Forest and Stream. 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1898. 
erm's, $4 a Year. io Cts. a Copy. I 
Six Months, $2. j 
I vol. Li, No rrt. 
I No. 346 liRoAUtt ay, Nil iv Vork. 
^The Forest and Stream is the recognized medium of entertain- 
ment, instruction and information between American sportsmen. 
The editors invite communications on the subjects to which its 
pages are devoted. Anonymous communications will not be re- 
garded. While it is intended to give wide latitude in discussion 
of current topics, the editors are not responsible for the views of 
correspondents. 
• Subscriptions may begin at any time. Terms: For single 
copies, $4 per year, $2 for six months. For club rates and full 
particulars respecting subscriptions, see prospectus on page iv, 
AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHY. 
The Forest and Stream's announcement of prizes 
for amateur photography, will be found on another 
page. " 
LAND VS. WATER. 
In Forest and Stream of Aug. 20 we called atten- 
tion to an inquiry for statistics as to the producing 
power of waters stocked with fish, and asked whether 
any one had information on the subject. In response 
to this, we have received a letter printed in the Indian- 
apolis Journal by Mr. W. T. Dennis, of Richmond, 
Ind., now or formerly a State fish commissioner. This 
we print in another column. 
This letter reminds us of the very early days of fish- 
culture, twenty-five years ago. Then it was just be- 
ginning to be known that fish could be artificially re- 
produced, and enthusiasts in fishculture showed by fig- 
ures, in which no flaw could be picked, that the water 
could be cultivated with vastly more profit to the farmer 
than the land. Each pond and brook on the farm was 
to be stocked, and to return to its owner as profit hun- 
dreds or thousands ~bf dollars, not of gold or silver, for 
then the commerce of the United States scarcely knew 
metal currency, but dollars of good green paper. The 
contention of the fishculturists was precisely that of Mr. 
Dennis in his recent letter. They declared that a pond 
of certain area would support a certain number of trout. 
These trout, properly fed, would gain in weight a pound 
each year. Trout were worth a dollar a pound. Deduct 
from the number of pounds of fish that the water would 
produce the cost of care and feeding, and there remained 
the annual profit. It looked beautifully on paper, and 
many men invested capital and two or three years' time 
in the business. But it may be doubted if one per cent, 
of them ever received back their capital and ordinary 
day's wages. The figures did not lie perhaps, but the 
premises on which the argument was based were faulty. 
It was a case of the survival of the fittest. Ninety- 
nine men failed, and the hundredth, who succeeded, con- 
tinued to carry on the business, but found that he must 
be satisfied with profits much more modest than the 
figures of the enthusiasts showed. 
Mr. Dennis proves to his own satisfaction that while 
an acre of land under favorable circumstances will pro- 
duce beef of the value of $20, from which $5 must be 
deducted for expenses, leaving a net profit of $15, an 
acre of water will produce in one year fish to the value 
of $5,000, leaving a balance in favor of the water of 
$4,985. Let us see how this will work out. 
The pond of which Mr. Dennis writes was wholly 
new, having been dug out of a gravel bar to a depth 
of 6ft., and only filled up with water in the autumn of 
1894. In the spring of 1895 four pairs of adult small- 
mouthed black bass were put in it, and bred in the sum- 
mer. The young bass were seen by Mr. Dennis about 
Sept. 1, at which time they were "a little more Jhan 
three months old, from 3J4 to sin. long, lively, healthy 
and in countless numbers." The following- winter the 
pond froze nearly to the bottom, and in spring hundreds 
of small bass were found dead about the margin of the 
pond. In August Mr. Dennis caught some of these 
fish, now fifteen months old, and found them to run from 
xV/z to 15m. in length, the smaller size weighing 130Z. 
on the scale, the larger a little over a pound. He cal- 
culates, therefore, that these bass in their second sum- 
mer had grown from the egg to a pound in weight. 
Obviously the first question concerning the growth of 
these bass has to do with the food supply. A pond like the 
one in question would soon become stocked with en- 
tomostraca and some insect larvse, which would furnish 
food for a small number of bass, until they were 2 or 
3in. long. Then the food supply being exhausted, the 
Stronger fish would prey on the weaker, and many 
would die. It is as absurd to think of growing fish 
without food as it would be to grow cattle without 
pasture. True, a fish does not show the effects of 
hunger as quickly as warm-blooded animals, but it will 
starve in time, and certainly cannot grow without food. 
The number of fish that any pond will sustain depends 
on its food-producing capacity, and a pond can 'be 
overstocked as easily as a pasture. 
Our experience of the growth of small-mouthed black 
bass in Northern waters does not agree with that" of 
Mr. Dennis. But this question of growth depends so 
entirely on the food supply that it is not a safe matter 
to generalize on. It is understood, however, that the 
fish spoken of in this letter had no food except their 
fellow bass, and that whatever growth they may have 
made was at the expense of the numbers of fish in the 
pond. 
Mr. Dennis figures out 50,000 bass to his acre of water. 
No doubt he remembers that in an acre — whether of 
land or water — there are but 43.560sq.ft.. into which 50,- 
000 lib. bass must be packed nose to tail, though we 
acknowledge that each would have ioin. or more room 
on either side. The mental picture of such a pond so 
stocked makes us think of the swarming salmon which 
we have seen running up the rivers of the Northwest 
coast at spawning time. There would be one and one- 
seventh bass to the square foot of area; but, of course, in 
a 6ft. pond there would be considerable room between 
the surface of the water and the bottom in which 
these bass could take exercise. Still, even Mr. Dennis 
must acknowledge, we think, that the pond would be 
crowded; too much so for comfort, thoueh perhaps their 
inability to move about very much would make them 
take on fat more rapidly, and so weigh more. 
But whatever may or may not have been the increase 
and growth of the fish in this particular pond, the de- 
ductions which Mr. Dennis draws from the facts and 
his generalizations as to the returns from bass farming 
are more grotesque than reliable. He figures out an 
annual production of $5,000 per acre. For the 300,000 
acres cf water in Indiana that would mean a«product of 
one billion five hundred million dollars ($1,500,000,000), 
a sum almost equal to the national debt. These ex- 
traordinary figures are obtained by calling 7,200ft., the 
area of the pond, one-fiftieth of an acre, when actually 
as a matter of pure mathematics that area is only one- 
sixth of an acre. Sanguine persons who may be per- 
suaded by these Indiana estimates to grow an acre of 
bass would do well to remember that it will be only on 
the actual fish they may raise to sell, and not on ex- 
pansive blunders in arithmetic, that they will realize in 
hard cash. 
THE SPORTSMAN A T HOME AND ABROAD. 
The proper observance of all laws is obligatory upon 
the people, whether they are at home or abroad. Laws 
for the protection of game, for limiting the time and 
manner of its capture, and for limiting and qualifying 
the title which the possessor of it may enjoy, are laws 
to be regarded just as are all other laws of the land, and 
equally entitled to the observance and respect of every- 
one. 
There is a class of men, however, by no means small 
in numbers, who. while commendably law-abiding in their 
places of domicile, do not hesitate to break every game 
law which circumstances will permit when they are in a 
strange section of their own State, or in another State 
than their own. Generally, when in a strange State, they 
abandon themselves to the greatest lawlessness, so far 
as game laws are concerned, seeming to act on the theory 
that the game laws of any State other than their own 
do not govern them in fact, and>that therefore they may 
slay and waste with no other limitation than their own 
sweet wills. They take occasion, however, to be as secret 
as possible in the exercise of their lawlessness, so that 
unpleasant legal entanglements with prejudiced State 
officers may be avoided. 
If such offenders were told that they were both law- 
breakers and cowards as well, no doubt they would af- 
fect great indignation thereat. Nevertheless such viola- 
tion is cowardly, since the stranger in a strange land, who 
is intent on selfish purpose which conflicts with the game 
laws, presumes more or less on the hospitality of the 
State whose laws he breaks and on the leniency com- 
monly shown to strangers. Moreover, among a strange 
people he takes the chances of detection and conviction 
which he would not take in his own place of domicile; 
for in the strange place it is but a passing incident as he 
weighs it, while at his own home it would carry a stigma 
which would stay with the offender through life. 
Few law-breakers in a strange State ever consider that 
they have a representative character as well as a personal 
one; that their misdeeds reflect in a way on the people 
of their own State; for everyone is predisposed to judge 
the people of another State by the people who come 
from it, and whom he meets. Therefore a sportsman in 
a strange State has not only his own law-abiding con- 
duct to observe, but he should scrupulously guard against 
committing any illegal acts for the sake of his own 
fellow citizens at home. 
The affectation of irresponsibility while being a tem- 
porary dweller within a State is false in conception and 
pernicious in practice. No law-breaker, who gratifies 
his own selfish purposes with such disregard of law and 
the rights of others, believes for a moment that he is 
doing what is right. His own selfish wishes, interests 
and self-indulgence are simply set up as being para- 
mount to all other considerations, the same as with any 
other law-breaker, who differs from the poacher only in 
the kind "of law he may break and the degree of it. 
Such men do infinite harm to the cause of the genuine, 
law-abiding sportsman, of him who is a gentleman 
whether at home or abroad. 'By their lawlessness and 
entirely selfish disregard for the rights of others, they 
furnish cause for more stringent laws to be enacted 
against non-resident sportsmen in such States as have 
discriminating laws, and they hasten the enactment of 
such laws in States which have them not, to say nothing 
of bringing non-resident sportsmen under the ban" of 
unpleasant suspicion and disfavor. 
The laws of any State, in general and in particular, ap- 
ply alike to its own citizens, to the citizens of other 
States, and to foreigners who are within its boundaries. 
All the people within its limits are alike subject to them. 
As with the laws of a State, so it is with the laws of a 
foreign country; hence the sportsman who goes from 
the States into Canada, or other foreign country, is. sub- 
ject to its laws the moment that he crosses the boundary 
line. 
The feeling of irresponsibility in respect to the" ob- 
servance of the game laws, exhibited by many when in 
a strange section, seems to be many times multiplied 
when they are in a foreign country. Shooters sneak 
over the line into Canada, along the borders of the 
chicken country, kill a bag of chickens, and if a safe 
return is made look irpon it as a pleasing shooting ex- 
perience, enhanced by a spirit of adventure. So with 
others who shoot big game in a foreign country. This 
feeling and such acts are entirely wrong. Instead of 
devising ways and means to violate the laws, the visit- 
ing sportsman should be conscientiously careful to prop- 
erly observe all laws, and should consider himself in a 
way the guest of the country he is in, precisely as he 
would observe all the proprieties in a home where he 
chanced to be a guest. Besides his personal character, 
as already suggested, he has, a representative character 
of which he cannot divest himself if he would. As he 
conducts himself, so will his own countrymen at home 
be judged. There thus should be a double incentive to 
obey and respect the laws; that is to say. first because it 
is right to do so; second, for the good name of one's 
own people. 
The greater the attainments of the citizen, the greater are 
his responsibilities in these matters, and therefore the greater 
are his obligations to lead an exemplary life. Noblesse 
oblige is a maxim of antiquity, but none the less potent 
in its application to the affairs of the present than it was 
centuries ago. The man who in a high station in life 
breaks his country's laws sets an example by which the 
humble law-breaker seeks to justify his own lapses. 
Instead of looking upon the game resources of a for- 
eign State as proper material for plunder, let the sports- 
man consider them as the belongings of his host, and 
govern himself accordingly, as becomes a good guest 
and a law-abiding citizen. At home, if he affects to be 
a good sportsman or a good citizen, or both, he will 
not go wrong if he is properly considerate of the rights 
of others; for all laws aim to embody the proper rule 
of action for the best interests of all. 
