551 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
that the dogs whose owners are absent are regularly ex¬ 
ercised. 
The next show to be held is that at St. Louis, for which 
preparations are being made on an extensive scale. Oc¬ 
curring as it does at the time of the State Fair, when 
almost the population of the State is assembled, it can 
hardly fail of being a financial success, particularly as it 
is in the hands of the energetic gentlemen comprising the 
St. Louis Kennel Club. With the immense number of dogs 
in the West to draw from, it should equal in magnitude 
any show yet held. There is scene talk of a show in 
Washington, and there will undoubtedly he one in Pitts¬ 
burg. Whether Baltimore, Philadelphia or Boston will 
have shows next spring, we are not informed. We pre¬ 
sume that the latter two cities will have them notwith¬ 
standing that the last were not financial successes in 
either. New York will have its fourth annual show 
under the auspices of the Westminster Kennel Club, and 
no efforts will be spared to make it more successful and 
attractive than any of its predecessors. 
Forest and Stream among the Clergymen.— It was 
the Rev , J. Hyatt Smith (we think), who was once pleased 
to say in his pulpit, that he always prepared himself for 
the duties of the Sabbath by reading Forest and Stream 
on Saturday nights. Its influence was quieting to the 
nerves and stimulating to the mind. He went into his 
pulpit-work with new ideas and renewed vim, but steady 
on his pins, pulsating as evenly as the pendulum of a 
clock. We have a great many clergymen who are read¬ 
ers of this journal, and some who are constant contribu¬ 
tors. Occasionally one of them will break loose in a fit 
of enthusiasm, inspired by rhetorical habit, we suppose, 
and tell us how much lie thinks of the paper. A great 
many people of other callings do this too, and do it con¬ 
stantly: but we seldom allow our vanity to parade all 
these pleasant compliments before the public. Sometimes 
we do, as for instance, the following letter. It is writ¬ 
ten by a Pennsylvania clergyman, and is equal to a bene¬ 
diction : — 
Editor Forest and Streavi :— 
Forest and Stream came to me on Friday morning in 
the freshness and beauty which new type alone can im¬ 
part. May I be allowed to present mv congratulations 
upon this improvement. It is a clear indication of the 
course which has always been pursued by your paper, 
namely, to give its readers the best. 
Forest and Stream and Rod and Gun has always been 
a welcome visitor. In my quiet home in Pennsylvania, 
on the plains and in the mountains of Colorado, and 
amidst the shadows of the Sierras of California, your 
paper has been more anxiously looked for than a other. 
It has always contained something to amuse, something 
to entertain, something to instruct. I have never opened 
its pages and been disappointed. Since becoming a reader 
my interest in the various branches of natural his ton' has 
been greatly quickened and deepened. Indeed, I may say 
that so far as some branches are concerned, my interest 
in them has been created by reading Forest and Stream. 
For this I am under a lasting debt of gratitude to you, 
and I wish to express my sense of obligation. 
Then, too, I must not omit to say how much pleasure I 
have derived from the lighter parts of your paper, the ar¬ 
ticles upon the use of rod and gun, the various accounts 
of the experiences of others, the valuable hints, suggest¬ 
ions and instructions. Long years ago when a boy, the 
greatest 1 ' fun ” I could have was to carry my gun through 
the fields and meadows, or to quietly drop a fly or worm 
into the rushing stream that ran near the old home. 
Then came the more serious duties of an active life with 
all its cares and responsibilities, which left little time for 
the recreations and enjoyments of my more youthful 
days. But the fire was there, only hidden for a time : 
shut out from sight by what seemed more imperative, the 
love of these sports was still burning warm in my heart, 
and it only needed the advent of Forest and Stream to 
fan it into a bright blaze. For me, the coming of your 
paper has been indeed • * Juvenfcus Redivivus. ” And for this 
too, I must thank you; thank you, not only for the pleas¬ 
ure I have had in renewing the pleasures of my earlier 
days, but for the physical benefit I have received in the 
pursuit of these pleasures. 
The thanks of all honest and true sportsmen should he 
yours for the steady, persevering effort you are making, 
not only elevate the tone of the sportsman’s literature, 
hut of the sportsman himself. Go on in this direction as 
you have been going, cut out and reject all that is coarse 
and lowering, publish only that which is pure and eleva¬ 
ting, In the words of a former correspondent. ■ • Leave 
out the whiskey,” discountenance its use, or rather its 
abuse as you have so often done, and if you shall, even ac¬ 
complish nothing else than to teach your readers that a 
bottle is not a necessary accompaniment of a hunting or 
fishing trip, your labors will not have been in vain—you 
will have accomplished a glorious work. 
Heartily wishing you prosperity in your great work, I 
am, Yours very sincerely" C, B, 
July, mh, 1870. 
A physician up in northern New York who is of a rather 
practical turn of mind (bless him) sends us $4, and the ac¬ 
companying note. We wish all our subscribers would 
follow his beneficent example : then we would be happy 
indeed; — 
Keeseville, July 2d. 
You say in your editorial “ Nothing makes an editor so 
happy as a new set of type, especially if it be paid for ”— 
therefore I send my mite in the draft enclosed for another 
year’s subscription to add my humble share to make you 
happy—and I trust that every subscriber will do the same 
—and then you will still be happier, J. R. R. 
GAME PROTECTION. 
Those Discrepancies. —Editor Forest and Streavi :— 
Why will Forest and Stream persist in making August 
an open month for woodcock in Vermont ? An act, passed 
by the Vermont legislature of 1878, makes the close time 
for woodcock from March 1st to September 1st. Till the 
passage of this act the close season ended with July. For 
this year and next at least, as our legislative sessions are 
biennial, there will be no game shooting of any kind be¬ 
tween May 1st and Septenibev 1st, Please make a note of 
this. . R, E. Robinson, 
Ferrisburgh, Yt., Aug 2d. 
Remarks.— It is quite beyond our power to answer the co¬ 
nundrum of our attentive correspondent, contained in the 
first sentence of his note. We would rather watch the ther¬ 
mometers when on the rampage, or a weather-cock in 
March, than to attempt to follow the changes of tho game 
la ws. Three or four different times have we attempted to 
prepare a correct table of close seasons,but have never been 
so fortunate as tojsucceed. In our last effort, we obtain¬ 
ed an official copy of the game la ws of each State, and had 
them verified over the name and seal of each Secretary 
of State; but before we could get them printed, the acts 
had been tinkered again at a new session of the legisla¬ 
ture, and we were all at fault, as before. Until we sim¬ 
plify our game laws and make them uniform, we have 
little hope of preventing some shooting out of season. 
We depend now chiefly upon the honor of sportsmen and 
upon their good sense not to shoot at unseasonable game: 
and we are glad to know that so little shooting is done, 
comparatively speaking. When all people, farmers and 
shooters together, can comprehend and become convinced 
that it is unwise and wasteful to destroy game out of sea¬ 
son, they will abstain, and thereby voluntarily become 
conservators of game, without regard to discrepancies 
which may exist in the letter of the law, or in the codes 
of various States. Having become educated or self-taught 
to know where the laws are defective or onerous, they 
will unanimously rise up soon, and with one voice de¬ 
mand that they be made tight. We are waiting patiently 
for that time to come. 
Meanwhile we all recognize the necessity of an observ¬ 
ance of the laws as they exist, and we hope that farmers 
owniug land where game is sought will do all they can 
to keep off violators of the law, and by so much aid in 
preserving the game. If they choose to forbid shooting 
on their premises in open season, that is their own per¬ 
sonal affair. The only point we make is this: If all 
farmers would become self-constituted custodians of the 
game upon their own premises during the close season, 
there would be very little territory left which would be 
called public, or which any one could claim the right to 
shoot over without permission. And thus, with every 
farmer a constable and prosecutor, there would be very 
little illegitimate shooting, and consequent less destruc¬ 
tion of game. We believe that if sportsmen were suffi¬ 
ciently considerate of farmers’ prerogatives, the two 
classes would soon become friends ; and thus a common 
feeling and a common interest would induce them to 
co-operate together for mutual benefit, rather than strug¬ 
gle and antagonize for personal selfish ends, in and out of 
the legislatures. We conceive that the chief reason why 
the laws are at variance, is because of the hostile attitude 
of farmers and sportsmen to each other, and partly to the 
mean selfishness of cliques to which another correspond¬ 
ent refers at some length in his letter to-day. Gradually, 
but surely, the laws are becoming unified, arid this 
affords us gratification; but so long as there are a dozen 
different fence times for woodcock, grouse, and all other 
games throughout the United States, we shall not cease 
to hear of loud and indignant and reasonable complaints. 
It affords us great delight to know that. Vermont is one of 
the first (perhaps the first) of all the States to make 
the open time on game of all kinds whatever, to begin on 
September 1st. Now let all the other States rally around 
Vermont. It is a bright and growing nucleus of van¬ 
tage. ^ ^ _ 
New York. —The Watertown (N. Y r .) Dispatch is wak¬ 
ing up its readers to the propriety of providing against the 
depletion of the St. Lawrence fishing grounds. The num¬ 
ber of anglers and visitors to the popular resorts of that 
river is annually increasing, and a correspondingly large 
catch is each year recorded. To begin restocking opera ¬ 
tions now would be a sensible move. 
California State Sportsman’s Convention.—T here 
is talk of holding a grand State sportsmen’s conven¬ 
tion in San Francisco, some time during the coming Fall. 
California musters a large force of armed men. If any 
fair proportion of them gather, there will be abundant 
material for a rousing time, 
The Nova Scotia Game Laws.— Many changes were 
made in the game laws at last session of the legislature. 
Amongst others, woodcock shooting commenced 1st of 
August, instead of 1st September : partridge shootiug 1st 
October as formerly; hares and rabbits cannot be shot 
before the 1st October, instead of 1st September as last 
last year. The season for shooting moose and caribou 
will commence on the loth September instead of 1st Oc¬ 
tober, closing 31st January, The price of game licenses 
for non-residents has been increased to fifty dollars. 
GAME LAWS AND PROTECTIVE CLUBS. 
Editor Forest and Stream : 
Never before in the annals of sporting baa there been 
so great cause for wrangling over so-called “gamelaws” 
as at present. The ignorant theories which have from 
time to time been ordered printed as a guide for respect¬ 
able and intelligent citizens are indeed too much of an 
imposition for a freeman. 
Has tire Republic come to such a crisis that one State— 
behind the age in every acquirement except fever and 
ague and monstrous blood-suckers—declares its right to 
prevent native-born citizens from the enjoyment of con¬ 
stitutional rights? 
Has this ago turned out such learned ornithologists as 
those who have taken the liberty of acquainting us with 
their (conceited) opinion that a woodcock is such a bird 
in a certain season in one county, and something else in 
another county, though in the same season and State '! 
Has any legislative body the right (though not question¬ 
ing at all the power) to foist through the Legislature a 
political law for themselves and another one for the guid¬ 
ance and alleged welfare of their neighbors ? Whatever 
the answer, the foregoing is nevertheless true. 
We are emphatically informed that the law of New 
Jersey prohibits a gentleman from any other State from 
pursuing a lawful pastime, unless he, as I understand the 
matter and have been told, becomes a member of the 
club of that State. 
Everyone, who has ever made even causal observations 
upon the habits of birds in general, knows very well — in 
fact better than they can ho told—that woodcock do not 
obtain their full growth in the month of July: and yet 
our Jersey brethren, with an aim to protect the game of 
their confines, exclude non-residents, and then slaughter 
half-fledged birds on July 4th. 
1 question the harmony of such movements, since 1 
am ‘confident that the only way (in which game is to 
be preserved islto’protect it until it gains sufficient 
strength to wage battle with the sportsman, and he give 
the bn-d fair play ; and if the game be not plentiful, limit 
the number for a day's shoot, and if they still decrease, 
prohibit shooting altogether for a term’of years. Cer¬ 
tainly no such tomfoolery as now exists will benefit 
aught in the least, except the craving of a selfish spirit, 
Note the law: 
“CHAPTER CLXXXIV. 
“ An act for the protection of game and game fish. 
“1. Be it enactedhy the Senate and General Assembly of the 
State of New Jersey, That from and after the passage- of this act, 
no person or persons non-residents of this State, shall hill, destroy, 
hunt or take any doe, buck, fawn or any sort of deer whatsoever, 
or shall kill, destroy, hunt or take any purtridge, moor fowl, ruffed 
grouse, quail, woodooek, Wilson or gray snipe, reed bird, rail bird 
or rabbit, at any time, or shall catch any speckled brook trout, or 
speckled river trout, black bass or salmon, at anv time in this 
State, without complying with the by-laws of the game prntecli ve 
societies, organized or to be organized under the laws of this State. 
And all aots and parts of acts inconsistent, with this act are here¬ 
by repealed; provided, that nothing in this act shall prevent resi¬ 
dents of this State from taking game or fish, subject to the existing 
laws of this State. 
“4. And be it. enacted. That this act shall be a public act and 
shall take effect immediately. 
" Approved April 4,1878." 
From a few other paragraphs I infer that the “non¬ 
resident ” must be an acknowledged member of some . 
New Jersey club. New Jersey may ere long limit the 
number of applications for membership, and 1 have yet 
to see the day when a national decree will prohibit any 
one whomsoever from rambling ad libitum into’the wilds 
of an adjoining State for the enjoyment of. as I have 
already said, a lawful pastime. 
Some one too, at Albany, thought he never did so wise 
an act as when he influenced the exception of the coun¬ 
ties of Kings, Queens and Suffolk (Long Island, for short) ‘ 
to tho game laws. Confident am I, though I may lack 
the means for immediate proof, that such an amendment 
was certainly counseled for the benefit of a few, and not 
for the sporting fraternity at large. 
This, however, has been corrected of late, but if a 
sportsman wanders off to the “Wallkill.” where upon 
August 1st the law of the State of New York says he 
may shoot woodcock, he will have killed but one bird, 
when officers commissioned for preserving the peace will 
clutch him and drag him off to Middletown to pay a fine 
of twenty-five dollars for killing birds out of season, as 
Orange county has a law of its own, which prohibits said 
shooting until the first of September! Since the hour 
has not yet arrived when sporting clubs have a word in 
legislative matters, their members have no right to beg 
from Assemblymen partial rights to indulge in foolisS 
whims or to make the residents of one of the foremost 
cities in the Union an exception to the Game Act, simply 
because the utopian (paradise where their rambling plea¬ 
sures exist is, perchance, separated from the mainland. 
The proper time to shoot woodcock is the first of .Sep¬ 
tember. I am no authority myself other than observa¬ 
tion has taught me ; so my assertion is borrowed from 
the best sources and authorities ; and their judgment has 
precedence before that of any assemblyman who may 
have, through pecuniary influence, obtained a seat in the 
Legislature ; though it may not he altogether improbable 
that he was employed as a dry-goods clerk, or sold jalap 
for a livelihood previous to the attainment of his ’ emi¬ 
nence. 
Such men, entirely lacking jurisprudence, have their 
“ game acts ” prepared for them by incompetent and un¬ 
conscionable self-styled “sportsmen,” of which 1 must 
admit that New York and her neighbor's quagmire have 
an over-abundance. 
It was not long since, at a fashionable dinner given at 
the seaside (Coney Island), that an honorable of Brooklyn 
remarked that he could not see why the lake in Pros¬ 
pect Park ” could not be an efficacious medium for the 
breeding of “brook trout,” “The woods are full of 
them:" or, as “Tom Draw” would say. “Leastwise I 
guess there he over to Jarsey ways.” 
Harry Fenwood. 
We agree with our correspondent that (save in such par¬ 
ticular eases of newly introduced fishes, etc., as we have 
already stated in previous discussions of this question) 
county game regulations conflicting with the general law 
of tlie State, are unwarrantable and productive only of 
confusion. But, had our friend reflected upon the two 
New Jersey laws of which be complains he would have 
