Feb. 4, 1899.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
87 
per cent, of them had resulted in convictions. The 
election of officers resulted as follows : 
President, George Dobbin Penniman ; Vice-President, 
J. Olney Norris; Secretary-Treasurer, F. C. Kirkwood; 
Executive Committee, F. C. Latrobe, James Scott, L. M, 
Levering. William H. Fisher, Thomas C. Clark, M. H. 
Ould, William H, Armstrong, of Hagerstown, Md. ; A. 
E. Thomsen, R. F. Kimball, Wm. H. DeCourcy Wright, 
Dr. Samuel C. Pennington, J. L. Strouss, DeCourcy W. 
Thom, Henry Brauns, Dr. Charles C. Harris. All the 
foregoing were re-elected except Vice-President Norris 
and Messrs. Clark, Armstrong, Thomsen, Wright and 
Pennington, of the executive committee. 
A resolution, introduced by Mr. DeCourcy Thom:, was 
passed thanking Governor Lowndes "for his great as- 
sistance to the Association in appointing numerous dep- 
uty game wardens throughout the State at the instance 
of the game warden and in further recognition of the 
excellent work done by the fish commissioners under his 
supervision, which has trebled the number of young fish 
annually hatched at the State hatcheries for .Maryland 
waters." The resolution also states that Governor 
LoAvndes' support given to the State game warden and 
the fish commissioners had made the strict enforcement 
of the game laws possible. 
"Women, "Weeds and Insects. 
The resolution introduced by Mr. William H. Arm- 
strong, of Hagerstown, and passed, was as follows : 
"Resoh-ed, That the introduction in the Congress of 
the United States of a bill for the protection of song and 
insectivorous birds b}'' Senator Hoar makes him the 
compeer of Sir John Lubbock, the eminent English 
.statesman and humanitarian, i 
"That a crisis now exists with the bird creation "be- 
cause some of the most faithful species huve been nearly 
exterminated. 
"That women, weed .-seed's and noxious insects seem to 
have confederated to ruin agriculture, to destroy the 
economy of nature and aggravate the curse that the 
farmer "shall earn his bread by the sweat of his brow.' 
"That the action of Senator Hoar is commended by 
this Association and is entitled to the moral support 
of every economist and humane person of the land." 
At the request of President Penniman, Mr. J. Olney 
Norris described the raising of Mongolian pheasants at 
the Carroll's Island Ducking Club's shore. He said that 
four hens and one cock were placed in an inclosure, the 
fence being i6ft. high. The club had fourteen of these 
inclosures btiilt last season. Sixty-seven per cent, of the 
eggs had been hatched. When the young pheasants were 
about half-grown they would fly over the fence and 
would help to stock the surrounding country with pheas- 
ants, the shooting of which was fine sport. 
President Penniman stated that he had a plan for 
'distributing these pheasants all over the State. He in- 
tended asking large farmers in various parts of Maryland 
to raise a few of these fine game birds, and then let the 
birds look out for themselves, and he thought they would 
soon become well distributed and numerous enough to 
afford fine sport. 
Before adjourning the meeting President Penniman 
made a personal reqixest to every member that when- 
ever he heard of any restaurant or hotel or dealer selling 
game out of season that he shoixld at once notify the 
game warden, who would get a search warrant, and if 
game was found would have the man arrested. 
The Lacey Bill. 
New Haven^ Conn., Jan. 26. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: I agree with the statement of Mr. L. A. Chil- 
dress in your last issue, that the bill now before Congress 
to enlarge the scope of the Fish Commission to include 
game bird propagation and distribution deserves a fuller 
and more careful consideration than the members of 
either House appear to be disposed to give it. It deserves 
also more impartial and expert criticism than Mr. Chil- 
dress has given it. 
The introduction of this bill was one of the important 
events in the history of game protection in this country. 
The proposal that the national Government shall take a 
hand in the work of game protection, in which the States 
have so conspicuously failed, is such an important and 
promising one that we should not condemn the bill for 
minor defects, or because it does not suit our own notions 
of what it ought to be. It certainly has its defects, and 
its wording is not, to my mind, judicious. Many people 
may question whether, even if the work is to be taken up, 
it would be best to put it in charge of the Fish Commis- 
sion, although this objection does not seem to me of any 
weight, for there would doubtless be more opposition to 
the establishment of a new commission, and the work may 
at any time be transferred to other control if it should 
seem desirable. Even if no very great good can be ac- 
complished under Mr. Lacey's bill, a proposition to which 
I do not assent, there is still reason to hope that it will 
be the entering wedge which will open the way for some- 
thing better in the future. No time is to be lost in making 
a beginning; this is a critical period for many of our 
species, including a number that are valuable as game 
birds, and the next four years will undoubtedly determine 
whether they can be preserved or whether they will go the 
way of the wild pigeon. It is already determined for some 
of them, I fear. Any measure passed at the present time 
must be a compromise with the indifference, selfishness 
and ignorants, born not of blindness, but of unwillingness 
to see, which characterizes the attitude of the public in gen- 
eral toward these matters, and unfortunately too large a 
part also of those to whose mercies the inhabitants of the 
several States are obliged to trust the making and en- 
forcement of the game laws. 
The very difficulties which Mr. Childress mentions, 
■which surround any efforts that we can make to increase 
the game supply, other than by refraining from destroy- 
ing it, make it important that some systematic work 
should be done, while the birds are sufficiently plenty so 
that nature can take care of the details of propagation 
and distribution. The work of the commission should be 
directed toward affording nature the best possiUle oppor- 
tunities and conditions for doing this. I do not believe 
that it ever occurred to any one except Mr. Childress that 
the proposed eommissien vfould be expected tO apply the 
methods of fishculture to propagate and distribute birds. 
It is certainly much more difficult to introduce new 
species of birds, or to restore them to a locality that 
they have once deserted, than it is to do the same with 
fish, but this is all the. more reason that it should be done 
imder the direction of .some scientific body, and after 
proper experimenting, to determine the species and local- 
ities which are suitable, and not left to th.e sporadic at- 
tempts of individuals, or of our forty-odd State legisla- 
tures, whose expenditures, however, if added together, 
might represent an expense that would accomplish some 
work of lasting value if rightly directed. 
In providing and protecting suitable breeding places 
for the l)irds, a kind of place that is each year becom- 
ing hardt'r to find in this countrj^, the commissioners 
would be as truly helping to propagate them as if they 
hatched them in an incubator. There is no harm in the 
bill, because it empowers the commissioners to transport 
and distribute the birds, although these are matters which 
the birds arc likely to take into their own hands, if we 
may judge hy past experience. 
Mr. Childress says : "The people of Texas, moreover, 
would not care to he taxed for tli« maintenance of game 
wardens in New England." When will people begin to 
realize that the protection of game is not a local mat- 
ter? In the case of our shore birds and water fowl, in 
fact in the case of all our migratory birds, and but few 
of them are not migratory, do not the very same in- 
dividual birds make up the game supply of every State 
from Maine to Florida, and from the Northern States of 
the interior to the Gulf of Mexico? Is it a matter of in- 
difference to the sportsmen of one State that the game is 
killed off after it has left their territory or before it has a 
chance to reach them ? Can it be argued that the falling 
off of 75 per cent, or thereabout in the number of mi- 
gratory game birds in Connecticut, which has taken place 
during the last few years, is due entirelj^ to Connecticut 
gunners? Are not the pot-hunters and shooting clubs of 
the Chesapeake and the Carolina sounds also to blame? 
And is it a matter of indifference' to those interested in 
the shooting in these favored localities that along, a large 
part of the New England coast shooting is almost a thing 
of the past, and that many places in the Northern States 
and in Canada, where the birds formerlj' bred, are no 
longer available for them? 
Not at all. There is just so much less territory for 
them to draw birds from, their potential supply of game is 
just so much lessened, and the number of years that their 
good shooting is going to last is correspondingly reduced, 
although, owing to the abundance of game in these 
places, they do not perceive their' loss to the extent that 
we do in the less favorable places further north. 
Mr. Childress tells us positively that no commission is 
needed, for "a section may be completely stripped of its 
game birds, yet birds from oirtlying districts can come in 
and restock the exhausted section." The same old fallacy. 
"Sections" do not have game birds of their own except in 
the case of ruffed grouse and a few other .species. Our 
migratory birds belong to no particular State, no matter 
what laws human beings may make about them. The 
birds will and can obey no laws but those of nature. Ef- 
forts at game protection must regard these laws and not 
ignore them. This is why I hope that scientifically 
directed work will accomplish what the State laws have 
not done, for the latter have almost invariably been made 
only with regard to selfish and local interests, and with- 
otit considering the future. 
But the Fish and Game Commission is not intended to 
supplant the State laws, but to supplement them. One of 
the ways in which it could be useful would be in dis- 
covering and reporting the best means of protection, and 
what birds are most in need of it, for it is well understood 
that there are some of our birds that are disappearing 
much more rapidly than others, and even if these are com- 
mon or even abundant species the present rate of de- 
crease must soon result in extermination. These are hard 
subjects to obtain reliable information on, owing to the 
wide geographical range of our birds, the personal equa- 
tion entering into all reports upon the abundance or 
scarcity of game, and the difficulty of getting informa- 
tion up to date, for so fa^t are our birds going that re- 
ports upon the abundance of species four or five years 
ago may now be entirely misleading. Definite and trust- 
worthy information of this kind would do much to arouse 
public opinion to favor effective protection before it is 
too late. Of course, the commission could not compel the 
passage and enforcement of the necessary laws, but by fix- 
ing the responsibility for not doing so on those directly to 
blame for it, it would make their passage more probable. 
Because the decrease of game in a certain State is due to 
excessive shooting in other States is, of course, no real 
excuse for that State not affording proper protection 
within its own boundaries, but it is an explanation why it 
is not done. 
It is my own opinion that it would be much better if 
the protection of all birds except those of comparatively 
stationary habits, such as the members of the grouse 
family, could be placed in charge of the United States 
Government and removed from that of the State Govern- 
ments who have always shirked the responsibility. What 
have they done to preserve birds of this class? We can 
state without fear of exaggeration that at the present rate 
there will not be one-quarter as many such birds, taking 
the country as a whole, ten years hence, as there are to- 
day, scarce as they have already become. No game laws 
are successful if they do not keep up the supply of game. 
At present they are doing nothing more than to some- 
what delay the time when most of our species of ducks, 
geese and shore birds will be entirely gone or nothing 
more than ornithological curiosities. I think that I have 
sufficiently stated my reasons, both in this letter and in 
former communications to this paper, for believing that 
the Federal Government could do better. I cannot see 
why the application of the same logic which says that the 
game that happens to be on a man's land belongs not to 
him, but to the State, should not apply between the States 
and the national Government. The State Governments 
exercise certain rights in regulating railroad fares and 
charges, yet the national Government has the regulation of 
interstate commerce. Of course, what is good logic may 
be very poor law, yet it seems to me thjt there is some- 
thing radically wrong if a State that passes and enforces 
strict game law? can get no redress from another -where 
the game, to which one has no m.ore right than the other. 
is killed off without restriction or consideration of the 
rights of others. There is sometliing wrong if the na- 
tional Government does not have the power to regulate 
this. 
But to return from these speculations to the practical 
matter of expense. Of course the Fish and Game Com- 
mission has got to spend some money if it is going to do 
anything. But a thousand dollars spent now' will be of 
more use than many times the amount after the game has 
practically gone. If we had begun long ago, the money 
would have been spent to much more advantage than it 
can now, much land and water suitable for reservations 
would have cost nothing, but now the Government must 
pay a good price for it. It will not grow any cheaper for 
waiting. The sportsmen of this nation want some money 
spent on game protection, and future generations will 
have a long score again.st us if out of stinginess or in- 
fluence we allow most of our birds to become extinct. 
Many of them are nearer it than most people suppose. 
Some of these days we will begin to notice that the long- 
billed curlew, for instance, has become very rare in certain 
places where it used to be common. People will say 
that it is a bad year for birds, or that they have changed 
their abode and moved to some other part of the country. 
Then it will be discovered that they have also become 
rare in all the other places where they used to be found, 
and that they are practically extinct, and bound to .soon 
become entirely so, Then people will wonder why nothing 
was done to preserve them. 
We want some money spent on game protection. All 
we ask is that it be spent to the best advantage. Whether 
spent by the State or by the national Government, it all 
comes out of the pockets of the people. As I have ex- 
plained, in protecting the game of one part of the coun- 
try, a large portion of the rest of it must share in the 
work and in the benefits resulting from it, if any follow. 
It seems to me that a reasonable sum could be placed 
at the disposal of such a commission as Mr. Lacey's bill 
provides, with confidence that it would produce good re- 
sults. At all events I think Mr. Lacey deserves the thanks 
of ever}-- sportsman in the ccuntry for his efforts to solve 
a most difficult problem. W. G. Van Name. 
In Missouri. 
Having' handled yellow pine in a retail way for soniS 
years past, naturally I had a yearning to see what a 
i2in. board looked like when it wasn't a I2in. board; so 
I climbed into the sleeper of a Memphis-bound train and 
started for the Current River pineries of southern Mis- 
souri. As I drew the curtains of my berth together T 
thought I heard the porter say, "The next stop is Fort 
Scott." 
Surely this does not look like Fort Scott; big brown 
hills, covered with scraggy oaks, dotted here and there 
by a green-topped pine shining in the raj's of the morn^ 
ing sun. The trees shower earthward a myriad of spart 
ling, scintillating atoms of frost, that cover the crisp, 
fallen, reddish-brown leaves as with a carpet of woven 
gems, changing yellow clay, black burnt trees, stumps, 
and forbidden-looking cliffs into a panorama of beauty, 
a joy and a pleasure to the onlooker from the prairie 
town of Kansas. 
The winding rail fence marking the boundary hue be- 
tween the field and road, covered by a network of brown 
morning glory vines, screens the deep furrovvcd track 
that is seen winding its way up the rough hillside, and is 
lost to view as it leads to the post-office in die village be- 
yond — where thty exchange posts for calico and rail- 
road ties for groceries. Each little town is almost a 
world of its own, a capital of the parish in which it lies. 
Passing great piles of dirty oak posts and freshly hewn 
ties, you see a hamlet wrapped in impenetrable quiet, a 
Goldsmith's "Deserted Village." 
Huge piles of mouldy sawdust, marks of a once pros- 
perous mill, or the broom-corn-like sheds of a long ago 
planter, stand silent in the sun. Your first idea that it is 
a beautifully rough country does not leave you, and as 
one hill steps from behind another, valleys lengthen, 
lap, until with each other, the first lonesome pine you 
saw has become a group, and then a forest. You see 
them now in groups of a half dozen or a hillside full, 
nodding a friendly greeting to the onrushing train and 
seemingly smiling with self-commendation as they con- 
gratulate each other on being allowed to rear their heads 
in such lofty eminence, a growing monument to what 
others might have been. 
Reaching the Current River, as we viewed it a few days 
later, clear, limpid, deceptive, seeming in places but a 
few inches when it is that many feet in depth, it flows 
not ripplingly, but aggressively on, an artery to which 
all streams in that part of Missouri pay tribute. Near 
the club house, you find a wonderful spring, and as you 
approach it from below the dip of your oars startles a 
huge black bass; a flash, a gleam, and he is hidden in some 
deep pool, or scudding into the shadow of some covered 
ledge, he lies among the moss that partly clothes the 
bed of the river with an Axminster of green, so tempt- 
ing that one almost ventures a wetting to walk thereon. 
Rowing becomes more difficult, and looking .up for the 
cause, you see a stream rushing in from the left with the 
speed of a mill race. Deep, blue, intensely cold, it comes 
surging down. In summer it is almost hid by the mist. 
Dipping your hand into the current on the left, you with- 
draw it almost numbed with cold, while the water on the 
right of the boat, the river, is warm and pleasant. You 
leave your boat because ycu want to go on, not back, 
where the fierce current forces you. 
After walking a quarter of a mile along a river fully 
60ft. wide, 4 to 15ft. deep, flowing at four miles an hour, 
clear and pure, you see bursting from the foot of the 
mountain a seething, boiling body of water fully 30ft. 
across. A stone thrown in wdth the full force of the ann 
is tossed out, hardly penetrating the water. You stand 
in speechless wonderment. The roar is so great that 
long since you have been unable to hear your nearest 
companion. 
A few miles below is a model sawmill town of 1,500 
people, the home of the lumber company. Nestling in 
this little vale are comfortable one and two story houses, 
a large, well-appointed hotel, which would be a credit to 
three-fourths of the _towns in Kansas, It, as well aa 
every other building in the town, excepting the depots is 
