Fm 17, 1894.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



137 



One of the oldest Adirondack preserves is Brandreth 

 Park. The following letter with regard to this park is 

 quoted on account of its general interest, though it does 

 not rightly come within the province of this article, which 

 deals with game propagation in inclosed parks: 



Sing Sing, N. Y., Dec. 26.— Editor Forest and Stream: 

 Brandreth Park (23,600 acres), Hamilton county, 1ST. Y., 

 has been preserved for twenty years. It has never been 

 stocked with game, but the deer have increased very con- 

 siderably, not only in our park, but in the regions adjoin- 

 ing. We estimate our present number at 400. We lost 

 last winter about 20 per cent, on account of the severity 

 of the weather, difficulty in procuring food and the 

 wolves that made their 'appearance last winter the first 

 that have been seen in over ten years. One was trapped 

 in November, and there is still a small pack in our vicin- 

 ity. Stray dogs were also very troublesome. 



The average number of deer killed by us annually has 

 been under twenty-five. We rarely use hounds and would 

 be glad to see a law prohibiting their use. There are a 

 few black bear, but it would be impossible to give an es- 

 timate of their number. We have a great many foxes, 

 which are very destructive to the ruffed and spruce grouse. 

 There are quite a number of the northern hare. 



We have stocked our waters twice with landlocked 

 salmon and speckled trout; the latter have done well and 

 improve the native trout, but we cannot give any report 

 of the former, as they have not been in the waters long 

 enough for a fair test. F, Brandreth. 



Mr. Vanderbilt's Asbeville Park. 



Mr. Austin Corbin's game preserve is said to have 

 cost him nearly half a million dollars. Dr. Webb's 

 Ne-ha-sa-ne Park must have cost nearly that figure, 

 and now Mr. George W. Vanderbilt has followed their 

 lead and bought up a domain in North Carolina, near 

 Asheville. His park is naturally well stocked with 

 native varieties of game, such as quail, pheasant, wood- 

 cock, deer, foxes, etc., and it is reported that he will soon 

 introduce the principal varieties of American big game, 

 and as much foreign game as seems desirable. It is not 

 possible at present to give any figures on the subject. 



Furlough Lake 



Besides those already mentioned there are a number of 

 important preserves comparatively near New York city. 

 Among these may be mentioned "the South Side Sports- 

 men's Club on Long Island, Blooming Grove Park in 

 eastern Pennsylvania, Mr. George Gould's Furlough Lake 

 Park and the State Park in the Catskills, Tuxedo, and the 

 Sterling Iron & Railway's park in Orange county, N. Y.; 

 the Liberty Club, near Meriden, Conn., Mr. Rutherford 

 Stuyvesant's park at Allamuchy, N. J., and Mr. Pierre 

 Loriliard, Jr.'s park at Jobstown, N. J. In most of the 

 parks named stocking has been confined to game birds 

 and fish and the common deer. There are one or two 

 exceptions, however. One of these is Mr. George J. 

 Gould's park at Furlough Lake in the western Catskills. 

 Following are some statistics of the varieties and num- 

 bers of animals in the park: 



New York, Dec. 23, 1893.— Editor Forest and Stream: 

 I send you herewith all the information I can collect 

 relative to the game in my park, requested in your letter. 



There are 28 Japanese green pheasants and 4 Japanese 

 ring-necked. I did not succeed in rearing young, as stock 

 was received too late in the season to get acquainted 

 with new quarters. 



There are 60 Belgian hares in stock and 135 in the 

 preserve. All are doing remarkably well, the game and 

 animals being in first-class shape. J. J. Ermynkeator. 



Tranquility Park. 



The following interesting information with regard *o 

 Mr. Rutherford Stuyvesant's Tranquillity Park, at Alla- 

 muchy, N. J., is contributed by Mr. C. W. Puffer, the 

 superintendent, who is an old Adirondack guide, and a 

 man of considerable experience with game animals and 

 birds: 



Allamuchy, N. J., Dec. 28, 1893.— Editor Forest and 

 Stream: Mr. Stuyvesant's park contains about 4,000 acres, 

 fenced with a close board fence aft. high and one barb 

 wire llin. above boards. The land in the" park is made up 

 of hills and swamps and some old, abandoned farms, and 

 have just completed an artificial pond of about 75 acres, 

 with 12ft. of water. I have just ordered from Caledonia 

 5,000 German brown or Yon Behr trout to stock it with, 

 and 1,000 shrimp. 



In 1890 Mr. Stuyvesant stocked the park with thirty Ad- 



Sill 



DEER IN TRANQUILITY PARK. 



Amateur Photo by Mr. J. J. Pierrepont. 



DEER IN TRANQUILITY PARK. 



Amateur Photo by Mr. J. J. Pierrepont. 



In regard to the elk received in 1889, they were kept in a 

 very small inclosure, and several of the "deaths occurred 

 shortly after their arrival, which I attribute to these con- 

 ditions, and also to the fact that we did not know how to 

 feed them. The deaths among the deer occurred last 

 winter when the snow was so deep they could not get 

 their natural feed, and my men fed them too heartily 

 with oats. George J. Gould. 



Furlough-Lodge, Dec. 18, 1893.— Mr. Geo. J. Gould 

 —Dear Sir: Replying to your communication from 

 Forest and Stream of the 11th ult., there were received 

 of elk on July 10. 1889, 8; December, 1891, 2 bulls and 3 

 cows; May, 1892, 2 cows and 1 bull; April, 1893, 28; 

 increase in 1892, 3; in 1893, 4. Total num ber positively 

 known to have died, 11. Total number of elk in preserve 

 to best of my knowledge, 35. I cannot give exact num- 

 ber of elk until they all come out of park. A number 

 were received iu very bad shape and there may possibly 

 be no more than I count, but I will not say so positively. 



Received of deer July 10, 1889, Rocky Mountain black- 

 tail, 2 does and 2 bucks. August, 1889. native deer (per- 

 centage of does in majority), 8. 1892, 1 buck deer. March, 

 1893, 1 buck deer and 2 does. April, 1893, 1 doe and 1 

 fawn. Number of deer positively known to have died 

 was 12. Number of deer in preserve to best of my 

 knowledge is 11. Increase of deer, positive, was 5. Park 

 thoroughly gone over to-day (Dec, |4j arid only 11 deer 



irondack deer and four blacktail or mule deer. The black- 

 tails are all dead. I don't think the climate is suitable for 

 them, as they all die in good condition. I made an esti- 

 mate this month of the number of deer now in the park 

 and put it at seventy-five or eighty— it is impossible to tell 

 exactly the number. 



Last spring we put in twenty elk— five bulls and fifteen 

 cows, from one to two years old. They had no young this 

 year, but think the cows will all have calves in the spring. 



We fed the elk hay when there was snow last winter. 

 The deer wintered without any feeding, and came out 

 well. We have not fed the elk anything as yet this winter, 

 as we have had no snow as yet. 



We have one bull buffalo with which we are trying the 

 experiment of crossing with some Galloway cows. We 

 think they will drop some calves in about two months, and 

 if it proves successful will let you know. We put in last 

 summer and fall seven beaver in the pond; two made their 

 escape and one died. The other four are doing well; have 

 quite a respectable house very well started. They are 

 building dams on the inlet to the lake and are cutting 

 timber. 



We have quite a plenty of mountain grouse in the 

 park, and are going to put in English pheasants in the 

 spring. C. W. Puffer, Supt. 



Tuxedo Park. 



Mr. James L. Breese has furnished the following infor- 

 mation with reference to Tuxedo: 



New York, Dec. 29, 1893.— Editor Forest and Stream: 

 "At present there are no game birds at Tuxedo Park ex- 

 cept the native ruffed grouse, and they seem to increase 

 every year, and offer good sport to any one who can tramp 

 over the rough hills and woods. When the park was first 

 opened I was chairman of game committee for about four 

 years, during which time we raised and turned out about 

 4,000 English pheasants, but discontinued it, as owing to 

 character of the country it was impossible to keep them 

 from straying. We also turned out three or four thousand 

 quail, but for the same reason as above, not having enough 

 open fields, we gave it up. We also tried wild turkey and 

 Guinea fowl, but had no success. The park at present is 

 well stocked with deer, but we are selling them as fast 

 as we can dispose of them." 



The Liberty Olub. 



Meriden, Conn., Jan. 15.— Editor Forest and Stream: 

 In answer to your inquiry regarding game birds found on 

 the preserve of the Liberty Club at Liberty Hill, Conn., I 

 find our common quail, partridge, woodcock, English 

 snipe, yellowlegs, wood and black duck and sometimes 

 mallard and sheldrake. Among the birds that have been 

 imported by the club are English pheasant and California 

 quail. 



The club are expecting to liberate about 500 Virginia 

 quail this spring, which will make nearly 3,000 that have 

 been imported since the club organized. 



Owing to the severity of last winter a good many flocks 

 were killed, but partridge seemed to be quite plentiful 

 last fall, and we have had a good winter for game in 

 Connecticut so far, so we are living in hopes of good 

 shooting next year. T. A. James. 



Sterling Park. 



New York, Dec. 12.— Editor Forest a*id Stream: Re- 

 plying to your favor of the 11th I beg to say that we have 

 not stocked the park of the Sterling Iron & Railway Co. 

 with any game, The game there is, therefore, the natural 

 game of the country, being partridge, woodcock, squir- 

 rels, etc. We have, however, stocked about eight miles 

 of our streams with 8,000 brook trout, which were put in 

 as yearlings in the fall of 199?, Macgrane Cose, 



State Park in the Catskills. 



The superintendent of the State forests informs us 

 through Mr. C. O. McCreedy, secretary of the Forestry 

 Commission, that there are fifty-three Virginia deer now 

 in the Catskill Park. Our correspondent A. N. Cheney 

 sends the accompanying account of how these animals 

 were captured in the Adirondacks. 



Catching Deer for a State Park. 



When I learned that my old friend Mr. Thomas Pow- 

 ers, Forester of the New York Forest Commission, was in 

 charge of the hunt to secure live deer for the State breed- 

 ing park m the Catskills, I knew that it would be well 

 worth my while to make an effort to see him and get from 

 him for Forest and Streak a detailed account of his 

 operations. 



Mr. Powers is a lumberman of wide experience in the 

 Adirondacks, having conducted some of the largest enter- 

 prises inaugurated in that region, and his familiarity with 

 the woods and his knowledge of woods life, has been 

 acquired by spending the years of his own eventful life 

 (except when he served in the Army during the civil war 

 and made an honorable record) in the wilderness of 

 northern New York. Not infrequently when one wishes 

 to pay a compliment to "a thoroughbred man" or "a royal 

 goodfellow," has the figurative expression been employed 

 that "He will take off his shirtto accommodate a friend." 

 I believe that Tom Powers would do this literally, for 

 that is the kind of man he is. 



The first attempt to catch deer for the park was made 

 on the Fulton chain of lakes and it was not successful, as 

 but one deer was captured. This was not under Tom 

 Powers's management, but he tells me that when he re- 

 ceived a letter from Col. Fox asking him to undertake the 

 task of capturing a lot of does, uninjured, he thought the 

 scheme bid fair to be a failure. ' 



However, orders are orders, and he went to Indian Lake, 

 a region that I have already written about in Forest and 

 Stream, and with a guide looked the ground over The 

 guide started a dog and";Tom watched on an island 'in the 

 lake. The first deer that came in was a big buck, and he 

 was a long way off, but Tom opened on him with his 

 Winchester with little hope of hitting him, and at the 

 eleventh shot killed him. After a time a doe was driven 

 into the water and Tom set out in a skiff to lasso it. He 

 could row up to the deer, but she would dodge the noose 

 at every throw, and then it was found that a skiff was not 

 the kind of craft to take a live deer into unaided. Finally 

 a man rowed out to him with the second boat and the 

 deer was secured and taken to a barn. Strange to say 

 the treatment the deer were subjected to in making the 

 captures did not frighten them, as one would suppose, for 

 they would feed from the hands of their captors the same 

 day that they were put in the barn. 



The first capture proved that different arrangements 

 must be made in the future. A long-handled withe was 

 cut with two prongs, and these prongs were twisted until 

 flexible and the ends fastened together, making a fairlv 

 stift loop at the end of a long handle. A flat-bottomed 

 scow was also provided, and when a doe was driven to 

 water a man in a light skiff would overtake the deer, put 

 the withe over her head and turn the handle until the 

 loop was of proper size to secure the deer, but not tight 

 enough to choke her, and that she would be held until the 

 scow could come up and she was lifted into it and her feet 



DEER IN -TRANQUILITY PARK. 



Amateur Photo by Mr. J. J. Pierrepont. 



tied as one would tie a sheep. Then she was hurried awav 

 to the barn and released. J 



On one occasion the man in the skiff withed a big doe 

 and the scow did not come to his assistance The lake 

 was rough, the deer strong, and the boat cranky so there 

 was a fair prospect that the man would be dumped into 

 the water and the doe would escape. He had an anchor 

 stone and anchor rope in the boat, and he fastened the 

 rope to the withe and dropped the stone overboard and 

 there the deer was anchored. She swam around as far as 

 her tether would permit until the scow arrived, when she 

 was taken aboard out of the water. Another doe when 

 cutoif by the skifl- did not ttirn from her course but 

 dived fairly and squarely under the skiff. She must have 

 gone deep, for she came up some distance beyond and on 

 the other side of the boat, with her head covered with 

 grass from the bottom of the lake. This was shaken off 

 as a swimmer shakes the water from his eyes after a dive 

 upon which she pursued the even tenor of her way ' 



These does were not to be handled with impunity after 

 they were once withed. A doe had been brought ud to 

 the side of the scow, and Tom lifted her up by her eass 

 and one of the men stepped up to fasten her feet but 

 with these same feet she stripped the man's shirt off as 

 quickly as it could have been done by machine power 



Again, after fifteen does had been placed in the barn 

 Forest Commissioner Weed arrived and went with Tom 

 Fowers^and a guMs to see them, It wa« evening aut i 



