The coastland times., 1955-12-09

| ly begun to encroach among the
trees and of course will cause that
slow, cancerous death. Hurricanes
have resulted in much if not all of
the decrease in growth, where on
the other hand all that has grown
up was the results of WPA work
camp labor, the 1905 planting
and transplanting myrtle, youpon,
cedars, oaks and sea-oats. There
have been no stock ranging from
Hatteras northward for many
years, while at Ocracoke there have
been cattle, sheep and horses graz
ing the entire time.
l can point out and show anyone
who would be kind enough to talk,
and go over the land with me where
trees of different varieties, sand
hills, grass, and lots of it has
flourished with cattle, horses and
sheep grazing over the same
ground constantly.
Last of all l shall dwell some
what on the other good qualities
of the wild pony. They not alone
furnish beauty for the travellers
eye, but as well something delight
full to the eye of visitors that come
: to see the wild ponies coming three
down the road towards the corral
and after they are coralled, watch
the horses being caught, colts
branded, and few ridden. This
penning is great part of the
Ocracoke Fourth of July Celebra-
ton and without that the Fourth
would be nothing. Now in recent
years the people of the Island have
begun to have parade over the
Fourth of July after the pony pen
ming and flag raising, but the pa
rade, as good as it is, could not
possibly have the motive, the show,
the color and splendor without the
numbers of ponies at penning and
the costumes of Scout riders to
make up the great parade. That
parade is really good.-No fancy
floats or exquisite costumes but
rather costumes made by the indi-
vidual and of whatever they may
decide on. The children are some
thing to behold. Only trucks are
allowed in the parade and they are
decorated with natural flora, there
fore when one sees the parade COM
ing with the flags flying in the
wind, the ponies and their riders,
the trucks in natural flora, the
clowns, bicycle riders, it is really
worth looking at.
A great many prizes are given
at this and in the school house
circle. These ponies are beautiful,
they have style and ambition and
are ready to answer the call and
do not have to be whipped. They're
easy to train and most always
make very fine saddle horses.
Each Boy Scout in Troop 300
Ocracoke, owns his pony and his
gear; they have great pride in their
pony, working at odd jobs, fishing,
carrying messages and so on to
get food for their pony, while the
pony is kept up and of course they
feed them a mess of oats or some
thing similar when they ride for
short distances. Of course when
they plan long trip, then they
are kept up and fed grain, oats or
regular horse and cattle feed for
several days to strengthen them.
Otherwise the pony is left out to
roam at his will and feed on the
; short wire grass and salt grass.
1 have not seen one pony eating
sea oats since retired on Ocracoke
six years ago. They thrive almost
exclusively on the saltgrass and
that alone has increased on the is
land an hundred fold in the past
20 years, yet the horses feed on
it constantly. | ralize that there
are cattle to be seen most any,
where in the U.S.A. this modern
day and as much as l would love
to see the cattle stay too, / believe
the pony should be exempt by state
law. Nowhere in the U.S.A. except
Chincoteague and Core Banks and
Ocracoke are there any wild ponies.
The Core Banks stock have been
interbred quite a bit with other
breeds, therefore not much of the
original strain is left. | couldn't
say about Virginia.
The Park Service could at least
leave the ponies on Ocracoke long
enough after the cattle are taken
away to learn whether they're
destructive or not, and l, as a re-
tired Federal Government en-
ployee, with 81 years to back me,
will serve as observer and arbitra-
tor free of charge for county, state
or government. The government
elsewhere about the United States
on the National Parks protect
bear, deer, antelope, caribou,
pronghorn, bison and many other
species of beast, then too they
attempt to control the killing of
wildfowl, also have preserves to
protect them; spend lots of money
to feed them in hard winters be-
/ zsIn. 4lo,~. 81