The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1900-02-07
CANE IN VIRGINIA.
Would be a Sportsman Paridise with
Proper Protection.

iSiS-& b
Editor of The Times:
Sir,--Some Of the observations ana re-
marks of your Olga special corresponds
ent have so impressed this writer upon
the subject of the natural advantages
and opportunities OF Eastern Virginia
as a. game country. that he is moved
himself in the direction of saving q wora
to help III the good cause which Ine
Times mas champoned CT Inducing our
LeSisIa ture to better protect our WIG
birds ana animals.
IN one of his articles he iaid down
the proposition. that. We're but a moiets
OF the care taken to preserve our game
in Virginia that is bestowed in the
States of New Yori. and Maine. Virginia
would be a "yertible sportSmaaS para
disc This Is true. Despite negligence
and Indifference on this score, the sac
of Virginia to-day. although one OF tile
oldest and longest settled States. Is about
the best hunting ground ali around for
deer, turkeys, quail. pfeasants, sources
and rabbits in the United States rms,
too, without adequate care for its m
crease and protection. What would IL
be. one may we'll ask, If the natives We're
educated up to q due appreciation OF
their natural advantages and infused
with an earnest spirit to utilize ana
make the most of them? The time mas
been when the country vest OF TIE
Mississippi was the Mecca OF the sports
man. There, before the day of the COW
boy and large cattle ranches, roaHned
the buffalo in countless herds. no" nearly
extinct: upon the plains We're countless
swarnls of prairie chickens and quail,
while Virginia and b:acll-taiied deer were
SO plentiful, that then one could XII
more of them in q day with bow ana
arrow than lie can to-day with the most
improved Winchester repeating rite,
while turkeys swarmed until the hun
ter was sickened with his own butcher
ing of them and left them when killed
to the buzzar1s of the air. All this IS
! changed and game of all sorts is scarcer
! in the West. if hunters can be believed,
than it is in the territory OF the Old DO
minion. And the reason is not iar TO
seek The West with its aliuvial bot
toms and soils fertile from ages of an
nual fires reducing 70 ash the vegetable
growths is enlinenty and pre-eminently
an agricultural and growing country. It's
soil returned more for the sweat of the
brow than !te older and differently cir
cumstanced East. and the result has
been that the eastern hive has swarmed
and poured its young brood into this
more favored agricultural region. And
the European hive has also swarmed
and 57oured its horde into the same
country. The result is that to-day
sportsmen look for their enjoyment in
the East and South. Cleveland. under
| the chaperoneship OF Benedict. hugs the
Atlantic seaboard for ducks and a good
time while others with purses not so
plethoric. and ambition less high, enjoy
themselves more inland after deer, rab-
bits, squirrels and quail upon the Allan.
tic seaboard. And this, too, all in the
I face of the fact that game has virtually
! no p1&tection, but survives solely on ac-
of no C11it1biIitv Of the country
for them in food and climate as a natural
habitat While the West is an agricul-
tural country and Yields abundance with
out manure and fertilizer to the enter
! prise of the h,lsbandrlen. Eastern Virginia
and the Atlantic scaboard generally is
not The geologic formation is older
and more scant and devoid of humus,
this necessary factor in productive farln-
ing Before and during the war this
territory under slave labor was more
under the plow than it is now, and sup
ported under this less costly system I
! larger population and a greater acreage
than at present.
One may travel over the wide cxpansas
! of the Northern Neck and peninsular Of
Virginia. and Is struck with the tumble
down appearance of the old palatial
manor houses, and the Entertainments Of
bushes upon the formerly titled acres.
and the wonderfully small percentage Of
| land that is attempted to be 1armed at
all Here the streams that used to the
| be fringed to their margins with the
waving corn are grown up n the tangel
silrubbery of trees and vines. while the
upland clearings about the dwellings are
year by year becoming smaller and small
err. Here the lands never paid in money
| for their working under the cheap sys-
| TEN OF slave labor. Now under the more
| costly hired labor they are mostly aban-
| doned But it is the home of game
| Running along the entire Atlantic sea-
| board is the Gulf stream. ditfusing on
! each side of its whole length its tropical
warmth. Shows may fail here to the
/ depth of is inches, and more inland re-
! MAIN upon the ground for weeks al a
tine during the exceptionally severe win
ters. but along the coast. end Tor many
| miles west, the warm air of the Gulf
] stream furnishes its genial influence and
! the SHOWS are gone in few days.
| In 1894 an extraordinarily hard spell of
| long duration killed almost all of the
| birds, turkeys. and squirrels in Virginia.
The spring and summer OF ISL passed
as silent as the tomb: unbroken by the
bob-white of the quail or the schbie Of
the turkey. but seed had been left on the
| seapoard, under the }beneficent influence
| of the Gulf stream, and each of its kind
! spread out west and migrated in quest
OF food until by the fall OF 1898 II cpuld
hardly be told that game had been nearly
| exterminated in 1884,
! Now, it behooves every people under
| the sun to look around and avail them
selves of their natural advantages. The
owners of land in Virginia have vast
! surplus over their needs. They would 'be
glad to sell. But. for the most part. these
lands offer no financial inducerent to
the horny-nanded son OF toll. He con-
| tlnues to go west. But there IS class
of land-buyers. of whom too little ac-
| count is taken-gentlemen OF plenty and
| leisure-millionaires and 1nulti-nillionaires
| and their sons, who love sport-who love
the dog and gun and the chase, who
| stand ready and anxious to buy these
very waste and Improbable lands for
their game preserves andstheir enjoyment
They. only ask one thing, that game be
| protected and he abundant. Even with
no system of game protection In vogue
we have a large number of Northern
sportsmen each fail coming. down into
Virginia and spending their money liber-
ally,Eas affording more andsbetterg sport
thanfthe west. What. would be the state
of things if the people Of Virginia would
I1arouse to the needs OF the situation and