Forest and Stream. 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
£4 A Ye>r. 10 Cts. a Coi>y. 
Six Months, $2. 
i 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1898. 
{ 
VOL. LI. -No. 12. 
No. 346 Broadway, New York, 
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. 
In hunting:, the finding- and killing; of the game 
is after all but a part of the whole. The free, 
self-reliant, adventurous life, with its rugged and 
stalwart democracy J the wild surroundings, the 
grand beauty of the scenery, the chance to study 
the ways and habits of the woodland creatures — 
all these unite to give the career of the wilderness 
hunter its peculiar charm. The chase is among 
the best of all national pastimes ; it cultivates that 
vigorous manliness for the lack of which in a 
nation, as in an individual, the possession of no 
other qualities can possibly atone. 
Theodore Roosevelt. 
OCR FOREST INTERESTS. 
Tin: year i8y8 seems to have marked the turn of the 
tide in forestry matters in America. After a long, hard 
struggle the Federal Legislature finally confirmed the 
various forest reservations set aside by President Cleve- 
land in accordance with the report made by the special 
committee nominated by the National Academy of 
Sciences. Further than this, no less than $285,000 were 
appropriated by Congress for forestry and cognate pur- 
poses, an amount far in excess of what had been ex- 
pected or even asked for by those most deeply in- 
terested in this subject. Besides this, the Legislature of 
the State of New York, after having for many years 
neglected the forests of the Adirondack region, estab- 
lished this year the New York State College of Forestry 
"for the purpose of education and instruction in the 
principles and practices of scientific forestry." Provision 
was made in the same act to establish a demonstration 
forest of not more than 30,000 acres in the Adirondacks, 
which should become the property of Cornell University 
for the term of thirty years, and should be used for 
demonstrations of practical forestry. The sum of $10,- 
000 was appropriated for the organization and mainten- 
ance of the college and demonstration forest, and the 
Commission of Fisheries, Game and Forests was ordered 
to furnish the necessary guards to protect the property. 
All these developments have given to the science of 
forestry a standing which hitherto it has never had in 
America. They cannot fail to arrest public attention; 
and it is very certain that before long the example of the 
Empire State will be followed by other States, and that 
the fact that forestry is worthy of attention will im- 
press itself not only on the various States, but on the 
public at large. Thus we may hope that the United 
States will no longer lag far behind the nations of the 
old world in a matter of such great economic importance 
as this. 
If left to itself, every soil where there is sufficient mois- 
ture naturally produces some wood crop, and it is for 
the forester by his skill and his intelligent direction so 
to use the natural factors of production that the largest 
amount of serviceable material may be produced in the 
shortest time. 
Two purposes of special importance are served by 
forestry. The one is that of producing from soil other- 
wise useless wood crops which will yield a revenue, the 
other that of so treating mountains and hillsides as to 
protect them from being denuded of their soil, and thus 
rendered so barren that trees will not grow upon them 
nor water linger on their slopes. It is estimated that 
the annual consumption of wood materials in the United 
States is not less than 20,000,000,000 cubic feet, and 
that its value is not less than $1,000,000,000. Hitherto 
practically all" of this wood has been derived from the 
forests of the country, while no attention has been given 
to the reproduction, and little or none to protection of 
standing forests from fire and other destructive agents. 
Evidently, therefore, the time has come for protection. 
The uses of forest and undergrowth in protecting and 
keeping in place the soil and forest floor, and thus con- 
trolling and retaining the water supply ior the heads of 
streams, has been gone over so frequently as to need 
no more than a reference. 
The New York State College of Forestry is to be ad- 
ministered by the trustees of Cornell University, and it 
is fortunate in being connected with so important an in- 
stitution of learning, for the connection is obviously very 
favorable to the students of the forestry college. It is 
obvious that an institution such as this will supply what 
it has never hitherto been possible to obtain in this 
country, namely the special training, without which no 
man can intelligently work at this difficult subject. 
Hitherto the young man who desired to equip himself 
in the art of forestry was obliged to spend years of study 
in Europe before he could fit himself for forest work. 
The establishment by the Federal Government of a 
forest service, which we may fairly hope will become 
more and more efficient as the years go on, will furnish 
employment for the graduates of this New York State 
College, who in turn will give to the Government which 
employes them the benefit of their careful training and 
their special knowledge. It may be imagined that a time 
will come when all the appointees in the forest service, 
whether of State or general Government, will be men 
known for their special ability and acquirements in for- 
estry, not for their services in State or Federal politics, or 
for the pull which they may have with Senators or Re- 
presentatives. To imagine such a condition of things in 
the United States may appear a little bit like looking 
forward to the coming of the millennium, but this is the 
thing which ought to be and which we believe will be. 
NETS AND NET BOUNTIES. 
The task of preventing illegal netting in inland waters 
presents one of the most perplexing problems in fish 
protection. Laws prohibiting the practice are enacted 
on the theory that the use of nets is contrary to public 
policy and an invasion of the common rights of the 
community in the fish'supply. But having promulgated 
excellent laws and appointed officials to enforce them, 
the public usually withdraws attention, and the netting 
goes on uninterruptedly. Here and there a constable or 
fish protector, zealous to do his duty, makes war upon 
the netters, and often under fire, at actual risk of 
life, confiscates and destroys their nets. But for the 
most part the lawbreakers have things all their own 
way, and the pretense of protection is a farce. In all 
parts of the country, east and west, where there are in- 
land fishing waters, the fish pirate is found. He is a hard 
citizen to deal with; and various are the expedients 
which have been adopted in a vain effort to get the better 
of him. 
New York has devised and is now operating a method 
of suppressing unlawful nets which appears actually to 
be accomplishing its purpose. The same anti-netting 
law which has been on the books for years still remains, 
but it has been given vitality and force by a system of 
bounties for the destruction of nets; and for the first 
time within the memory of man the waters are gradually 
being cleared of contraband devices. The working of 
the New York system deserves careful attention, for in 
it may be found a remedy for the netting evil in other 
States. x 
Newspaper criticism of the bounty law in districts 
affected consists largely in criticisms on the large sums 
expended in bounties, and there appears to be a studied 
purpose on the part of certain political .organs to mis- 
represent the system, and to provoke hostility to it on 
the ground that the bounties entail an inexcusable bur- 
den on county treasuries. The fact is that all net boun- 
ties are paid by the State, and the newspaper solicitude 
for county treasuries is either innocently mistaken or 
intentionally deceptive. It is charged too that gross 
frauds are perpetrated in bounty claims; and this may be 
true. The ingenuity of man has not yet devised a bounty 
system, whether it be for the destruction of vermin or 
what-not, which was not subject to fraud and provoca- 
tive of deception; there is something in a bounty reward 
which develops the latent trickiness of human nature. 
To decry the net bounty, however, because of the element 
of fraud involved, is neither good politics nor good 
sense. The system is a wise one in spite of the tricksters 
who profit by it; and the proper course is to discover 
the weak points and the remedy for them. An examina- 
tion of the subject probably would show that the sched- 
ule of rewards is not rightly graded, but that some of 
the bounties are. too high. They are higher than the 
scale suggested by Mr. Henry Loftie, of Syracuse, who 
was the author of the bounty system, and at whose 
suggestion the bill was drawn by one of the officials of 
the Fisheries, Game and Forest Commission. Mr. Loftie 
based his measure of offered rewards on the cost of nets, 
so scaling the bounties that there could be no profit in 
purchasing nets to turn in for reward. The bounties, as 
adopted by the Legislature, do perhaps open the way to 
collecting for nets of a certain class more than they 
cost, so that it would be practicable to plant these nets 
for the purpose of destruction. But, as has been pointed 
out, this is a detail easily to be remedied by the adoption 
of a new scale of rewards. 
The one important fact to be noted is that the bounty 
law gets the nets. It has actually driven the netters out 
of busfTre'ss. The waters have been cleared of nuisances. 
The bounty system has accomplished in a few months 
what years of protection under the old law did not do, 
and would never have done. For example, on Oneida 
Lake, at Lakeport, where in the past more unlawful net- 
ting has been done than at any other point, every trap 
net has been taken, and the netters themselves, whose 
nets have been destroyed, have now turned around and 
are capturing the nets of others; that is to say, that the 
very persons who for years have violated the fishing 
laws are now allies in its enforcement. At Cleveland, 
also on Oneida Lake, the glassblowers, seeing in pro- 
tection from netters a fishing chance for themselves, have 
turned to and seized eleven large trap nets. The lake is 
being cleaned up and restored to its old conditions, 
when honest men had an opportunity to get their share 
of the fish from its waters. Oneida is only one of 
the many net plagued waters where the public right 
is again asserting itself. In short, the bounty law is do- 
ing precisely what it was intended to do; and no 
amount of misrepresentation will blind the public to the 
truth. The people, once they know what fish protec- 
tion means, and realize its benefits, will have it, and 
will retain the system which assures it to them. The 
net bounty gets the nets, and the net bounty has come to 
stav. 
SNAP SHOTS. 
Among the pleasant duties assumed by the Forest 
and Stream is that of trying to give info mation to its 
readers concerning localities where the shooting and 
fishing are good. This information, collected with a 
good deal of labor and at considerable expense, is freely 
given to such of our readers as may apply for it. It is 
at their service without money and without price. But, 
while gladly giving out our knowledge on this subject, 
we must insist that those who apply for it shall use a 
little judgment and discretion. No man who wishes to 
go shooting should imagine that he alone of all the 
world has this desire. He must remember that many 
others besides himself want to go to the best place, and 
that the competition for board, guides, teams, and so on 
at these places is very likely to be sharp. He should 
realize that it is not enough for him to get the name of 
a place and then to step aboaid his train with his shoot- 
ing things. If he does no more than this he may 
learn when he reaches his destination that there is no 
room at the hotel, boarding house, or farmer's, or 
that other people, on the ground before him, have en- 
gaged all the teams, as well as the services of all the 
local gunners. Conditions change swiftly in this coun- 
try- A section that was well protected during the close 
season, and where birds were abundant on the opening 
day, may be swept nearly bare a week or two later. No 
man therefore should think of going to any locality with- 
out first writing to it and making definite arrangements 
for accommodation, transportation, and the services of a 
man who knows the grounds. If he fails to take these 
necessary precautions the chances are ten to one that 
his trip will be in vain, and for this he will have no one 
but himself to blame. 
The competition among dictionary makers insures as 
a rule that their work is abreast of modern science; but 
in no authority at hand do we find the term "plankton," 
defined by Prof. Reigard in another column as the min- 
ute floating plants and animals in a body of water, 
