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Bird - Lore 



state, have met with defeat, not in an open 

 and manly combat, but by the use of 

 political influences. The action of the 

 majority of the present Assembly legalizes, 

 for another year, the traffic by the milli- 

 ners in property that belongs to the state, 

 property that is absolutely essential for 

 successful agriculture and forestry. 



According to the census of 1900, there 

 were in New York State 226,720 farms, 

 with an acreage of 22,648,129, of which 

 68.9 per cent was under cultivation; the 

 balance, 7,048,123 acres, is probably 

 largely forest growth. The total value of 

 the cultivated farm and forest lands, 

 without buildings, is $551,174,220. The 

 value of the products for one year (1899) 

 is given as $245,270,600. These tremend- 

 ous interests were ignored by the majority 

 of the Assembly in favor of the millinery 

 dealers, whose combined capital in New 

 York State only amounts to $11,805,903 

 (census 1900). Legislation of this char- 

 acter is a menace to the State. The Com- 

 monwealth itself owns over 1,500,000 

 acres of land devoted to forests, and the 

 Audubon Society believes that the Forest 

 Commission is not doing its full duty if it 

 does not insist upon proper legal protection 

 for the birds which are essential for the 

 preservation of the trees. The voters of 

 the state at the ne.xt election should insist 

 that all legislative candidates must define 

 their position in respect to bird-protection. 

 A representative who will not legislate 

 to protect such vast interests as those 

 outlined above is not worthy of the 

 suffrages of his constituents. 



Spring Wild Fowl Shooting. — The 

 usual annual attempt was made in the 

 New York Legislature this year to repeal 

 the anti-spring shooting wild fowl law, 

 better known as the Brown Law. Un- 

 fortunately, the chairman of the Assembly 

 Committee was from the First Suffolk 

 District, Long Island. Notwithstanding 

 all the protests of the Audubon Society, 

 as well as of all decent sportsmen, Chair- 

 man Lupton railroaded the bill through 

 his committee without giving any hearing 

 upon it. Fortunately, the bill was defeated. 

 A similar liill to permit spring shooting 



on Cayuga and Seneca lakes was also 

 defeated. 



ASSEMBLYM.^N J.AMES .\. FrANCIS.— 



The Audubon Society of New York State, 

 as well as all other organizations that are 

 interested in the preservation of birds and 

 game, not only in this commonwealth, but 

 throughout the country at large, are under 

 the deepest obligations to Assemblyman 

 Francis for the splendid fight he made to 

 pass Assembly Bill No. 65, known as the 

 Audubon Bill. Mr. Francis used every 

 possible legitimate effort to pass this bill, 

 and, under ordinary circumstances, would 

 have been successful; but, the e.xtraordi- 

 nary conditions prevailing in Albany dur 

 ing the last session, made it impossible. 

 However, Assemblyman Francis is 

 entitled to the same credit and thanks 

 that would have been given him had the 

 Audubon Bill become a law, and they 

 are hereby extended to him. Such high 

 civic work as his deserves prompt recog- 

 nition, and the Audubon Society certainly 

 hopes that Assemblyman Francis will be 

 in Albany at the next session of the legis- 

 lature, in order to continue the fight for 

 bird preservation which has only just 

 begun. — WiLLi.AM Dutcher. 



Legislation in New England 



The number of bills adverse to bird- 

 protection that have been introduced into 

 the legislative assemblies of New England 

 during the sessions just closed, or soon to 

 close, exceeds that of any year within my 

 experience. It would be impossible even 

 to list the bills relating to the subject in 

 the space allotted to this report. 



Evidently, the destructionists are trying 

 hard to regain their lost ground. But, in 

 the main, their ctTorts have been defeated, 

 and progress in bird-protection has been 

 made. 



Vermont. — The Committee on Fish- 

 eries and Game selected from the Vermont 

 .\ssembly, which met in the fall of 1908, 

 proved to be generally in accord with the 

 spirit of bird- and game-protection. The 

 .Senate Chairman of the committee, Hon. 

 Edward Orvis, liad niurli intluencc and 



