Nov. MS, i8yS.J 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
Page 8 of the report excludes summer woodcock- 
shooting, which is perhaps an advantage, but it may 
be open to the criticism that there are sections of New 
Jersey where there is no woodcock shooting at all ex- 
cept summer shooting. In these sections there is nothing 
else to tempt the sportsman in July, the quail being on 
their nests; while on Oct. 15. the birds being hatched, he 
w ill be constantly required to call away his dogs from 
pointing covers of half-grown quail. 
If there is much objection to the abolition of sum- 
mer woodcock shooting and postponement of 'the fall 
woodcock season to Nov. t, a fair compromise upon 
woodcock for the month of July, and from Oct. 15, 
would perhaps do little harm, as woodcock, being scarce 
and not so valuable as ruffed grouse, few people would 
go after woodcock alone on Oct=-r5. Personally. I would 
rather see the shooting of woodcock allowed in July, and 
then again only from Nov. 1 to Dec. 10. 
Page 9. Snipe, rail birds, reed birds and marsh hens 
between Aug. 25 and Jan. i. 
The largest territory for shooting rail and reed birds 
lies along the Delaware River. On one side, in Pennsyl- 
vania, the season does not begin until Sept. 1, when the 
birds are in better condition than on Aug. 26. There 
would be, I believe, little opposition from sportsmen to 
making the season uniform on both sides of the river. 
Sept. 1, which would gain six days to the. cause of 
game protection. 
On page 9 snipe shooting is mentioned. May t is, I 
think, too late to permit the shooting of English snipe. 
April 15 would be better, unless indeed you are able to 
prevent entirely the shooting of these birds in the spring, 
which would be best of all. The contradictory words 
"between" and "inclusive" appear in many places in 
the New Jersey game laws. I would suggest a change in 
the form of expression, so that the season may be de- 
scribed as extending from one day to another, both in- 
clusive. This would prevent such misunderstandings as 
occurred on Aug. 25, 1898, when rail and reed bird shoot- 
ing was allowed on that day, instead of on .the following 
day, as provided hy law. 
On page 14 the duck shooting season is stated as "be- 
tween' Sept. 30 and May 1, "both days inclusive." 
Would it not be better to say from Oct. 1 to April 30, or 
still better, to March 31, both dates inclusive? May 1 
is surely too late in the spring to shoot egg-laden ducks. 
An enlightened public sentiment will sooner or later pre- 
vent all spring shooting. Let us hope that it may 
come before the game is extinct. 
I have had thirty years' experience in game shooting 
in New Jersey, am tolerably familiar with the wishes of 
sportsmen and farmers, and feel confident that the above 
suggested changes would increase the game supply. I 
have no knowledge whatever of fishing and therefore do 
not venture to mention that portion of the report. I have 
returned the report to Mr, Moody with a copy of this 
letter. 
Central New York Game. 
Ithaca, N. Y. — Nov. t indicated the open season for 
quail in Tompkins county, the first open period upon 
these birds in this county for some years, and while they 
are by no means plenty, as your score shooter would 
dehne the term, there are quite a goodly number of 
bevies to be found. John Nolan and Geo. Lyon bagged 
twelve birds out of a bevy of thirty-six Nov. 1. 
Ruffed grouse show up plenty, but the covers are diffi- 
cult of access, and Madam Grouse has already acquired 
her winter's speed of pinions; hence individual scores are 
not large. 
A good many wild ducks are on Cayuga Lake, and it 
only remains for some stiff north winds, iced with a 
bit of frigid weather, to afford a dash of exhilarating 
sport on the local marshes. M. Chill. 
Flight of Coots on Long Island, 
Inner Beach, Long Island, Nov. 7. — A great flight 
of coots has made lively work for gunners during the 
past week. On' Saturday 183 birds were killed by the 
gunning parties who went out from East Rockaway and 
this vicinity. The birds were in prime condition. 
PRIZES FOR AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHS, 
The Forest and Stream offers prizes for meritorious 
work with the camera, under conditions which follow: 
The prizes will be divided into three series: (1) for 
live wild game; (2) for game in parks; (3) for other sub- 
jects relating to shooting and fishing. 
(1) For live game photographs three prizes are of- 
fered, the first of $50, the second of $25, and the third of 
$10. 
(2) For live game in parks, for the best picture, a 
prize of $10. 
(3) For the best pictures relating to Forest and 
Stream's field — shooting and fishing, the camp, camp- 
ers and camp life, sportsman travel by land and water, 
incidents of field and stream — a first prize of $20, a sec- 
ond of $15, a third of $10, and for fourth place two prizes 
of $5 each. 
There is no restriction as to the time nor as to where 
the pictures have been made or may be made. 
Pictures will be received up to Dec. 31 this year. 
All work must be original; that is to say, it must not 
have been submitted to any other competition or have 
been published. 
There are no restrictions as to the make or style of 
camera, nor as to size of plate. 
A competitor need not be a subscriber to the Forest 
and Stream. 
All .work must be that of amateurs. 
The photographs will be submitted to a committee, 
who, in-making their award, will be instructed to take 
into consideration the technical merits of the work as 
a photograph, its artistic qualities and other things be- 
ing equal, the unique and difficult nature of the subject. 
Photographs should be marked for identification with 
initials or a pseudonym only, and with each photograph 
should be given, answering to the initials, the name of 
sender, title of view, locality, date and names of camera, 
and plate or film. 
Vermont Game. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Neglect in use has caused my Forest and Stream 
pen to become very rusty. Generally old age makes a 
person garrulous, hut in our case it seems to have made 
us indolent. It is tin- '"height of our pleasure" to sit on 
our back in an armchair and read the newly-arrived 
Forest and Stream. Once when we expressed a wish 
that it was double its present size, our darky, Tom, 
looked up from his work pulling burrs out of the setter's 
coat and exclaimed: "Dey couldn't do dat without dey 
done put it all advertisements." 
"Why not-, Tom?" 
"Dey couldn't done get any more good things toged- 
der in a week dan dey do now." Then he expressed a 
wish that the "Majah" would come up here and we 
would take him out with Bruce M.. and he would shoot 
a lot of grouse for the "Majah" to take home, etc. We 
notice when we read the Forest and Stream aloud 
that not only Tom, but all the members of the family, 
find my "den" a pleasant place to occupy. 
So far some good bags of ruffed grouse have been 
made, and woodcock were early in the season plentiful, 
but with the first frosts of Sept. 11 and 13 they left us, south- 
ward bound. Since then we only get an occasional bird. 
In some localities gray squirrels are very abundant. 
Foxes also. One of our fox hunters has already killed 
six. And almost every school district in this part of 
the State can boast of its local deer, mostly does and 
fawns. So far about eighty bucks have been shot in 
the State since Oct. 1'. Give us another ten years' close 
season and compel owners of hounds to keep their 
"horn' dogs" confined during the months of March, 
April and May. Deer would become very numerous in 
this State, and there is not a farmer in this section but 
would stand uncomplainingly all the damage the deer 
would do to their crops. It is only the greedy pot- 
hunter, whose only desire is to kill and destroy, that 
makes such claims, and as they have votes, they are un- 
fortunately able to have their complaints heard in out- 
legislative halls. 
It is too early to say positively what our present 
Legislature will do in amending the defects in some of 
our game and fish laws. It is a great pity that we 
haven't got some legislator with backbone and sand 
enough to stand up and make a successful fight against 
seine and net fishing in the waters of our beautiful Lake 
Champlain. It should be made a severe penal offense 
to pollute its pure waters with such nefarious devices, and 
unless such a champion soon appears, policy and petty 
politics will prevent any radical change being made. 
Stanstead. 
Sheldon, Vt., Oct. 29. 
No. "We Expect More. 
I have been a regular reader of Forest and Stream 
for some time, and have greatly enjoyed the articles en- 
titled "Reminiscences of an Old Sportsman," by Sha- 
dow, who is the author of "Hitting vs. Missing." 
Lately I have missed his articles from your paper. I 
hope they have not been concluded. 
S. R. LONGENECKER. 
Proprietors of fishing and hunting resorts will find it profitable 
to advertise them in Forest and Stream. 
Black Bass Rearing and Stocking. 
[From the Proceedings of the American Fisheries Society Meeting 
at Omaha.] 
Dr. Miller, Omaha.— Mr. Ravenel, of the United 
States Fish Commission, has been very polite in making 
suggestions to me about a lake which T have of forty 
acres. I began without any scientific knowledge to put 
in breeders, and through the courtesy of Mr. May I put 
in some young trout and some old ones. I had hopes 
I could exclude all other fish, but to my titter astonish- 
ment the selections were not properly made, and I find 
I have all sorts of fish, peculiar and indigenous to the 
country. Mr. Ravenel told me that the rainbow would 
probably live in a temperature of 60, but for the reason 
that the water would become warm very soon after- 
coming out of the artesian well; which is about 1,000ft. 
away, I didn't venture to risk it. What I have come 
here to find out is, whether I could risk putting the 
rainbow in that water that is fed by water of 6o° tem- 
perature? 
I would like to know if bass are cannibals. As I say, 
it is a purely selfish interest on my part, outside of a 
public one. I have raised bass from breeding to i^lbs. 
and i^lbs., and I have had two or three thousand fish 
taken out of there by fishermen. 
I want to know another thing, if some gentleman 
will give me the information, whether bass are in any 
danger from bullheads and carp? I also want to know 
whether I am in danger of overstocking this forty acres 
of water, which has neither inlet or outlet. I want to 
know what proportion I can expect to raise from breed- 
ing, and whether I am in danger of overstocking this 
place and making it an offensive place. 
Mr. Peabody. — We have a number of gentlemen who 
can give you a great deal of information. You will find 
out a great deal of that information from books written 
by Dr. Henshall. 
Very many people feel that they would like to know 
whether they can take a given water and stock it ad 
infinitum and make a success of it. I suppose it is a 
pretty well established fact that nature sets up a pretty 
correct natural balance between varieties of fish in all 
waters. Many of the States have beautiful lakes to which 
people resort for summer homes. Those lakes may have 
been naturally stocked with black bass, but the persistent 
fishing of a dozen or more anglers for four or five 
months in each year, with the spearing that goes on at 
Other times, has in course of time depleted the waters 
of bass. The next thing that we as commissioners hear 
is an application from the denizens about some lake 
for a permit to net out the suckers, which they say have 
grown in numbers enormously, and they believe the 
suckers are killing the bass. This is Hot so, The bass 
is a fighter who will maintain himself against any other 
fish of even greater size. In no case should the attempt 
be made to destroy the sucker, which is prime food 
for the bass, or the carp, which is also fine food for the 
bass. If 1 had a private water, in which I wanted to 
raise bass, I would see to it that a certain number of 
carp were put in there as food for the better fish, and 
they wouldn't hurt at all if you can keep them in 
control. 
Again, we hear some one say. I have a magnificent 
stream; T want 50,000 or 150,000 brook trout put in that 
stream, at its source. That is the poorest place that could 
be selected. Plant them away from the source; put them 
in ponds made along the stream. You there give oppor- 
tunity to the insects to deposit their eggs, which are 
fish food. In time you have natural food that will to a 
great extent support fish life. You may overstock a 
stream or lake, and if you do so, in time you will have 
a generation of runts. You must avoid that. If you 
do it your fish will be undersized, and that is the case 
with many clubs who have overstocked their waters in 
their anxiety to increase their stock. 
Dr. Miller. — Would you leave the carp in the water? 
Mr. Whitaker. — You cannot get them out after they 
are once in. 
Mr. Miller. — Would you keep them reduced? 
Mr. Whitaker. — Yes. and J would reduce them by 
putting in enough bass to keep them down. 
Dr. Miller. — How about the bass eating one another? 
Mr. Whitaker.— The bass is supposed to be one of the 
very few fish that takes care of its young. They select 
a place for nesting and lay their eggs, and guard them 
from their enemies. 
Dr. Miller.— I think that Mr. Henshall states that after 
they leave their nests they eat each other. 
Mr. Whitaker. — Large fish will eat small ones under 
all circumstances if they get a chance. The fishculturist 
learns that in his practical work. You have got to sep- 
arate fish of different ages as well as you can, to prevent 
it, when held in ponds. 
Mr. Stranahan, — The black bass won't prey on their 
kind if they have an abundance of other food. I be- 
lieve it is of more importance to you. Dr. Miller, with 
your area of water, to see to crossing your fish with new 
stock than it is to look after the carp. I have had some 
experience with much larger ponds than yours, where 
the stock has become diminutive through inbreeding. 
I should say it would be the best thing to introduce every 
year a new stock of bass; if you don't you will get a 
diminutive race. 
Mr. Peabody.— There is a club in Indiana that has 
taken up the subject of producing bass artificially. They 
have two artificial ponds in which they keep their bass, 
and another in which they carry on the hatching. 
In the small one they keep the bass until they get large 
enough to be active: then the club takes all the larger 
ones and puts them out. They have a drain in the 
center of this pond by which they can draw the water 
all off. They can go into it and take out all the fish. 
They have met with such success that they have their 
larger ponds amply stocked. They do this in an arti- 
ficial way. 
Dr. Miller. — I wish to state for the information of the 
gentlemen that Mr. May, the honorable president trf 
your convention, is the gentleman who started me in 
my enterprise, with this result, that this year out of 
my lake there have been caught, I suppose, two or three 
thousand bass by hook and line. This spring I put in 
twenty breeders and I don't know how many young 
bass there are, but the lake seems to be alive with bass. 
Mr. O'Brien then read the following paper: 
Large-Mouthed Black Bass— Methods of Hatching and 
Rearing. 
A great deal has been said and written, at former 
meetings of this Society, on bass culture, by persons 
of much greater ability than myself, therefore do not 
expect an elaborate essay from me. But as we departed 
somewhat from the usual method of handling our bass 
spawners at the Nebraska hatcheries the past season- 
possibly my experiments and the results obtained will 
prove of interest to those engaged in this branch of 
fishculturc. 
Our main spawning pond has a surface area of about 
one acre, and with the exception of the kettle, or drain- 
age point, averages about 2ft. in depth; bottom being 
both mud and sand. 
Previous to the spring of 1896 it had been the custom 
to place the spawners in the pond as soon as the ice 
melted off. together with a large number of chubs and 
shiners to serve as food, and pay no more attention to 
them until the pond was drawn off in the fall to remove 
whatever young bas_s there might be. This haphazard 
manner of propagation, of course, resulted in rather in- 
different success. 
In the spring of 1896 I used gravel spawning beds with 
brush shelter, and removed a large number of the fry 
to another pond when about a month old, and fed ground 
crayfish with considerable success. 
The spawning season for bass in our ponds extends 
usually over a period of about six weeks, and I noticed 
when we transferred the fry there was a great difference 
in the size of some as compared, with others, and after 
the fry was moved I noticed that, although I feci an 
abundance of ground crayfish, and there was consider- 
able insect life in the pond, the larger fry preyed on the 
smaller ones continually, diminishing the number to a 
considerable extent. 
In the spring of 1897 I decided to change the method 
of handling the spawners entirely; instead of trans- 
ferring them from the winter pond to the spawning 
pond when the ice melted off. we placed the spawners 
in a pond that had previously been used for trout, where 
temperature was about 55°. 
We then drew off the water in the spawning pond 
about May 1 and allowed it to remain dry for ten days 
We then placed eight wagon loads of mixed fine and 
coarse gravel on the bottom of shallow portions of the 
pond, in spots or beds about 8ft. square and about 2in. 
deep. We also put in twelve spawning boxes made of 
wood 3ft. square, with sides 3m. high and filled with 
