The states-graphic. (Brownsville, Tenn.) 1???-1984, 1916-10-13
WILD LIFE APPEAL
FROM GAME WARDEN
TEACHERS ASKED TO INTEREST
CHILDREN IN MOVEMENT
Boys and Girls Asked to Restock the
Streams with Fish that They May
Some Time Enjoy Day Out
On them Fishing.

Nashville, Tenn, Oct. 8.-W. d,
Howser, game and fish warden, is ap-
pealing to all teachers in Tennessee to
secure their COOPERATION in an effort to
conserve the wild life in the state.
The following letter has been mailed
to the educators:
My Dear Teacher-We are mailing
you herein copy of the game and fish
laws of this state, in order that you
may teach the boys and girls of the
state that they should protect the wild
life that peoples the stream, the Geld
and the wood.
We hope that you will tell the child
rem to ask their aprents and grand
parents about the days when the buff
falo, the deer, the moose, the elk, the
bear and the panther roamed the for
ests and hundreds of thousands of
ducks, geese and brants and swan
swan along the creeks, lake and riv-
ers, while countless millions of wild
pigeons flying south shut out the sun
light and darkened the day. Where
are these wild creatures now? Prac-
tically all of them have been slaughter
ed and the great hunts that were en-
joyed by our fathers seem only ira
dition and myth.
The few remaining species of our
game wild birds ought to be vigilant-
ly protected and so propagated that
the boys and girls of today, when they
become men and women, may have
some of the pleasures of those who go
out in the wild woods, the fields and
along the streams in pursuit of the il
denizens that inhabit them.
Not only the game birds, but many
of our song and insectivorous birds
have been ruthlessly destroyed. More
that so per cent of our robins, field
larks, doves and bull bats have been
destroyed in less than a generation.
do not see how the farmers could
control the weeds and insects were it
not for the help rendered him by the
birds. The crop of one dove killed in
this state last year contained the seed
of more than 1000 weed seed, and any
healthy dove will destroy in one day
at least 5000 prospective weeds. The
doves work every daw in the year
How long would it take two boys to
pull up the weeds that two doves would
destroy in year? The bull bat will
catch and destroy in one evening
thousands Of mosquitoes in one eve.
ming, and the robin or field lark Is
busy all the time destroying insects
that destroy the farmers crops.
Not only these but other birds do
invaluable work for the farmer with
out any pay. Some of them, like the
raincrow, make their meals upon the
catterpillars that destroy our orchards
SEINE of them like the grossbeak, feed
upon the potato beetle; and othes, like
the red-headed woodpecker, dig out the
dorers that destroy our trees. Every
bird seems to have an appetite for
some insect that tries to destroy the
farmers crop.
Our streams were once teeming
with fish, and would be now if men
obeyed the law, or if they would kill
only the fish they eat, but some OF
them dynamite or poison stream
and kill all of the fish in order to get
a few large ones; others sein and leave
the little ones on the bank to die; 9th
ers build dams and traps across the
stream and prevent the fish from going
up to spawn; others gig or shoot the
fish off of their nests and leave the
eggs or little fish, to be destroyed.
How can we ever expect to have more
fish in the streams, ponds and lakes
as long as the law is violated in this
way?
Wont you ask the boys and girls to
help restock the streams in this state
so that they may ONE day enjoy a
day out fihsing?
| know you are intereted in the pro-
lection of our wild life, but you ask
me how you can help. Let me tell
you.
BY teaching the children the laws
of the state and how to observe them.
By organizing nature study classes
or Junior Audubon Societies in your
school
By having bird day exercises.
BY nature study work in the teach
ers' associations.
By making suggestions to the state
game and fish warden so that he may
be benefited by your experience.
May we have your cooperation
If so, is there any way we can be of
assistance to you?
Oh, how the birds of Tennessee
would work and sing if all the boys
aud tba oirIs in orr schools loved them