Forest and Stream, January 27, 1887

VIRGINIA FIELD-SPORTS ASSOCIATION.

Natural resources -- Conservation - Game

THE proceedings of the first meeting of the Virginia Field-Sports Association at Richmond, Oct. 21, 1886, have been published in pamphlet form. In their introductory note the officers of the Association explain the character and purposes of the organization as follows:

The character of our members is a sufficient guarantee that the movement is in the hands of responsible and earnest people. We are most fortunate in having our membership very well distributed throughout the State, in all sections. Every man in Virginia is interested in the question of game preservation, whether he be a sportsman, a farmer, a countryman, or a city man. Unless intelligent measures are promptly organized the day is not far distant when our game supply will be exhausted, and cannot be replaced.

There is nothing to which the proverb, that a stitch in time saves nine, applies with more force than to the preservation of game.

Local organizations are well enough, but they do not reach the case. What is needed is a State organization, with an admission fee so small as to admit everybody to membership; with its ramifications extending into and influencing all portions of the State; creating and fostering an intelligent and healthy public sentiment. If such an organization is established, it can, by correspondence and inquiry, ascertain what is necessary to preserve game; it will teach the people that such laws are not enacted for oppression, but for their own protection; and it will give us earnest men everywhere to see that the laws are not enacted at hap-hazard as they have been, and that they are not, because they are bad laws, brought into contempt and disuse by the people.

Such an organization as we propose will go before the Legislature of Virginia with laws which have been prepared by men who have studied the question, and containing provisions for each section of the State, framed after fall conference and advice with the most intelligent and interested of their population.

The Legislature will listen to and pass laws of this character, and when they have been passed, the Field-Sports Association will take proper steps to have the laws published and enforced in the communities to which they are intended to apply.

Now, if such a law can be secured, how beneficial will it be, compared with the silly, neglected, and incomprehensible laws now on the statute books.

To bring about that result is our leading object, and it can best be obtained by the generous response of our fellow-citizens who have the same interests as ourselves in this question.

We appeal to you, individually, to join the organization, and give us the benefit of your name, sanction and influence in your community, to excite an interest in the question of game protection. The other features of the Association, while incidental to our main objects, render it a very pleasant organization.

JOHN S. WISE, President:

BARTON H. GRUNDY, Secretary.