ALABAMA DEPARTMENT OF GAME AND FISH 
 
 BULLETIN No. 2 
 
 PRESERVATION 
 
 OF THE 
 
 Game, Fish and Forests 
 of Alabama 
 
 AN ADDRESS 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN H. WALLACE, Jr. 
 
 State Game and Fish Commissioner 
 and Secretary of the State Commission of Forestry 
 
 BEFORE THE ALABAMA PRESS ASSOCIATION 
 
 AT BESSEMER, ALABAMA 
 
 JULY 23, ISWJS 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tiiis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/cletails/cu31924097702686 
 
ALABAMA DEPARTMENT OF GAME AND FISH 
 
 BULLETIN No. 2 
 
 PRESERVATION 
 
 OF THE 
 
 Game, Fish and Forests 
 of Alabama 
 
 AN ADDRESS 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN H. WALLACE, Jr. 
 
 State Game and Fish Commissioner 
 and Secretary of the State Commission of Forestry 
 
 BEFORE THE ALABAMA PRESS ASSOCIATION 
 
 AT BESSEMER, ALABAMA 
 
 JULY 23, 1908 
 
 MOXTGOM^RIT, AIJA. 
 TBSl BRO-WN FBIHTlIfa 00<i BTATD FBIMTXIBS AIVD BINDBRS 
 
 looa 
 
Preservation of the Game, Fish 
 and Forests of Alabama. 
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 Mr. 'Wallace said: 
 
 "Mr. President, Members of the Alabama Press Associa- 
 tion, ladies and gentlemen : 
 
 The honor, the privilege, of addressing this distinguished 
 body, the Alabama Press Association, is to me the greatest 
 pleasure of my life. 
 
 THE POWER AND USEEULNESS OE THE PRESS. 
 
 Representing as you do the most powerful and potential 
 force in Alabama for the moulding of public sentiment and 
 the crystalization of thought, the positions which you respect- 
 ively occupy is one of signal responsibility. The exclusive 
 means of the proper dissemination of ideas and the promulga- 
 tion of views upon vital questions is through the medium of 
 the press. 
 
 Those who peruse your editorials, which are but the expres- 
 sions of individuals, are largely influenced and thus induced 
 to act in line with the theories exploited through your columns. 
 
 Though your views may be unsound, your logic imperfect 
 and your conclusions unjust, there is no one at hand when 
 read, to refute the statements contained in your papers and 
 they are generally accepted as truths. 
 
 I am happy to say that the editors of the Alabama Press As- 
 sociation are inspired by patriotic motives and have at heart 
 the best interests of our magnificent state. Impelled by the 
 conscience to discriminate between right and wrong, animated 
 by the heart to feel, illuminated by the intellect with which to 
 depict in classic style those sentiments that appertain to the 
 well being of our people, the members of this organization have 
 proven themselves to be most valiant knights and stalwarts, too, 
 in inducing the peace, prosperity and concord which prevails 
 in Alabama. 
 
THE DUTY Olf THE STATE. 
 
 The preservation of our natural resources whether it be in 
 forests, in mines, in waterways, in game or in fish, is essentially 
 the business of the State. It is necessary that the restraining 
 hand of the law should be laid heavily on those who would 
 wantonly and recklessly waste that which God has intended 
 not only for those who now live to enjoy, but has designed as 
 a heritage of generation yet to be. 
 
 The natural assets with which providence has so abundantly 
 endowed us may be likened to a son coming into his iftheri- 
 tance. If he is wise and makes judicious use of the property 
 left him by his father, he can live happily and comfortably on 
 the legitimate increment, can add to his possessions, and when 
 he passes from earth, have something left to bequeath his chil- 
 dren. But on the other hand, if he is a spendthrift, if he reck- 
 lessly and wantonly wastes his heritage, his descendants enjoy 
 not that which by right should be theirs. 
 
 And so it is with our natural resources. If in its sovereign 
 capacity, the state by the passage of wise laws protects the peo- 
 ple's heritage, the time will never come when they shall want 
 for those things which nature dealt out so abundantly to the 
 fathers. On the contrary, if we allow the spirit of vandalism 
 to rage rampant in Alabama as was the case in the past, the 
 game, the fish, and the forests will only exist in memory and 
 tradition. 
 
 THE EIRST GAME I.AW. 
 
 The great Athenian law-giver, Solon, wrote the first game 
 law for the protection of the deer in the forests of Greece 
 and from ancient times during the mediaeval period in Europe 
 and down to the present day, there has been no single excep- 
 tion in any enlightened state; all civilized counties have game 
 laws. 
 
 BIRD LAWS, INSPIRED BY AGRICULTURISTS. 
 
 From a careful study of the subjects of game and fish pro- 
 tection and the laws relating thereto, we find that in a great 
 many states where like laws have been enacted, that they have 
 been brought about largely througti interest taken in the sub- 
 ject by the agriculturists and horticulturists, the purpose be- 
 ing not only to protect game and insectivorous birds, but to 
 preserve them in the largest number possible as valuable allies 
 
to the farming community in the destruction of the various 
 harmful insects that prey upon the growing crops to 
 their detriment, and the destroying of noxious weed seeds and 
 other harmful vegetation. 
 
 GAME LAWS PREVENT VANDALISM. 
 
 Game laws have a marked tendency to take the guns out of 
 the hands of a shiftless and roving class, who have no means of 
 support other than to subsist from hand to mouth in an im- 
 providential waiy, being a class of citizens about cities, county 
 seats and smaller towns who rove at will upon the premises of 
 adjacent owners and sometirhes, either wantonly or accidental- 
 ly, kill or injure stock, break down fences in the farming com- 
 munity and wantonly shoot at anything coming within their 
 range and observation, whether in orchard, in field, or garden ; 
 and because they have a tendency to restrain and handicap 
 these vandals who may secure enough ammunition for a half 
 day's shooting in the country, but never secure enough money 
 at one time to purchase and pay for a hunter's license. 
 
 The decent, law-abiding and self-supporting man, who pays 
 his license as a rule, will not undertake to trespass upon the 
 farms or agricultural community; and in most instances, feels 
 it his duty to respect the rights of the husbandmen and to se- 
 cure his permission before he ventures upon his lands. 
 
 INTERESTS OE THE MASSES CONSERVED BY GAME LAWS. 
 
 Game birds and animals, by reason of the fact that they fur- 
 nish a valuable source of food supply and are esteemed as great 
 delicacies, in many sections were hunted almost to the point 
 of extinction. 
 
 At one time, game laws were considered to be class legisla- 
 tion enacted exclusively for the benefit of the rich, but this is 
 an exploded theory. The wealthy man can step aboard his 
 palace car and in a few hours be transported into a veritable 
 sportsmans elysium. Not so with the ordinary individual; if 
 he is to enjoy the sport and is to partake of game, he must cap- 
 ture it near at hand. Hence game laws are unquestionably in 
 the interest of the common masses. 
 
AMERICA A PARADISE EOR PRISTINE NIMRODS. 
 
 The mind of man imperatively demands recreation. Unless 
 diversion can be found in a legitimate vein, he, in his great un- 
 rest, seeks that which is not wholesome. Hunting has ever 
 been the sport of kings, peasants and savages alike, and the 
 pursuit of the wild denizens of the fields and brush will always 
 hold for man an incomparable infatuation. When America was 
 first discovered, it was an idealistic sportsman's paradise ; buf- 
 falo, deer, moose, elk, bear and panther roamed the forest; 
 geese, duck, brant, swan, and wild pigeons flew overhead in 
 countless millions. These game animals and birds have been 
 slaughtered to such a great extent that the sport once enjoyed 
 by primeval Nimrods lingers only in recollection. 
 
 THE VAEUE OE BIRDS TO FARMERS. 
 
 The great question of the cause of the prevalence of plant 
 maladies and the problem of weed control each year grows 
 more harassing to the farmers. The reason for this is simple. 
 Our most beneficial birds, among them doves, robins, field 
 larks and bullbats, have been so ruthlessly destroyed that in 
 less than a generation their numbers have decreased eighty 
 per cent. 
 
 When it is recalled that the stomach of one dove recently 
 killed in Tennessee contained over seven thousand weed seeds, 
 and when it is understood that a healthy dove will destroy each 
 feeding day at least five thousand prospective weeds, more 
 than two negroes working at one dollar per day each could up- 
 root in the same time, it is easy to see that these birds prove in 
 the end to be the cheapest hoe hands the farmer can secure. 
 
 As an insect devourer, the bull-bat is equally serviceable. 
 It feeds on malaria-spreading mosquitoes and its work tran- 
 scends the combined effect of a case of quinine or a tank of 
 kerosene oil. As a fever germ abater in a malarial district, 
 a flock of bull-bats is worth a grove of quinine trees. 
 
 THE LEATHERED CHORISTERS OF THE TREES — THEIR INFLUENCE 
 ON man's FINER SENSIBILITIES. 
 
 Song birds, aside from their brilliance, so pleasing to the 
 observer, and their sweet music, redolent with liquid melody, 
 have a civic value of inestimable intrinsic worth that, if truly 
 
known and practically comprehended, would win millions of 
 friends for the trilling choristers of the forests, who would 
 indignantly halt the crusade of relentless extermination so 
 strenuously waged that it gives excellent promise of ultimately 
 depopulating all creation of man's valiant army of feathered 
 co-adjutors. 
 
 Did you ever hear an inspiring strain of music that failed 
 to thrill the soul with loftier ideals and more exalted aspira- 
 tions ? 
 
 All who dwell in an atmosphere of intellectual refinement 
 yearn for brilliant things in birds, flowers, sunsets and in their 
 fellow mortals. A heartless boy will inevitably grow into a 
 cruel and relentless man. If taught to hold the law in high 
 esteem when young in years, he becomes a patriotic man, with a 
 profound reverence for the statutes of his state. The most 
 courageous man, brave warriors, the most aggressive lead- 
 ers, are those of gentle natures and of tender hearts. Instill 
 these precepts into the souls of boys, and existing in such noble 
 environment, it will mold characters that will ornament so- 
 ciety, and serve to lift mankind from the miasmic swamps of 
 degeneracy to the mountain tops of true nobility, where 
 radiates the splendor of moral grandeur. 
 
 BIRDS CHECK THE APPROACH OF THE MEXICAN BOLI, WEEVII,. 
 
 Those who love Alabama, who glorify her splendid history, 
 who delight in her imperishable traditions, and and who take 
 pride in her boundless natural resources, are eager to preserve 
 and protect all that combine to fashion our magnificent state. 
 
 The principal vocation of our brave and patriotic people is in 
 agriculture, which is one of the most ancient and honorable of 
 arts known to man. Upon the yield of our fields depends the 
 happiness and prosperity of our citizens. When there are 
 abundant crops of fleecy cotton and our garners are full of 
 golden grain, the anthems of contentment and the cadences of 
 joy resound throughout our realm, and all the world seems 
 set to a tune that is played by happy hearts. 
 
 We are assisted in making good crops by an army of feath- 
 ered friends that work for the husbandman without pay. The 
 part that birds play in protecting farmers from the ravages of 
 injurious insects that prey upon the crops and orchards, would 
 be well understood if all the bright colored, harmless songsters 
 of the trees should be exterminated. That dreaded pest, the 
 
8 
 
 Mexican boll weevil, that destroys the cotton fields like a 
 withering simoon is speedily marching toward Alabama, and 
 scientific research discloses the fact that birds are its deadliest 
 enemies. Over one hundred birds that live in Alabama are 
 known to fed on the boll weevil. Birds annually destroy thou- 
 sands of tons of noxious weed seeds that are a constant me- 
 nace to agricultural interest, and which if left to grow, would 
 smother and stifle the crops. 
 
 SAVe THE BIRDS. 
 
 Without birds, our fair state would soon become not only 
 non-productive, but absolutely uninhabitable. A noted French 
 scientist has declared that without birds to check the ravages 
 of insects, human life would vanish from this planet within the 
 space of nine years; and I venture the prediction that in half 
 that time, no one could live in Alabama were the birds to sud- 
 denly leave for places where their services are better appre- 
 ciated. 
 
 Cruel men and wanton boys sometimes shoot for sport man's 
 feathered allies. It would be cheaper if the rifle that discharged 
 the shot were loaded with golden btillets and fired into the sea. 
 Boys were erstwhile allowed to catch and sell young mocking 
 birds and red birds for fifty cents each. The state is made at 
 least one hundred dollars poorer by the act. The meadow lark 
 or each one of a bevy of quail in a ten acre wheat, corn or cot- 
 ton field earns five dollars in a single season as an insect de- 
 stroyer. 
 
 Every precaution is taken by us to prevent a thief from steal- 
 ing even the most trifling of our possession, but we are oblivi- 
 ous to any effort to dissuade the gunner from shooting birds 
 upon whose existence depends our very livelihood. 
 
 Let us unite every energy we possess to save our friends, the 
 birds, from destruction; if we do this, soon every bush will 
 contain a singer and every tree a choir. 
 
 LOCAI, GAUt LAWS ARE FAILURES. 
 
 Experience has demonstrated that local legislation on the 
 subjects of game fish protection and preservation results in ab- 
 solute failure. Game laws in the past have been violated in 
 most instances because the offenders knew that they would 
 not be prosecuted. Then, to concede that it is right to protect 
 
9 
 
 game and fish and to enact laws to be for its protection, how is 
 the work of enforcing these laws to be accomplished ? 
 
 It is a matter of fact that for the last twenty years there has 
 been a growing disregard and disrespect for local game and 
 fish laws, and an increasing slaughter of our valuable assets 
 until conditions became alarming in the extreme. The constab- 
 ulary, or the local peace officers would not enforce these stat- 
 utes. 
 
 THE GAME I<AW, A FINANCIAL WONDER. 
 
 Hence the Legislature of Alabama at the last session enacted 
 a game and fish law that stands out pre-eminently as the most 
 perfect piece of legislation on these subjects ever suggested. 
 The enforcement of the game and fish laws are committed to 
 a State Game and Fish Commissioner who designates a game 
 warden for each county, who is in active charge of all prose- 
 cutions arising under these laws. Likewise every sheriff, deputy 
 sheriff, policeman, constable, and justice of the peace are ex- 
 officio deputy game wardens, charged with the active and vigi- 
 lant enforcement of these statutes. All game birds and ani- 
 mals are protected, also our song and insetivorous birds. 
 
 Those who enjoy the sport and recreation found in hunting 
 and fishing should pay for the protection and preservation of 
 the wild denizens, the pursuit of which gives them pleasure, 
 Hence we have inaugurated a license system, charging sports- 
 men one dollar to hunt in county of residence, three dollars to 
 hunt in all the counties in the state and have imposed a non- 
 resident license of $15.00. This money goes into the game and 
 fish protection fund for the purpose of defraying expense inci- 
 dent to the enforcement of the game and fish laws. One-half 
 of all the fines collected under these statutes belongs to the 
 wardens and the other half is forwarded to the State Treasury 
 and is placed to the credit of the game and fish protection fund. 
 There was no appropriation made by the Legislature to put 
 these statutes into operation, which was done without costing 
 the state a single cent. 
 
 During the first year we collected $30,435.08 and on yester- 
 day there was to the credit of the game and fish protection fund 
 after all the expense of the department of game and fish had 
 been paid, the sum of $15,317.10, a net profit to the state. Dur- 
 ing the year 1908, we will collect over $35,000.00 from the sale 
 of hunters' license alone. Be it said in their laudation, no 
 
10 
 
 sportsman has ever objected to the payment of the fee charged 
 for a hunter's Hcense. They get it back an hundred fold in the 
 abundance of game the law assures to the Nimrods of Ala- 
 bama. 
 
 THE NECESSITY Olf WARDEN SERVICES. 
 
 Experience has incontestably demonstrated that unless coun- 
 ty wardens are made responsible to an executive head of the 
 state department that they become lax and negligent in enforc- 
 ing the laws for the protection of game and fish. I am happy 
 to say that the game warden constabulary in Alabaha has been 
 most active and vigilant and but few offenders have escaped 
 prosecution. During the year of 1907, the Department of 
 Game and Fish secured the conviction of 182 violators of the 
 game and fish laws. Up to yesterday for the year 1908, we 
 have convicted 54 persons for infractions under these stattues. 
 We convicted a state senator, a sheriff, and a county solicitor, 
 as well as many other prominent citizens. Likewise the hum- 
 ble have been brought to justice, the law being enforced among 
 the mighty as well as the lowly. 
 
 VIOI.ATIONS DECREASING. 
 
 There will be noticed a marked decrease in offenses and the 
 great activity that must have been required to have secured so 
 large a number of convictions under a new statute during the 
 single year. Under local laws, a conviction was a thing un- 
 heard. It means that the game wardens are actively discharg- 
 ing the duties of their offices and that the people of Alabama 
 are overwhelmingly in favor of convicting persons who violate 
 our game and fish laws. 
 
 INDISCRIMINATE HUNTING A MENACE TO THE STATE. 
 
 Formerly an army of not less than ten thousand armed men 
 roamed the fields and forests of Alabama each day from the 
 first of September to the first of October, armed with every 
 character of fire arm and killed not less than nine millions of 
 quail each year of value to the people of Alabama to the prince- 
 ly sum of $3,450,000. There were shipped under old conditions 
 not less than one-half million live birds each season from this 
 state, which draft upon our quail supply would have soon left 
 
11 
 
 us exhausted of that most excellent bird. Practically every 
 restaurant in the state sold game that was murdered by pot- 
 hunters, which baleful practice gave support to a worthless 
 class that came near slaughtering many of our most valuable 
 species to the point of extinction. Likewise song and insectiv- 
 orous birds were killed recklessly and wantonly, there being no 
 law under which to prosecute those who persisted in this per- 
 nicious practice. 
 
 BI,ACKS NOW REQUIRED TO WORK. 
 
 The sale of single barrel shot guns has been cut down at 
 least five hundred per cent., as has the sale of black powder 
 shells, the kind that pot-hunters and negroes used. Negroes 
 formerly idled or pretended to hunt and under this pretext, 
 committed every character of crime. They have become com- 
 pletely disarmed under the game law and must now pursue the 
 avocations of an honest and industrious life. 
 
 GAME RAPIDLY INCREASING. 
 
 Game birds and animals in Alabama have multiplied under 
 the operation of our game law system at least fifty per cent. 
 In fact, from the best information obtainable, I confidently be- 
 lieve that we began the breeding season this year with at least 
 sixty per cent, more than last. 
 
 ALABAMA STREAMS ONCE TEEMED WITH GAME-EISH. 
 
 Alabama at one time was a Walton's paradise. Coursing 
 through this state are hundreds of beautiful, limpid streams in 
 whose placid depths formerly were found every specie of game 
 fish known to this clime. It is a known fact that the waters 
 of this state have been dynamited, seined, netted and trapped 
 until they have in a large measure become practically depleted 
 of fish. All that is required is to let the fish of Alabama have 
 a rest, and the streams will once more be restocked and will 
 teem with desirable species of the finny tribe as they did in 
 pristine times. 
 
12 
 
 thh; murderous dynamiter, and his cohorts. 
 
 The murderous dynamiter that throws his cartridge into a 
 stream gets only a small proportion of the fish he kills. The 
 rest float off dead, a dead loss to humanity. He likewise kills 
 all of the small fry, which, if left to grow, would some day de- 
 velop into delicate table morsels. Those who seine streams, 
 dump out the small fish and never think of replacing them so 
 repacious are they to get their greedy hands on the glistening 
 beauties they have dragged from their haunts. 
 
 The nefarious practice of dynamiting, seining, netting, trap- 
 ping the streams has been in a large measure stopped under 
 the operation of our fish laws, and it is a known fact that 
 sport with hook and line in Alabama during last season has 
 been better than for twenty-five years. 
 
 streams will be restocked. 
 
 When we establish the fish culture station contemplated by 
 the bill of Senator Joseph F. Johnston, which has already 
 passed the Senate and which now awaits the action of the 
 House, every stream in Alabama will be restocked with fish, 
 which we propose to protect and preserve for the benefit of the 
 people at large, prosecuting and pursuing with the vengeance 
 of a spiteful fury on the trail of a lost spirit the vandals who 
 erstwhile haunted our streams with illicit devices eager to drain 
 them of every specie of fish. 
 
 THE preservation OF THE EORESTS. 
 
 Upon the preservation of the forests depends the health, hap- 
 piness and prosperity of the people. A land without trees is 
 one without inhabitants and is merely a desert. The value of 
 our forests has not been appreciated by our people, because of 
 the erstwhile abundance of timber for utilitarian purposes. 
 Nature teaches best by anithesis. Therefore, we will not miss 
 the magnificent monarchs of the forest until they are all laid 
 low. Nowhere on the face of the earth have so many different 
 species of different trees grown so luxuriantly as in Alabama. 
 Millions of dollars worth of logs have been burned in the pro- 
 cess of clearing lands for cultivation. 
 
13 
 
 A R^IvENTlvESS CEUSADE AGAINST OUR TREHlS WAGED BY 
 tUMBBRMEN. 
 
 Saw mills controlled by foreign corporations have waged a 
 relentless crusade against our forests, making no pretense of 
 leaving trees that would some day make lumber. In their 
 wake is found a tractless waste. So startling has become the 
 condition relative to our future lumber supply, that the whole 
 country has awakened to the reality that unless a speedy halt 
 is called, the time must inevitably come when a timber famine 
 will exist. 
 
 DESTRUCTION OE EORESTS BRINGS HARDSHIPS ON THE PEOPLE. 
 
 Scientific investigation has disclosed the fact that the de- 
 struction of forests causes storms and cyclones, drouths and 
 likewise floods. The mind of the whole nation seems imbued 
 with the idea of establishing a vast forest reserve for the pro- 
 tection of the heads of rivers. It has been ascertained that the 
 destruction of forests causes the water to rush rapidly down 
 the hillsides, thence into the creeks, on into the rivers causing 
 overflows and great destruction to life and property. Were 
 the forests left standing at the heads of rivers, the water would 
 gently soak in through the leaves, and loam, and would gradu- 
 ally distribute itself into the streams. Floods fill up the chan- 
 nels of rivers, causing sandbars, which result in a detrminet 
 to navigation. 
 
 LOOK WELL TOWARDS SAVING THE YOUNG TIMBER. 
 
 The virgin forests must inevitably be cut away so great is the 
 demand for lumber. Hence the problem which now confronts 
 the people of Alabama is the care of the growing second 
 growth timber and in devising a practical plan by which they 
 can engage in the art of growing useful timber trees. 
 
 The greatest damage done to young timber is caused by for- 
 est fires. It has been customary for years to burn the forests 
 with the idea that it may make spring and summer grazing bet- 
 ter, but this has long since been proven to be a veritable fal- 
 lacy. Whenever a forest fire sweeps through a piece of woods, 
 it destroys every prospective tree to the age of four years. 
 Hence if we were to have the forest fires only quadrennially, 
 thre would be no increase in the suply of timber. 
 
14 
 
 TIMBER CULTURE ENCOURAGED BY FORESTRY LAWS. 
 
 The forestry laws of Alabama encourage the practice of tim- 
 ber culture by exempting from taxation any land which has 
 been denuded of trees, the taxable value of which does not ex- 
 ceed the value of five dollars per acre. 
 
 As an axiomatic fact, no law is automatic. Hence in order 
 to give force and effectiveness to any statute, there must be a 
 specially constituted service designated to enforce it. Hence 
 the county game and fish wardens are declared forest wardens 
 whose duty it is to enforce the forest laws of this state. It 
 is unlawful for any person to set fire to any woods, brush, 
 grass,, grain or stubble field not their own. It is likewise un- 
 lawful for any person to set fire to his own woods without 
 giving five days written notice to adjacent land owners. Loco- 
 motive engines must be equipped with appliances to arrest the 
 escape of sparks from smokestacks. 
 
 HIGH POINTS IN FORESTRY LAW. 
 
 It is unlawful to attach any electric lighting wire or other 
 lighting appliances to any tree in any town or city in this state. 
 
 The monies derived from fines resulting from violations of 
 the forests laws are paid into the forest reserve fund, which 
 money is expended by the State Commission of Forestry in the 
 issuance of bulletins and in the enforcement of the forest laws. 
 The State of Alabama has consented by an act of the Legisla- 
 ture for the government to acquire territory in this state for 
 the establishment of a forest reserve. It is to be hoped that 
 the next Congress will pass the White Mountain and Appala- 
 chian Forest Reserve Bill. Unless this is done, many of the 
 great industries and manufacturies which are propelled by 
 water power must close down for at least six months in the 
 year. 
 
 FOREST CULTURE IN EUROPE. 
 
 Many countries that were formerly prosperous, peaceful and 
 happy, since the forests have been cut away have become unin- 
 habitable. Many of the older countries in Europe are reset- 
 ting their forests at a cost of twenty dollars per acre. 
 
15 
 
 LBT US STRUGG1.1; TO SAVE the; trees, upon which depends 
 
 OUR lease on life. 
 
 By stimulating the sentiment among the people to care for 
 the timber we now have and by inducing them to engage in the 
 propagation of trees, there will not be entailed upon us the 
 great hardship which has been visited upon the citizens of the 
 old world. 
 
 Let us struggle to keep our beautiful state from being deso- 
 lated by the annihilation of the forests, for the foliage from 
 the trees give to us the very oxygen we breathe, without which 
 human life would become extinct. 
 
 THE CO-OPERATION OF THE PRESS. 
 
 Without the support, and the enthusiastic co-operation of the 
 press of Alabama, it would have been impossible for the De- 
 partment of Game and Fish to have made the success it has 
 of the statutes committed to it for enforcement. The editors 
 having at heart the state's best interest, have informed the peo- 
 ple of the provisions of the law, dwelt earnestly and eloquently 
 on the benefits of this legislation and have cemented sentiment 
 forever in Alabama favorable to these statutes. 
 
 My heartfelt gratitude has been constantly elicited by the 
 hundreds of kind expressions relative to my work which have 
 appeared in your columns. The belief is induced from the re- 
 sult which has been achieved by you that when you are right, 
 the world awaits your commands. 
 
 Your field is one of power and of constant usefulness. You 
 have proven that you are well equipped to discharge your re- 
 sponsible tasks, you have the respect, the admiration, aye the 
 love of your people. For 'tis for them that you labor unceas- 
 ingly and poorly paid. 
 
 NOBLE EDITORS — PATRIOTS WHO HAVE GONE TO THEIR REWARD. 
 
 To the younger members of this Association, I would say 
 that you need no loftier inspiration than is to be found in the 
 study of the life and character of such brilliant writers, noble 
 patriots, and gifted sons of genius as Langdon of Mobile, Tyler 
 of Montgomery, Monroe of the "Eutaw Whig," Grant of the 
 "Grove Hill Democrat," Nunnelee, the elder, of the "Eutaw 
 Whig and Observer," Gilbert of the "West Alabamian," War- 
 
16 
 
 ren of the "Tuscaloosa Times," Roberts of the "Birmingham 
 Iron-Age," Powell of the "Union Springs Herald," Grubbs of 
 the "Decatur News," Clay of the "Huntsville Democrat," Kel- 
 ler of the "North Alabamian," Colonel Harvey of the "Greens- 
 boro Beacon," Colonel Grant, ex-State Treasurer, of the 
 "Jacksonville Republican," and D. White of the "Moulton Ad- 
 vertiser." 
 
 The memory of these great Alabamians is forever securely 
 enshrined in the hearts of the people — for whom they per- 
 formd a labor of love. 
 
 THB HBLP OF THB PRESS INVOKED. 
 
 Let me invoke a continuance of your valuable services — 
 without your aid my right arm is paralyzed — and we will point 
 out to our people the almost incomputable value of their price- 
 less heritages, and teach them to properly use, foster and pre- 
 serve their birth-right, that it may go down to future genera- 
 tions, a glorious and unrivaled benefaction.