The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1913-05-18
CONSERVING OUR FISH AND GAME
SUPPLY


SUPPLY.
1t Is we'll to conserve our fish and game and
other resources. 1t is we'll to aid In this end,
and to advocate 1t, in season and out of season.
1t is well to search out any growth in wanton
waste and to strike at the root when uncovered
and at the trunk when it only is apparent
But It is also we'll to know what one is talk
ing about, or what one is doing, In SO impor-
tant thing, concerning as 1t does the welfare
in fact, the living-of many thousands of ster-
ling Virginia folk when making public utter
ances seeking to influence lawmakers and other
officials it is also we'll to sink prejudice and
rise on a wave Of patriotism that is discernible
to those looking for an enlightening signal
Lack Of information, or a fund Of bias, are
equally prejudicial to argument and apt to set
agog impressions that of baneful influence.
TIC the point-Maryand Is doing well, at a
late day, TO move In conservation of her vast
water reseources-fsh and oysters. Virginia
has done WELL and may do better, to take the
lead in this above all Southern States In fact,
though she may not have led all of the
Northern States in the movement, in results
and that is what counts-she has reached the
topmost rung of the comparison ladder. In
both oyster and fish output she now surpasses
all other States of the Union. No one will
claim there is not still greater room for i'm
Iprovement-and we believe she will not stop
but 1t is a great injustice to her efforts, a
detriment to her enterprises and reflection
upon her administration to continuously run
down and never laud her efforts. More than
that; 1t is positively reprehensble to mislead
at all times but peculiarly so when facts are
mistated or suppressed for the purpose Of igno
bic comparison of home with another's
The legislature of 1914. If wise, will mot
take gratuitious advice of the lly-improved
upon oyster conditions, but will let this prob
lem be wrestled with by men and policies which
have brought to the front The last session
of our general assembly was probably the first
In quarter of century that lost no time over
the heretofore overcoming oyster question "
Its successor may prefer like record, to that of
opening up at the behest Of the disgruntled some
thing which usually breeds trouble and wastes
precious time to find solution only In referring
back to those conversant with the subject
Virginia has for two decades pointed the way
OF oyster culture and legislation to her sister
State of Maryland and this has time and again
been generously acknowledged by the latter.
More than that, the executive officials Of At
lantic coast States, including Rhode Island,
In convention assembled. have recently accorded
to Virginia and her administration the leader
Rhode Islands annual revenue of hundred thou
sand is placed beside virginias eighty thousand
the whole story is not told. 1t is not explained
that Little Rhody's' truck patch of water bot
tom Is of fertility nowhere else equaled; that
her markets are at her door; that she has no
public water commons to speak Of and that all
her oyster bottoms are in the hands OF a few
rives S. an acre per annum rental for her
least desirable grounds and $40 for her best.
Nor does the ex-parte advocate disclose the fact
that Virginia bottoms rent for only 81 per acre,
and that If more were exacted the majority
OF planters would go out OF business Nor are
we told that Virginia has twenty or thirty
thousand good citizens-men, women and chill
build homes with the accruement, and populate
villages and counties, turning In taxable val
ues that Rhode Island cannot begin to equal,
and but for which wealth procured from the
common waters, vast sections of the Tidewater
would be desolate and depopulated. These peo-
pic pay through themselves, not, from the States
Golfers, for every whit of the preservation,
conservation and regulation of a prairie of in
dustry compared with fertile garden patch
close to big marts, and still return hand
some direct revenue to the State.
The Virginia oyster, and oysters in general,
have received hard knocks at the hands of some
'purefood" fanatics, who have scared the pub
tic without the least reason or justice-a step
that has been little short of criminal to those
dependent upon the industry for livelihood.
does it not seem that newspapers and other
6etractors along the line we have noted might
he fairly classed as particeps criminis?
AS with oysters. so with our fish. Conserva-
ton is under way, and Virginia has been invit-
ing Maryland and North Carolina to join in con-
fesfsiatfon; wiifch IS highly necessary
#sa7ses Assasss