136 
FOREST AND STREAM 
A WEEKLY JOURNAL, 
Devoted to Field and Aquatic Sports, Practical Natural History, 
Fish Culture, the Protection op Game,Preservation op Forests, 
and the Inculcation in Men and Women op a healthy interest 
in Out door Recreation and Study : 
PUBLISHED BY 
Rarest mid jffnblizhing (^amgmpj, 
103 FULTON STREET, NEW YORK, 
and 125 SOUTH THIRD STREET, PHILADELPHIA. 
Terms, Five Dollars a Year, Strictly in Advance. 
A discount of twenty per cent, for five copies and upwards. Any person 
sending ns two subscriptions and Ten Dollars will receive a copy of 
Hallock’s “ Fishing Tourist,” postage free. 
Advertising Rates. 
In regular advertising columns, nonpareil type, 121ines to the inch, 25 
cents per line. Advertisements on outside page, 40 cents per line. Reading 
notices, 50 cents per line. Advertisements in double column 25 per cent, 
extra. Where advertisements are inserted over 1 month, a discount of 
10 per cent, will be made; over three months, 20 per cent; over six 
months, 30 per cent. 
NEW YORK, THURSDAY, APRIL 9, 1874. 
To Correspondents. 
-♦- • 
All communications whatever, whether relating to business or literary 
jorrespondence, must be addressed to The Forest and Stream Pub¬ 
lishing Company. Personal or private letters of course excepted. 
All communications intended for publication must be accompanied with 
real name, as a guaranty of good faith. Names will not be published if 
objection be made. No anonymous contributions will be regarded. 
Articles relating to any topic within the scope of this paper are solicited. 
We cannot promise to return rejected manuscripts. 
Secretaries of Clubs and Associations are urged to favor us with brief 
notes of their movements and transactions, as it is the aim of this paper 
to become a medium of useful and reliable information between gentle¬ 
men sportsmen from one end of the country to the other ; and they will 
find our columns a desirable medium for advertising announcements. 
The Publishers of Forest and Stream aim to merit and secure the 
patronage and countenance of that portion of the community whose re¬ 
fined intelligence enables them to properly appreciate and enjoy all that 
is beautiful in Nature. It will pander to no depraved tastes, nor pervert 
the legitimate sports of land and water to those base uses which always 
tend to make them unpopular with the virtuous and good. No advertise¬ 
ment or business notice of an immoral character will be received on any 
terms ; and nothing will be admitted to any department o the paper that 
may not be read with propriety in the home circle. 
We cannot be responsible for the dereliction of the mail service, if 
money remitted to us is lost. 
Advertisements should be sent in by Saturday of each week, if possible. 
CHARLES HALLOCK, Managing Editor. 
WILLIAM C. HARRIS, Business Manager. 
REMOVAL. 
The office of Forest and Stream will be removed early 
in April to the Iron Building, No. 17 Chatham Street, lately 
occupied by the Staats Zeitung newspaper, which we have 
leased for a period of years. This splendid location in 
Printing House Square we shall occupy jointly with our 
popular daily contemporary the Evening Mail. 
FIELD SPORTSMEN’S CLUBS-A PLAN 
FOR DOG FIELD TRIALS. 
T HE dates fixed for the meetings of the various sports¬ 
men’s conventions throughout the United States is 
fast approaching. In order to afford the members of the 
clubs a new and novel recreation where the skill of the man 
and instinct of the dog may be brought out to the utmost 
perfection, and would moreover tend to improve the breeds 
of their animals, and give useful information as well as 
amusement, we offer the following suggestions to the shoot¬ 
ing clubs of America. 
As field trials for pointers and setters are attracting univer¬ 
sal attention in almost all the States, and especially in the 
■Western country, it would be well to offer some directions, 
which may be found of service in facilitating the manage¬ 
ment of field trials by the sportsmen’s clubs. As the 
date of the annual conventions has, we believe, been 
arranged for this year, in the months of May and June, a 
close season for all game birds, therefore it is imprac¬ 
ticable for trials this season. The clubs, however, could 
without difficulty have a primary field trial in the fall, and 
the date of the annual conventions next year be altered to 
the autumn. 
1st. The club proposing to engage in an informal dog 
trial, the object being to decide which is the best field dog 
or dogs in the club,- the club should first issue a letter to 
all its members, stating that any gentlemen owners of 
pointers or setters wishing to enter their dog or dogs at a 
field trial, can do so for a small entrance fee, which fee ought 
be sufficient to cover the expenses of the trial. 
2d. Supposing there should be a number of entries, say 
as many as eight, it would be almost an impossibility to 
test all these animals at one and the same time, owing to 
the known scarcity of game birds in the majority of the sec¬ 
tions of the country where associations - of the kind exist, 
and besides judges, referee, owner, or worker would of 
course have to follow the dogs and record their action, 
Therefore let the names of the animals be written on a 
piece of paper and placed in a wheel and drawn therefrom 
by the secretary of the club by couples,*the first two names 
drawn out to be tried in the field together, and so on until 
there are four winners left. Then repeat the same with 
these four dogs’ names, and let two be drawn the same as 
before, or if thought better, by a mutual agreement of own¬ 
ers. The winners of this trial could then be tested at the 
final issue and the animal which showed the best nose, 
style, pace, breaking, and working on trailing game, (as he 
would of necessity have beaten all the other dogs indirect¬ 
ly,) might fairly be considered the representative dog of the j 
club, and the best public performer in the field. j 
3d. It is presumed that many of the animals entered in I 
individual club trials, would not take more than half an \ 
hour or so to test their marks of merit over game, and a j 
rule might be enforced that any dog not making 50 per 
cent, of the nominal or arbitrary standard, namely 100 r 
points, could be withdrawn or ruled out so as to save time, j 
In this way most of the so-called “remarkable animals” \ 
would have a fair opportunity given them of having their 
excellence thoroughly tested. 
4th. Where a member of a club would wish to hunt his 
brace of dogs against another member’s couple, then the 
mark of merit called “backing” would be brought out. It 
is conceded that “backing,” even when seen by persons in¬ 
different to field sports, is one of the most beautiful and in¬ 
teresting sights, especially tending show in its best light all 
the finer qualities and instincts of a thoroughbred dog. 
5th. When the successful animals of the different clubs 
have been judged, and the stakes awarded to the winning 
dog, then the clubs should send, so to speak, dog-delegates 
to represent their club at the annual Sportmens’ Conven¬ 
tion held in the State. 
6th. These trials having been all performed successfully, 
we would then suggest a Grand State Field Trial of all the 
dogs belonging to the clubs represented. The entrance fee 
could be enlarged, and the money derived from these fees 
should first be disbursed for the expenses of the trials, and 
the remainder would be sufficient to purchase a handsome 
silver collar, as the winning dog beyond all doubt would be 
the best public performer in the State. These methods of 
testing the superiority of breed and endurance would add 
considerable interest and eclat to the already successful 
meetings of State Sportsmens’ Conventions. 
7th. Then to carry the trials still farther we could have 
State trials, to determine the best and staunchest dog of the 
different States, and so in like manner arrive at the rather 
now undetermined conclusion of which is the best pointer 
and setter in the United States? 
8th. We think two judges and a referee would be suffi¬ 
cient to carry out the above forms. The judges should be 
selected by a ballot of members of the club, those not hav¬ 
ing any animals on trial, but the referee should always be 
appointed by the owners of the dogs entered for the trial. 
9th. Any dogs that the judges wish or demand to see 
hunt again, should be called out and tried, and the final 
issue left solely in the hands of the arbitrators. For laws for 
the use of judges and referee, see Forest and Stream, 
p»age 410. Appended are the 
POINTS POR POINTERS. 
Name 
of 
Dog. 
O 
m 
o 
Pace 
and style 
of 
Hunting. 
Breaking. 
Pointing 
(style and 
steadiness 
in.l 
Backing. 
Drawing 
on Game 
or Roading. 
Total. 
Forest. 
30 
20 
20 
15 
10 
5 | 
100 
POINTS POR SETTERS. 
Name 
of 
Dog. 
O 
GQ 
O 
7\ 
Pace 
and style 
of 
Hunting. 
Breaking. 
Pointing 
(style and 
steadiness 
in.) 
Backing. 
Retrieving. 
Drawing 
on 
Game 
or 
Roading. 
Total. 
Stream. 
30 | 
15 
15 
10 
10 
15 
5 
100 
In conclusion, whenever such contests are inaugurated, field 
sportsmen would find in a few years that dog trials, such as 
we have described, if properly managed and conducted by 
gentlemen, would excite the liveliest spirit of rivalry and 
emulation among all classes, and would be quite as popular 
as any of those out-door public exhibitions which now draw 
such large assemblages of people. Moreover, they would 
tend in every way to elevate the taste and to make our 
citizens more familiar with those subjects, which induce a 
proper zest for manly sports which are without a single 
demoralizing effect. 
-- 
SHAD IN OHIO RIVERS. 
I N the first report of the new Commissioners of Fisheries 
for Ohio, namely, that for 1873, a synopsis of which 
has already been printed in this journal, reference is made 
to the introduction of shad. The Commissioners think 
that any experiment having for its object their ultimate 
domestication and acclimatization in the waters of Ohio, 
will result in disappointment, in view of the fact that there 
is no record of shad culture being successful when they are 
deprived of access to the salt water. They also remark 
that “although fish are known to traverse great distances, 
yet it is exceedingly doubtful whether they would traverse 
the distance from any one of the tributaries of the Ohio 
down to the Gulf of Mexico, and then in a few months re¬ 
turn to these tributaries to spawn.” 
We regret to see that the question is thus begged, of the 
availability of shad for the waters of Ohio; as there is every 
reason to believe that this experiment will succeed, if tried 
on a proper scales As fish are in constant motion all the 
time, whether in the ocean or the rivers, there is no 
cular reason why the journey should be very dilfi 
them; and as it is a well established fact that the shad 11 10 
up the Yang-tse-Kiang in China, to a distance of over 8 Or S 
miles, where they are caught and used as food it w , 
seem that there can be no particular difficulty in then- 
ting to any accessible tributary of the Ohio, from the G?]f 
and still less difficulty would there be in passing up p ' 
the lakes. Indeed, according to Dr. Goldsmith, one ofT 
the Commissioners of Vermont, a few shad have actu li 
been caught near Louisville; and Dr. Turner reports i\ ■ 
capture in the Wabash River. The shad, like the sal ^ 
seems to be influenced very little by distance in its travel!’ 
the short rivers and the longer within its area of distril + 
tion being equally well stocked, provided no obstruction! 
natural or artificial prevent. 
On the western coast salmon are known to go up to th 
headwaters of the l r ukon River, a distance of several thou 
sand miles, and almost as far on the Frazer and the Colum 
bia; and so far as we know, the only limit is some sort of 
impassable barrier. At the same time they abound in a stream 
extending only a few miles from the sea. 
We shall know in a few years whether shad can sustain 
themselves in the great lakes; but the fact that the food of 
the shad, as well as of the salmon in the ocean, consists in 
a great degree of a species of mysis , and other minute crus¬ 
taceans, and that the deep waters of the great lakes abound 
in this same mysis , renders it extremely probable that the 
experiment already made will be a success. It is at any 
rate worth trying, as but little may be lost should it fail- 
and if successful, a great deal would be gained.' It is a 
question whether, after all, the number of native and resident 
fishes in the fresh water stream can be increased so as to form 
an appreciable portion of the food of the State. Of course 
with a scanty population, this may readily be brought about; 
but with a State having the density of population of Ohio 
whatever be the success with the black bass and other fish 
we are greatly inclined to doubt whether they will ever he 
sold at four cents per pound, or even at twice this sum. 
The reason of this lies in the fact that a certain amount of 
food is necessary for each fish, and as long as the food is in 
excess of the requirement, the number of fish will increase; 
but after a time a balance will be reached, and the fish 
will cease to grow as rapidly, or else they will devour each 
other in greater proportion and thus the increase he pre- 
vented. 
When we bear in mind the fact that according to certain 
estimates, it requires twenty pounds of animal food to 
make one pound of fish, we may realize the difficulties in 
the way of an indefinite increase in the stock of native or 
resident animal feeding fish in the interior waters. With 
the anadromous fish, however, as in the case of the salmon 
or shad, the case is entirely different. All that the rivers 
furnish to them is a passage way, a suitable spawning 
ground and tlie needed sustenance for the young fish while I 
still very minute, these going hack to the ocean after a 
short interval, (the young shad remaining in the fresh 
water a few months only, and the salmon about a year,) 
where they reside for about three years, and in which they 
find all the food that they require. They then return to 
the point from which they started, fully grown; and as the 
old fish are believed never to feed, under any circumstances 
while in the rivers, there is apparently, no limit to the 
numbers that can be introduced by judicious action. Such 
at least is the hypothesis that has much to recommend it, 
and it will not do to assume that anything in this direction 
is impracticable when the entire history of fish culture gives 
us so many reasons to the contrary. 
Protective Laws for Game and Fish. Our attentive 
friends in the Legislature of this and other States sen us 
constantly drafts of bills, passed and under discussion, P r 
viding for the protection of fish and game in specifiec oca 
ities to be made exceptional to the provisions of the gene 
State law, until they have accumulated to a const era 
pile. It is useless to take notice of them or print t eDb 
they only confuse the conscientious angler who is an 
to conform to statutes, and at the same time operate f 
to defeat all general and sumptuary statutes, by & 1V1 
disposed persons a dozen loop-holes of escape lom 
penalties. Any one can very reasonably plead ignora' 
the law, when there is a petty enactment for everyse 
lake, pond, and stream in the State, and when e ^ 
freeholder cannot tell what particular law governs J 
private preserve. We trust to see some meas ^f s ight,J 
adopted that will sweep this local legislation ou ^ ! 
and that a wholesome law for each State, and a p a ^ 
operative laws for all the States, will be ^ raII ! e ’ L} c tionJ 
observed, and universally extolled,. If specia r ® ^ 
are required to extend close time or secure P ^ e ;^. 
as to certain waters or districts, the duty s h° 11 j io3e pet- 
posed upon the legislatures, but be assumed } aD( | 
sons most immediately interested in the P 1 .* 3 ®. 61 or 0 j 
propagation desired, either through Associa tP j 
viduals. 
Salmon River Leases.— We call especial a ^ gg j 0 oef 
the advertisement this week of Canadian ^-0* 
Whitcher, designating the names and rates ^iit 
salmon rivers in the Dominion that are to /tnMers, 
formation given is of the utmost importance o _ * oWJl goP 
we need not hesitate to say, was furnished a ^ 
gestion and urgent solicitation. We shall p lin 
to week such information relative to Canadian r ’ 
and anglers, as will be most useful to ©>ir rea 
