Gadsden County Times

The Ocala Star has uncovered a new one. A citizen during a street corner argument in Ocala a few days ago asserted forest fires were necessary otherwise poisonous snakes would drive the people of Florida out of the state. Opponents of cattle tick eradication and unprogressive cattle owners have offered every possible excuse why it is necessary to burn the woods every year but this particular assertion wins the leather medal. If the open range advocates who believe in feeding the cattle tick so that pestiferous insect may continue to thrive and multiply can find only a snake menace to bolster up their case they are on their last legs, their backs are against the wall. That the theory will not hold water is so self-evident it is to laugh. Game Commissioner Rovall recently issued a warning to hunters that snakes are more numerous in the woods this summer than usual. And at the same time the records at Tallahassee show there were more forest fires in Florida during the last twelve months than in many years past, in fact, the forestry office is authority for the statement that there were fires in ninety percent of the forests of the state last year.