E. Walking, Riding, Bicycling, and people who do not actively seek nature by hunting, fishing, nature study, photog raphy, or camping, are eager to get out into the open air. Among all the ways of doing this none surpasses walking, both in healthfulness and in ultimate pleasure when once one really learns how to do it. Many people, however, prefer the greater speed of riding horseback, and the thrill that comes from contact with a spirited animal. A far larger number would enjoy the delightful sport of horseback riding if it were less expensive. At one time bicycle riding bade fair to become a great sport, but it has received a serious set back because the auto mobile makes the roads unpleasant for the bicyclist, and bicycling is not nearly so sociable as automobiling. Although the automobile is prob ably used chiefly for business in the more restricted sense, it also plays an enormous and growing part in recreation. When a thousand cars an hour pass a given point on the way to the seashore or mountains on a Sunday afternoon, and when this happens in scores or hundreds of places, it means that vast numbers of people are using their cars for recreation. Few things show the attraction of good scenery so strongly. as does the way in which automobiles flock to the most beautiful parts of the mountains, lake regions, and seacoasts. But fortunately motor ing is an enjoyable recreation wherever the roads are reasonably good even though the scenery is not remarkable. Probably no form of recrea tion except the movies has grown more rapidly in recent years.
F. Bathing, Swimming, Boating, Canoeing, and Yachting.—The water exerts a great attraction upon mankind not only because of its beauty, but because it usually makes the air cool and invigorating in hot weather. Hence any form of recreation that takes people into the water or out upon it is peculiarly desirable. All the water sports are healthful, but those which require active exercise are especially so. Swimming is said to exercise the body more fully and beneficially than almost any other form of exercise. The fascination of the water sports, joined with the beauty of the scenery and the healthfulness of the air have a deep effect upon the value of land. On almost every coast, provided it has the least claim to beauty, the value of the coastal strip is much greater than that of the land even a few hundred yards back. In regions like New England, these values rise to such an extent that there are places where the land bordering the shore has a value of perhaps $20,000 per acre, while similar land no more than half a mile away may be worth only a few hundred, that is, the price cf good farmland with an assured sum mer market.
G. Racing and Athletic Contests.—Racing of all kinds on land and water, with horses, automobiles, bicycles, canoes, shells, yachts, ice boats, and airplanes, or on foot, or with skates, skis or snowshoes, is like golf and tennis in being the sport of a comparatively few. Yet when
all forms of racing and of other individual contests like jumping and putting the shot are taken together, they play quite a part in the life and business of the country.
The Increasing Use of Summer and Winter consider able percentage of the people of the United States take a vacation each summer and a smaller number take vacations in winter. Some spend the vacation at home and enjoy local sports, gardening, walking, or simply resting, but a great number go away to places especially adapted to vacations. Any geographical condition which causes a region to have unusually good air, good scenery, or facilities for sport and recrea tion may cause it to become a resort. The most frequented resorts are probably those of the Atlantic coast from New Jersey to Maine. Along some parts of the shore, such as the coast of Connecticut, summer houses form an almost continuous line for mile after mile, and are often several rows deep parallel to the beach. Some of the most famous winter resorts are on the coasts of Florida and southern California. It is claimed that about 750,000 people visit Florida each year, and spend about $30,000,000. Such figures are mere estimates, but there is no doubt as to the magnitude of the tourist business. Among inland resorts the rugged parts of New England and New York, especially the White Mountains and Adirondacks, take the lead, partly because glaciation has added to their rough beauty by creating many small lakes, but also because they lie near the most densely populated parts of the country. Simi lar but less rugged glaciated country in northern Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Canada, provides many attractive but less frequented resorts. So, too, do the South ern Appalachians, but there the variety of scenery is less because of the absence of glaciation, and the climate is especially adapted to winter re sorts such as Asheville, North Carolina, and Hot Springs, Virginia. The grandest scenery of the United States is found in the Rockies and among the moun tains of the Pacific coast. Even though those regions are far from the main bulk of the population they attract more people every year. Colorado claims that in 1921 about 275,000 people spent their summer vacations there.
The policy of the government in setting aside national parks and forests all over the country greatly adds to the possibilities of pleasant and inexpensive vacations away from the cities in the heart of the woods and mountains, and among the loveliest of lakes and rivers. The total area of the parks and forests is now three times that of New England, and they are located in 22 states and territories. In practically all of these anyone who will obey the regulations can camp or erect some kind of a shelter almost without expense. In California during 1921 nearly 40,000 people camped in the open in the Yosemite National Park alone.