Forest and Stream 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Terms, $4 A Year. 10 Gts. a Cory, 
firs Months, $2. 
f NEW YORK, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1894. 
I 
VOL. XLm.— No. 25. 
No. 818 BaoAirwAY, New York. 
For Prospectus and Advertising Rates see Page iii. 
The Forest and Stream is put to press 
on Tuesdays. Correspondence intended for 
publication should reach us by Mondays and 
as much earlier as may be practicable. 
NEW JERSEY AND PENNSYLVANIA GAME 
ASSOCIATIONS. 
The sportsmen of New Jersey, under the leadership of 
the New Brunswick Gun Club, have apparently awakened 
to the necessity of concerted and united action on their 
part if game birds and animals, scarce even now in many 
parts of the State, are to be preserved for the next gen- 
eration. The organization of a permanent association 
under the title of the New Jersey Game and Fish Associa- 
tion is one step in the right direction. It should be remem- 
bered, however, that it is but one step, and that whole 
nights of stairs have yet to be climbed before the associa- 
tion, as a representative body, can begin to claim the 
attention of the State Legislature at Trenton. 
New Jersey's sister State, Pennsylvania, offered four 
years ago a similar spectacle to that now afforded by New 
Jersey. Two years ago the efforts of the Pennsylvania 
State Sportsmen's Association, on behalf the better pro- 
tection of the game of that State, failed, through lack of 
time, to obtain the desired legislation. Pennsylvania's 
legislators were many of them totally ignorant of the 
difference between a woodcock and a woodchuck; they 
were easily led in consequence, and lobbying being 
resorted to, some amendments were tacked on to the bill 
recommended by the legislative committee of the State 
Association that made it advisable to pigeonhole that 
document which once promised so well, rather than have 
it turned loose on a suffering commonwealth in the muti- 
lated condition in which it left the House of Representa- 
tives. That was nearly two years ago. 
Since then the State Association has strengthened its 
hands materially by adding many clubs and kindred 
organizations to its ranks. It has taken time by the fore- 
lock and has prepared a bill to be presented for the con- 
sideration of the next Legislature. This bill, which 
represents the wishes of the majority of the sportsmen of 
the Keystone State, will it is hoped, become a law before 
many months have passed. The legislative committee 
appointed at the Reading convention in '92; continued at 
the Harrisburg convention on Sept. 26, 1893; continued 
again and strengthened by the addition of new material, 
at the Altoona convention on August 21 of this year, has 
now in its hands something which should be accepted in 
the same spirit in which it is offered. 
As in New Jersey, so in Pennsylvania, the open season 
for woodcock is the rock on which North and South have 
split. The arguments used at the New Brunswick con- 
vention on Saturday last were almost identical with 
those which have been used at every convention of the 
Pennsylvania Association since its inception. It is a good 
sign, however, when both sections begin to come together 
in regard to summer shooting. North Jersey is appar- 
ently willing to compromise on Oct. 15, as the date on 
which woodcock shooting should commence, not a day 
later. She argues, and it must be owned that she ought 
to know what she is talking about, that the November 
woodcock shooting in her counties is scarcely worth any- 
thing nine years out of ten. 
The committee appointed by the New Brunswick con- 
vention to wait upon the Game and Fish Commissioners 
at their meeting in Trenton on Jan. 5 next, has no easy 
task before it. "Whether it fail, if fail it should, in getting 
its wishes incorporated in the State laws this year, or 
whether it succeed, the need of concerted action on the 
part of New Jersey sportsmen is imperative. And such 
action can only be had from a State association organized 
on the lines of the New Jersey Game and Fish Associa- 
tion. 
There is one point, and an important one, wherein the 
condition of New Jersey sportsmen is far better than that 
of their fellows in Pennsylvania. New Jersey has a game 
commission and her Legislature appropriates certain 
m oneys to provide for the prosecution of those who break 
her game laws; Pennsylvania has none, and if her State 
Association can obtain merely that at Harrisburg during 
the coming session it will have made a great stride in 
the direction of the ultimate preservation and protection 
of the game of her fields and forests. 
THE NEW YORK COMMISSION. 
Otjk suggestions respecting the reorganization of the 
New York Fish Commission, by abolishing the present 
board of politicians, jokers, frolic makers and incom- 
petents, and putting in their place, a single, intelligent, 
capable commissioner, have been copied extensively by 
the press of the State. This indicates that the subject is 
one of interest to the public. It should be. The public 
pays tens of thousands of dollars annually for the main- 
tenance of the work of the Commission. It has a right 
to demand and should demand that for the funds ex- 
pended the largest possible returns should be insured. No 
matter how scrupulously honest and economical in intent 
may be the administration of the finances of the Com- 
mission, it stands to reason that they cannot be spent to 
good advantage if the Commissioners themselves are too 
ignorant or too indifferent to know what is to be done 
and how it should be accomplished. 
The very first action that should be taken at Albany by 
the incoming Legislature in the interest of fishculture in 
New York is the adoption of a measure to provide a single- 
headed Commission. The next thing is the appointment 
to that office of an intelligent man, thoroughly versed in 
fishculture, interested in the work, and in every way 
equipped for the capable and efficient performance of his 
duties. 
An admirable appointment would be that of Mr. A. N. 
Cheney, of Glens Falls. Mr. Cheney has made a lifelong 
study of fish, fishing and fishculture. In these fields he 
is the best informed man in this State, if not in this 
country outside of Washington. His information is 
varied, comprehensive, thorough and practical. It is 
information that might profitably be enlisted in the public 
service of the State of New York. To the duties of the 
office he would bring an enthusiasm for the cause, a 
large-minded grasp of its opportunities, and an intelligent 
and capable administration of the interests connected 
with it. With Mr. Cheney as the incumbent of the office, 
the New York Fish Commission might well have the un- 
questioning confidence and support of the people of the 
gtate, as it most certainly would have those of the National 
and the other State commissions. 
THE PASSING OF THE ADIRONDACK GUIDE, 
Except for two isolated localities, the available supply 
of deer in New York State is in the Adirondack region. 
In Sullivan and Ulster counties a few deer exist; and a 
still smaller number on Long Island, but the average man 
does not care to visit this locality, and risk his life in a 
pursuit which promises no sport and a great deal of 
danger. It is to the Adirondacks that we must look for 
our local supply of deer to-day and in the near future. A 
time may come when by protection the deer in Sullivan 
and Ulster counties shall have so increased that their 
numbers may be worth considering, but that time does 
not seem near at hand. 
It appears evident that, for the general public, the 
Adirondack deer supply cannot hold out much longer, 
unless more efficient protection is afforded them. They 
would long ago have been exterminated, if it were not 
for the large areas of private parks, where they do receive 
protection. The area available for hunting is constantly 
contracting, and the number of visiting hunters con- 
stantly increasing. The hunting is concentrated over the 
free territory. Deer are tracked, dogged and water- 
killed almost unceasingly all through the open season, 
and even at other times. 
The private parks have preserved the deer, and the 
existence of these preserves makes hunting by the public 
more successful to-day than it was ten or fifteen years 
ago, but this formation of private parks, which increases 
the supply of deer, presages also the end of free hunting 
in the Adirondacks. With the end of free hunting, the 
guides who now make their living from hunters will lose 
their occupation, and as a class will disappear. Those 
still employed will become appendages to hotels, clubs 
and permanent camps, and will be much less numerous 
than they used to be. As time goes on and the subject of 
game protection is more and more agitated, other large 
areas of the Adirondacks will pass into the hands of clubs 
and associations, and there will be less and less oppor- 
tunity for hunting by those who are not club members. 
Already vast tracts are closed to the public, who are not 
only forbidden to hunt on these lands but even to pass 
over them. As this state of things increases— as increase 
it must— the liberty of the public will be still further 
abridged, and with this curtailment of liberty we shall 
see the passing away of the old-time Adirondack guide. 
It is evident that if there were a law for the Adiron- 
dacks that furnished protection to the deer, if the public 
believed that these animals were not in danger of exter- 
mination, the formation of the private parks would go 
on more slowly. Nowadays, men often join the associ- 
ations as a matter of self-defense, so that they may be 
insured some hunting in the future, no matter what may 
happen in the free portion of the woods. 
Among those best acquainted with the needs of the 
Adirondacks, and who look furthest into the future, there 
is a strong sentiment against the deer law as it stands to- 
day. A majority of the guides say that the present 
law is framed in the interest of the hotel keepers, 
who imagine that because the open season be- 
gins in August, many summer visitors, who would 
otherwise leave early in that month, will remain 
two or three weeks longer in the hope of killing a deer, 
The guides believe that the truth is that if the hunting 
began a month later, when the deer are in better condi- 
tion, an entirely new class of visitors would come to the 
woods for hunting and that so the total number of visit- 
ors would be increased, with a corresponding profit to 
all who earn their livelihood by supplying the wants of 
the visitors. Sportsmen, as a rule, condemn the practice 
of water-killing deer, and would welcome a change in 
the law. Only the summer visitors and the hotel keepers 
are satisfied with the existing statute. 
That a change is needed seems clear, and those who 
are interested are likely to move in the matter before 
long. The subject will probably be brought before the 
next Legislature for action. 
THE REFORM OF TRAP-SHOOTING. 
The letters, which we publish from week to week, ad- 
vocating concerted action to control trap-shooting, show 
how very general is the interest in this subject. Any 
action taken must originate with the trap-shooters— that 
is with the men who are most interested in keeping the 
sport up to a level where all can take part in it— but it 
should not be confined to them. Every man who uses a 
gun, whether he shoots at the trap or not, ought to feel 
an interest in keeping all departments of this sport free 
from taint or stain, and ought to use his influence in 
behalf of honest shooting. 
Besides this, the various trades are interested and will 
desire to do their part to purify the sport. The principal 
manufacturers of shooters' supplies have traveling rep- 
resentatives at tournaments, to show their goods to 
shooters and to prove their excellence by taking part in 
the contests at the trap, Such representatives are the 
most faithful attendants at all shoots; they are usually 
men of agreeable personality, and among them are some 
of the very best shots in the land. For these and other 
reasons they are of great influence in the trap-shooting 
world. Their words and actions carry weight. 
Most of them, no doubt, are honest shooters, but some 
are open to the suspicion of now and then dropping for 
place. The truth is that the whole atmosphere of trap- 
shooting tournaments has become so vitiated that the 
moral sense of [the most honest man may become hard- 
ened, and he may now view with indifference acts that 
a few years ago he would have roundly condemned. 
The shooting of these traveling men can readily enough 
be regulated by their employers, and if it were an under? 
stood thing that they would shoot honestly, their conduct, 
backed by public opinion, would no doubt put an end to 
the crooked practices so much deplored. If the manu- 
facturers will give strict orders to their representatives 
that they must shoot honestly— doing the best they can— 
and that anything in the nature of dropping for place, if 
proved against the representative, will be followed by 
instant discharge, the results to shooting will be very 
good, and the influence of such an order will be seen at 
once. 
Such action would be much more far-reaching than its 
influence on individual representatives of each concern. 
It would distinctly show the trap-shooting public that the 
manufacturers stand, as unquestionably they do stand, in 
favor of decent, manly sport. With the trade and the 
general public in favor of honest shooting, the crooked 
men will have to move to the rear. 
