carry about his person paper 

 money in various denominations under $5, 

 and it passes as good as gold. Should 

 he desire to make remittance by mail he 

 simply takes out a bill or piece of fractional 

 currency, writes the name of his creditor, 

 affixes and cancels a stamp, and it only re- 

 quires the signature of the latter to again 

 make the money as good as gold at the 

 office named. 



Since the adoption of rural mail de- 

 livery, farmers will be greatly interested 

 in this proposition, and they would do well 

 to so express themselves to their Senators 

 and Representatives in Congress. The de- 

 sign has been dedicated to the Government, 

 so that no individual can selfishly profit 'by 

 the adoption of the Post check. 



