742 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Nov. 18, 1911. 
Conservation of Our Natural Resources 
By JOHN H. WALLACE, Jr. 
T HE progress so rapidly made in the various 
States, looking to the preservation of the 
natural resources of the American conti¬ 
nent, is a cause of delight to every naturalist and 
sportsman, and to all patriotic citizens anywhere 
and everywhere. 
Perhaps no nation has ever been so abundantly 
endowed with the blessings of forests, mines, 
waterways, game, birds and fish as the citizen¬ 
ship of the United States. The splendid abund¬ 
ance of these necessities, comforts and luxuries 
of life, in pristine times, caused our people to 
prosecute a campaign of relentless annihilation 
upon the treasures of nature’s storehouse, be¬ 
lieving that the supply could not be exhausted. 
Game and birds constituted the principal part 
of the daily food of the early settlers. Found 
in its primeval abundance, the wild life of the 
American continent was not deemed necessary 
of protection even during the breeding season. 
It was not until many of our most valuable 
species of birds and game were slaughtered to 
the point of extermination did our people com¬ 
prehend the immense value of the natural assets. 
The first effort toward game and bird preser¬ 
vation contemplated protection by the enactment 
of local laws. These statutes were most con¬ 
spicuous and pronounced failures, and were 
openly and notoriously violated on every hand. 
The cause of such persistent infraction is pal¬ 
pable. There was no specially constituted ser¬ 
vice to enforce these statutes. No one felt called 
upon to prosecute his neighbor, and while all 
agreed that the birds and game should be pro¬ 
tected, yet local laws were annulled by the grand 
juries and abrogated by the petit juries, and still 
the campaign of relentless destruction continued 
to be ceaselessly waged. 
The condition developed a strange and start¬ 
ling paradox. The sportsmen, those who found 
greatest pleasure and most delightful recreation 
pursuing in season the timid deer or the shy 
bobwhite, felt called upon by the stress of im¬ 
perious circumstances in order to perpetuate the 
sport they loved, to unite their efforts toward 
securing real legislation that would save from 
extinction the birds and game, and transmit at 
least a vestige of the denizens of the fields and 
brush to generations yet to be, in order that 
those who are to follow might enjoy the incom¬ 
parable exhilaration found in hunting—a sport 
that comprised the chiefest delight of the fathers. 
The State owes a civic duty to the people to 
preserve all the natural resources, whether they 
be in forests, in mines, in waterways, in game, 
in birds or in fish. The early idea predomi¬ 
nated that any restriction imposed upon the right 
to make assaults upon nature’s storehouse was 
a restriction and an abridgment of human liberty, 
and therefore hostile to the principles of free 
government. However, the minds of the Amer¬ 
ican people have become thoroughly awakened 
to the imperative necessity of the conservation 
of our natural resources, and the hand of the 
reckless, the wanton and the vandal is sought 
*From Bulletin No. 3, Alabama Department of Game 
and Fish. 
to be held in check from making assaults upon 
nature’s storehouse. 
Few States in the nation, and no State in the 
South, have made such rapid progress in recent 
years in matters relating to game, bird and fish 
preservation as has Alabama. Prior to the en¬ 
actment in 1907 of the law creating the Depart¬ 
ment of Game and Fish, and establishing uni¬ 
form laws throughout the State for the protec¬ 
tion of birds and game, but little attention was 
paid to the local game laws which were con¬ 
tinually violated by practically every one, since 
there was no effort made to institute prosecu¬ 
tion against infractors of these protective 
statutes. 
It is a palpable fact that no law is automatic, 
hence in order that it may be enforced it is im¬ 
perative that it be intrusted to a specially con¬ 
stituted service, or else it will remain a mere 
nullity on the statute books. Vandalism has 
been largely reduced and the farmer’s rights 
have been protected by taking the guns out of 
the hands of the shiftless and roving class that 
patrols the State, and under the pretense of hunt¬ 
ing, commits many petty offenses. The bag limit 
on game birds has had a very fine effect in re¬ 
stricting the reckless bands of game destruc- 
tionists that formerly masqueraded under the 
guise of sportsmen. Under the law pheasants 
and all imported birds are protected until De¬ 
cember, 1912. This provision has served to in¬ 
duce the importation of large numbers of pheas¬ 
ants by men interested in the propagation of 
game birds. 
Formerly it was the custom to scatter wheat 
or other provisions on fields for the purpose of 
attracting doves in large numbers. This practice 
served to collect in close proximity to the baited 
field practically all the doves within a radius of 
fifty miles. At an appointed time hunters in 
great numbers would repair by daybreak to the 
baited field, and the rapid discharge of firearms 
could be likened unto the raging of a mighty 
battle. As many as 6,000 doves have been bagged 
in one field in Alabama in a single morning. This 
custom has been practically stopped in Alabama, 
and doves have rapidly increased. 
Reports from every section of the State indi¬ 
cate the fact that squirrels and deer are rapidly 
multiplying. The law making it a violation to 
offer game for sale has served the excellent pur¬ 
pose of disbanding the great army of pot-hunters 
that formerly combed the State. Formerly thou¬ 
sands of quail were trapped and shipped to for¬ 
eign markets. Those who engaged in this prac¬ 
tice had emissaries in practically every section 
of the State who would capture the birds and 
ship them to headquarters from whence they 
were expressed out of the State. Many packages 
of dead game were likewise expressed from Ala¬ 
bama, all of which has been stopped. 
Wild turkeys and woodcock, two of the most 
valuable game birds that were formerly nearing 
the point of extinction in this State, are now 
frequently seen in large flocks in many sections 
of Alabama. 
A few of our citizens have objected to the 
protection of robins. These birds nest in the 
North in orchards and in the immediate vicinity 
of the homes of citizens. They are much loved 
on account of their friendliness to man, and be¬ 
cause of their sweet songs during the spring. 
Formerly, robins were slaughtered by millions 
in the South, and oftentimes were fed to hogs. 
The sensation of horror that must have been 
felt by the people whose sweetest song bird is 
the robin would be much akin to that which we 
would experience if our mockingbird, the South¬ 
land’s sacred songster, should migrate to Cuba 
and be there butchered, as robins were formerly 
in Alabama. 
The most imperative need of the present is a 
uniformity of game and bird laws applying to 
the States in the same latitude. Likewise na¬ 
tional legislation should be had looking to the 
preservation of migratory birds. The Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture should be authorized to 
adopt suitable regulations looking to this end 
by prescribing and fixing closed seasons on game 
birds which migrate, having due regard to the 
zones, temperature, breeding habits and times 
and lines of migratory flight. 
Game and bird protectionists should bestir 
themselves toward securing the enactment of 
laws that will preserve the forests and keep the 
fields and brush from being constantly burned 
over. The conservation of the nation’s valuable 
assets, as the same consist in our forests, is a 
question of vital consequence to the American 
people, whereof they are most grievously con¬ 
cerned. 
The economic value of game is of a two-fold 
nature. First, it is a valuable and elegant article 
of food; second, it furnishes the basis of pur¬ 
suing an exhilarating sport and diverts the minds 
of many men toward the fields and forests for 
sport, whereas were it not for game they would 
indulge in nefarious habits that would have a 
tendency to reduce their moral characters. 
The Department of Game and Fish was inau¬ 
gurated in 1907 without one dollar in the State 
treasury to its credit. It has never received any 
support from the State; it is entirely dependent 
upon the fees received from the sale of hunters’ 
licenses and the State’s half of fines in cases of 
conviction for its financial maintenance. At one 
time during the present year there was almost 
as much money to the credit of the Game and 
Fish Protection Fund as there was in the State 
treasury. This money is employed in the en¬ 
forcement of the provisions of the game and fish 
laws and in the promulgation of educational 
propaganda relative to the immense value of 
birds and game to the people of Alabama. 
By disarming the pot-hunter and quelling his 
rapacious appetite to slaughter game for the pur¬ 
pose of selling it, by taking out of the fields and 
forests the vast black hordes of negroes that for¬ 
merly slaughtered game in many sections of the 
State, almost to the point of extinction, by the 
prevention of the shipping of live game and dead 
from our State, and in fact by placing hunting 
within the reach of only those who should hunt, 
we have guaranteed not only to the present gen¬ 
eration a fair supply of game and birds, but have 
assured to those yet to be a priceless benefaction 
under these splendid statutes. 
As a result of scientific research of the most 
extended nature, it has been ascertained that the 
cause of the prevalence of many maladies and 
the problem of weed control is largely attributed 
(Continued on page 751.) 
