Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1875-11-04
the OBJECT OF PROTECTING
FISH AND GAME.

We publish in full this week DR..
coAaarnitNA's saareea on the Economic
Advantages of Protecting Fish and
Game" and assure our readers that they
will find II both interesting and proht'
able. One aim of the doctor in this ad-
dress Is TO remove the popular prejudice
which has ignorantly assumed that fish
and game laws are enacted especially in
the interest of the angler and the hunter.
If the suggestions of DR.. Goldsmith are
carried out and made practically opera
tive by proper legislation, the farmers,
as it will at once be seen, will be bene-
fitted quite as much as sportsmen. 1t
will be many years, doubtless, before
the custom of renting fishing and hunt
ing privileges will prevail in this State
as 1t does in many parts of Europe. The
distinction of classes is less broad here,
and the land is so distributed among the
people that the revenue which any one
man would derive from such rentals
would be small when compared with
that which the owners of immense
estates in England now recuiye. If we
mistake not about one, fifth of the land
of England is now used as hunting
parks. All the land there is owned by
comparatively few individuals. 1t is
much easier, therefore, to regulate and
control hunting and fishing rights
there than it will be here. |
But vast deal can be done
even In Vermont to increase the revenue |
of the farmer if the proper measures
are adopted. The association, of which |
DR.. Goldsmith is the president, is fully |
organized, but unless local encourage
ment is given to Its work, very little
will be accomplished by 1t. If the in
habitants of our Vermont towns could
be made to realize that trout stream
or pond where prime fishing could al
ways be had, is a greater attraction for
any village, in the summer months, than
mineral spring or mountain view,
because people will resort to it regular
ly every season, who spend money free
ly, the work which this association
contemplates would be more than half
done. The superior fishing in the Bat
tenkill has done almost as much as the
scenery of Manchester to make that
place one of the most popular places of
public resort in this State
At the present time the fishing, for /
the most part, is monopolized by few /
poachers, who work every stream SO
continuously that the farmer has come |
20 believe that it is hardly worth while !
for him to try and catch mess of fish q
IN the brook that flows close by his own !
door, Those farmers to whom this ex- /
perience is familiar, will find food for r
thought in DR.. Goldsmith's address. ,
But II is not proposed TO protect simply
he rights of the land holders, but to in
rease the quantity of fish and game in
his State. This is subject in which
be whole community is interested.
Population and wealth increase in pro-
ortion to the supply of cheap nutritious
God.
The production of fish and game In
heir natural habitat does not interfere !,
nth other uses of the land or water. :,
upplies of this kind of food are drawn !
item from sources which cannot be uti- /
zed In any other way. The stream In q
hitch trout abound turns the mill, and 4,
ne swamps in which woodcock feed are 8
orth but little for other purposes.
fhereyer fish and game have anything
re fair chance in the struggle for ex-
tence, they multiply and increase with P
Feat rapidity. The experiments which S,
ave been tried with shad have been m