Forest and Stream. 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun, 
•t NEW YORK, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1897. . {^o. urB^oS;}^JL%'^c 
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SNAP SHOTS. 
One of the sections of the bill introduced into the Senate 
during the last session b3' Mr. Proctor as a new game law 
for the District of Columbia, provided "That wherever in 
this act possession of any birds, fowls, or "meats is prohib- 
ited, the fact that the said birds, fowls, or meats were 
killed or captured outside the district of Columbia shall 
constitute no defense for such possession " And one factor 
in the regret that Senator Proctor's bill did not become a 
law was the belief that such a prohibition as was here con- 
templated was necessary to prevent the sale in Washing- 
ton of out-of-season game killed elsewhere. It was recog- 
nized to be a national disgrace that the Capital city should 
afford an open market in close time, and so should be con- 
verted into a dumping ground for game killed in vari- 
ous States. 
There is unalloyed satisfaction in the discovery by judi- 
cial test that the present law of the District is all-suffi- 
cient to serve the purpose sought to be attained by Senator 
Proctor's measure. We give in our game columns to-day, 
in advance of its publication elsewhere, the full text of 
the decision just rendered by the Court of Appeals of the 
District of Columbia in determination of this point. In 
brief, the court holds that the clause of the statute forbid- 
ding the having in possession of game during the close 
time applies to all game, irrespective of its source of sup- 
ply, and whether killed within the District or outside its 
borders. 
This is the most important game law decision ever ren- 
dered in the District of Columbia courts; it clears the 
way for action which will be far-reaching in its effect upon 
the game supply of those States from which birds are 
gathered^for the Washington market. It is more important 
still in its moral eifect. The text of the decision as an ad- 
mirable exposition of some of the basic principles of game 
protection is worthy of careful reading. Chief Justice 
Alvey's reasoning is clear, logical, convincing, and in line 
with the principle laid down in the JFoeest and Stream 
Platform Plank that ''The sale of game should be prohib- 
ited at all seasons." 
Some months ago we reported a decree from the Treas- 
ury Department of Venezuela regulating the hunting of 
herons and the gathering of their plumes for millinery 
purposes. AVhile somewhat indefinite in its terms, the 
decree was intended so to restrict the hunting methods as 
to preserve the stock from the extermination which has 
overtaken so many rookeries; and the A^enezuelan 
Government was warmly commended for its intelligent 
action. AVe have now to record the annulment of the 
decree by a recent decision of the Supreme Court, which 
finds the measure unconstitutional and void. From a 
translation, supplied to our State Department by Consul 
Plumacher, the ground of the decision is that the decree 
trespasses upon the rights of the Sovereign States, as well 
as upon individual rights. 
According to the constitution, the court declares, the 
States have a right to dispose of their natural products, 
except mines, salt, and public lands, which are controlled 
by the general Government. It is as if our own Con- 
gress were to legislate with respect to game in the States. 
Industrial rights are also guaranteed by the constitution 
to all Venezuelans. The decree prohibiting the killing of 
herons "is not only a coercive measure, but tends to de- 
stroy a home industry, placing it at a disadvantage in 
competition with that of other countries. It also restricts 
the rights of property owners, which, according to the civil 
code, are absolute unless the property is illegally used.' » 
Further, the prohibition of hunting with firearms is at 
variance with the civil code, which declares that this is 
subject to special laws. 
An exchange reports that a frog-raiser of Massillon, 0., 
"has planted forty thousand frogs' eggs in a pond near that 
place." It is not stated where the Massillon man discov- 
ered his forty thousand frogs' eggs in the bleak November; 
nor are we told what he expects will become of the 
"plant." The two-line frog item is but another of those 
winsome tales of frog-farming. If one-half of the farms 
of the newspapers existed in fact, the frog-farm product 
would cover the land as the frogs covered Egypt. The 
truth is that such a thing as a frog-farm does not exist, if 
by farming be meant the artificial propagation of frogs as 
fishes are propagated in hatcheries, and reared through 
the successive stages from the egg to maturit}'. 
In a manual of fi^hculture, just issued from the office of 
the United States Commission, we are told by Mr. F. M. 
Chamberlain, of the Commission, that while the value of 
frogs as food is now thoroughly recognized in this country, 
to such a degree indeed that the United States consumes 
more frogs than are eaten in any other country, not ex- 
cepting France itself, human ingenuity has not as yet de- 
vised a method of carrying artificial cultivation beyond 
the larval stage. When the frog farmer's frogs reach the 
adult form, the whole visionary enterprise is as elusive as 
a Michigan frog chased by-OId Hickory or Ivelpie or some 
other of the band of Kingfishers for bass bait. It is a com- 
paratively simple undertaking to stock a pond with breed- 
ing frogs, and then let nature take her course; or to collect 
the tadpoles and transfer them to the "farm." The young 
may be protected by fences and screens against raccoons 
and reptiles and birds; and if fish, turtles, snakes, crayfish 
or older frogs do not intervene, the tadpole resorbs the 
tail, develops legs, and undergoes metamorphosis into frog 
form. This is the critical stage, for "as soon as the terres- 
trial habit is fully assumed, live food is absolutely requi- 
site," and must be furnished in liberal quantities. But it 
is useless to attempt to supply this food artificially by any 
method at present known; neither has any device to in- 
crease the natural abundance of insects been practicable 
as yet. It is, however, possible to transfer the young frogs 
to other waters where food abounds. 
The interest which reaps the most direct benefit from 
the Long Island deer season is that of the transportation 
companies. The managers should be hearty advocates of 
game protection; it puts thousands of dollars into their 
treasuries every year. The railroads could well afibrd to 
stock and keep stocked the Long Island deer covers as a 
promotion of travel, just as some of the trolley managers 
maintain electric fountains as spectacles to increase traffic. 
The mania for catching the largest number of fish in a 
given time or from a particular water pervades all ranks 
and grades of anglers from the trout fingerling scorers to 
the killers of the mighty tarpon. A correspondent, writ- 
ing from Tarpon, Texas, records a recent feat of a fisher- 
man who scored eleven fish between 7 o'clock in the 
morning and 7 o'clock at night, this being the largest score 
of tarpon on the coast ever made in one day. The fisher- 
man was a visitor from Shanghai, China, and the Texas 
people profess that their patriotism causes them to feel 
deep chagrin that a foreigner should hold the record. 
Score fishing for tarpon is carried to ridiculous extremes 
in Florida. One aspirant for honors last season used to 
put out a number of lines from his boat, and when, as 
sometimes happened, two fish struck at once, he would 
determine which was probably the larger, then free the 
other one by smashing his tackle, so clearing the decks 
for action. At the end of the season his score of broken 
rods nearly equaled his count of fi^h. This is tarpon kill- 
ing, but it is not angling. 
This is a great year for quail. Eeports of an abounding 
supply come from all parts of the South as far as Texas 
and Florida. The season has been favorable, the birds are 
in good condition, and the outlook is such as to lure many 
a shooter to the field for the winter holidays. 
In standing out for his rights as a property owner, and 
defying this decree which would oblige him to hunt birds 
in a manner not to exterminate them, our friend and 
brother down near the equator talks like a citizen of the 
United States. The plume hunter, wherever you find him, 
is a stickler for his constitutional rights; and his rapacity 
is that of the butcher-bird. 
Mr. Andrew M. Spangler, of Philadelphia, who died last 
week at the age of seventy-eight, was for many years 
prominently identified with the fishcultural and fish pro- 
tective interests of Pennsylvania. A skilled angler, whose 
lines had been cast in all the famous waters of the conti- 
nent, from Canada to Florida, he was also a prolific writer 
on angling themes, and an earnest and unremitting advo- 
cate of the education of the public to an appreciation of 
the value of fishery resources. He served as a Fish Com- 
missioner of Pennsylvania and was the leading spirit in 
the organization and upbuilding of the Pennsylvania Fish 
Protective Association, serving for repeated terms as its 
president, and showing himself untiring in devotion to its 
aims and activities. 
Mr. Spangler was profoundly convinced oi the import- 
ance of educating young people in natural history. He 
contended rightly that if as a community and a people we 
are ever to change our attitude and practice with respect 
to the resources of the waters and the woods, the reform 
can come only as the result of education, and of that edu- 
cation which is most eflTective because acquired in youth. 
Inculcate in the boys and the girls, said he, an apprecia- 
tive regard for the beautiful and the admirable in nature, 
whether of flower or insect, or fish or bird, and you will 
have given to them that which will be not only an abiding 
joy, but a constant incentive to the protection and preser- 
vation of nature's bounties. When we reflect upon the idle 
brains, empty heads, various kill-time occupations, puerili- 
ties and stolidities of hosts of persons we come in contact 
with, we can all of us most heartily support Mr. Spangler's 
plea for an awakening of an interest, whether it be in 
botany or ornithology or what it matters not, so that it 
shall give stimulus for study and thought, investigation 
and reflection. 
This is the extent of "frog-farming," as conducted in 
America to-day. The only "farm" noted in the report is 
one in the Trent River basin in Ontario, where some 
twenty years ago the waters were stocked by the introduc- 
tion of mature mated frogs. Food being naturally in 
abundance, no artificial feeding is attempted. The "farm- 
ing" consists in capturing the marketable frogs at night by 
torchlight, and confining them in small pens, which can 
be drained as the frogs are required for shipment. During 
the years 1895-1896 the product was five thousand pounds 
of dressed frog legs, and seven thousand live frogs for 
scientific purposes and for stocking other waters. As the 
market demand is all the time growing and the native 
supply diminishing and in some sections altogether dis- 
appearing, this mode of frog farming is almost certain to 
prove profitable, and owners of favored swamp lands who 
are shrewd enough to protect their preserves may assure 
themselves of a substantial revenue. 
Long Island is maintaining its character as a phenom- 
enal deer preserve in close proximity to Greater New 
York. The open season this year consists of each Wed- 
nesday in November, four days all told; and the first 
Wednesday witnessed an exodus of hundreds of deer 
hunters. One single band numbered sixty-nine, and 
scored among them five deer. This was probably the 
relative proportion of game to guns; and the total killed 
would run into the hundreds. One newspaper reports 
the score as three hundred, but this is probably an exag- 
geration. 
There is really nothing wonderful about this great sup- 
ply of game close to a city population of three million 
people. The deer stock is kept up simply by restricting 
destruction to a point where the drain does not impair the 
parent stock. The Long Island deer are actually protected 
when the law is on. Their range is largely on private 
grounds and game preserves, where shooters cannot get at 
them, and the deer killed on public territory in the open 
season are actually the overflow from the private deer 
parks. Under such conditions the Long Island deer stock 
may be preserved for a hundred years. It is an illustra- 
tion of game protection that protects. 
