April i, 1899.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
24 7 
"MACiaNAW, 111., March 16. — I cannot refrain from 
expressing my thoughts over Mr. R. R. Wiley's letter 
published' in Forest and Stream of March 11. He has 
surely hit the nail on the head with regard to Illinois pro- 
tection. Sure enough^ 'What's the matter with Illinois?' 
I live within thirty miles of Mr. Wiley and can bear him 
out in everything he says. Here opposition toward game 
protection is so strong in some that threats are made on 
game wai-dens. EverA^thing is shot regardless of open 
seasons or anything else, and it is getting so there is 
not much to shoot, either. Prohibition of spring shooting 
will surely help us out, for as to ducks, off the Illinois 
out on the prairies, there are none to shoot. Public senti- 
ment is what we will have to have, to back up the laws, 
but the question is, how to arouse public sentiment? I 
for one will welcome anything in this line that will stop 
the slaughter and sale of game and fish. 
"Quail are not injured the least in this section. We 
had no snow or sleet, and no dead birds are to be found. 
Squirrels will be pretty fair too. Illinois." 
As to Spring Shooting. 
There is a fight on in Wisconsin this season against 
spring shooting. What the result may be is not yet evi- 
dent, though it would be very gratifying to see this grand 
State swing fairly into line in favor of advanced protec- 
tion, and abolish spring shooting altogether. Wisconsin 
has for some time held to the dog-in-the-manger policy 
that she will stop spring shooting altogether as soon as 
Illinois does. I think this is perhaps the most childish 
bit of legislation on record in the world. The tliinking 
sportsmen of Illinois Avould stop spring shooting if they 
could, but if they can not, that is no reason why the 
thinking sportsmen of Wisconsin should not if they can. 
If Wisconsin stops spring shooting she benefits Wiscon- 
sin. Her unmolested birds will breed there by thousands. 
Mr. C. C. Chase, of Oshkosh, Wis., whom I take to be a 
thinking sportsman, encloses me a little slip which he has 
been circulating in his State to aid, as it rhay, in the 
,fight against spring shooting. The same reads as below: 
"i. Wisconsin sportsmen are about equally divided on 
this question of shooting water fowl in the spring. Those 
favoring it have had their own way for a long time— gi^ c 
-the other fellows an inning. 
2. Prohibition of spring shooting for the next two 
years can certainly do no harm, and it is worth trying, if 
means are provided for enforcing the law. 
"3. If a female duck escapes the Illinois hunters on 
her way north there is no reason why she should be killed 
in Wisconsin. Returning from her Northern nesting 
grounds, or, undisturbed by a roar of artillery in Wiscon- 
sin marshes, doing her hatching here, she will have about 
her a brood of young ones whose flesh, like her own in 
the fall, w'ili be fit to eat. 
"4. A farmer has a flock of farmyard fowls. Let some 
gunner in the months of April or May slay a large part or 
all of them. The number of fowls left to the farmer in 
the fall will be determined by the accuracy of the gunner 
in destroying the source of supplj'. Had he deferred his 
onslaught until the close of the nesting and raising sea- 
son, the destruction of an equal number would still leave 
the farmer with a large increase in his original flock and 
a certainty of a still further increase the next year in 
case the gunner again postponed his operations until fall. 
■'5. Take j-our pencil and figure out the progeny of one 
pair of ducks in four years, assuming that they and their 
female descendants will raise an average of six male and 
six females each year. Deduct 80 per cent, for every pos- 
sible interference, including fall shooting, and there are 
left 622 ducks to gladden the sportsman's heart and to help 
perpetuate the duck family. Make a guess on the number 
of female ducks destroyed every spring in Wisconsin (25,- 
000 would be a low figure) multiply it hy 622 and make up 
your mind as to what spring shooting is doing toward 
duck extermination. 
"6. Don't wait until the horse is stolen before locking 
the door. Save the game while there is some left to save. 
There is no justice in allowing the present generation of 
gunners to 'hog' all the game away from posterity. 
"7. Stop spring shooting for the sake of decency, good 
sportsmanship, conscience and poste^itJ^ 
"8. Prohibiting spring shooting will be h gislating in 
the interest of the whole people. The rich :an always 
buy their way to good shooting. Unless the poor have it 
at their doors they cannot participate in it. A surplus of 
ducks would do away with closed marshes; there would 
be no necessity for the expense of guarding them from 
the public. This sirrplus can be speedily realized by the 
abolition of spring shooting." 
Ex-Warden FuUerton. 
Mr. S. F. Fullerton is now ex- Warden of Minnesota, a 
fact which his many friends will regret, though I am 
sure all lovers of protection will do everything possible 
to uphold the hands of his successor. Mr. Fullerton re- 
tires leaving countless well wishes, and I am sure I hope 
we shall often hear from him in the columns of Forest 
AND Stream. Under date of March 13 he writes to me : 
"Well, I will be an 'ex' to-morrow, and I thought I 
would write you a letter before quitting the office, as I 
wish to thank you for your many acts of kindness to me 
during the past four years. Some men complain that the 
newspapers always misquote them, and give them the 
worst of the deal, but my experience has been just the 
opposite. No man who ever held office could have re- 
ceived kinder or more considerate treatment from the 
newspapers than I have received. They have in many 
CcTses overlooked my shortcomings and given me full 
credit for any good I might have done for the cause of 
game protection. 
"The president of the new board, Mr. Williams, is a 
very fine gentleman and a game protector. Mr. Cramb, 
the new treasurer, and Mr. Ward, the secretary, are 
both game protectors, and I do not think Governor Lind 
Gould have selected two better men in the State as mem- 
bers of the Game and Fish Commission. The man who 
takes my place i am not acquainted with, neither am I 
acquainted with Mr. Dantz; but I have no doubt that 
they are good men, and we all look forward to good re- 
sults from their work, and I hope every game protector, 
.regardless of politics, will 'buckle' in and help the new 
cVioard as effectually as they helped me. I shall certainly 
coi. 
and — 
still continue to take an interest iri game protection 
whether I am in office or not." 
Michigan Game Matters. 
In his sixth biennial report, Warden Chase S. Osborn, 
of Michigan, touches on some interesting points in re- 
gard to the game and fish life of his State. He admits 
that the flight of wild fowl is less than it has been, urges 
a limit to the bag, and strongly favors the contiiuiance of 
the law forbidding spring shooting. He says that the 
ruffed grouse :s about holding its own. A very remark- 
able increase of quail life has been noted, and Warden 
Osborn mentions the rapidity with which this bird is 
working northward. He states that the commission will 
try to introduce this bird into the north peninsula of 
Michigan, and thinks that the hardy little Bob White 
will hold his own even that far north. Thus far, Macki- 
nac Island is the furthest northward that a quail has been 
seen. The bird is following the farms into the old 
hunber regions. < 
Warden Osborn has on the whole a sad story to tell 
about his game and fish. He says that squirrels and rab- 
bits are less each year, that the fur-bearing animals are 
decreasing, that the bear is disappearing, that the wolverine 
is practically extinct, that the elk and wild turkeys have 
disappeared. He cites the killing of one moose in 
Mackinac county last fall, but learns of no caribou. 
Warden Osborn speaks with pride of the game laws of 
his State. The State itself, and all its sportsmen might 
well speak in the pride of Warden Osborn when he ut- 
ters the following words of wisdom in regard to the sale 
of game : 
"There is probably no agency for the protection of 
game of greater influence than prohibiting its sale. To 
take game out of the market shuts off the market-hunter 
and the 'game hog.' I am not sure that it is at all wi.se 
to prohibit the sale of game and hook and line fish until 
the conditions make it absolutely necessary. The condi- 
tions of quail, woodcock, partridge, brook trout and 
grayling life in Michigan demanded the most stringent 
measures and led to the passage of laws interdicting their 
sale. As a result of this law and other regulations for 
their protection, these game birds and fish are on the in- 
crease all over the State, and have so firmly re-established 
themselves in field and stream that to perpetuate them 
indefinitely we shall only have to give them wise care. 
There are those who believe that at this time all game 
should be taken out of the market, and I am convinced 
that the time is coming when deer and ducks may not 
be sold with safety to their existence. The tendency of 
all forms of wild life is to extinction, and it is only by 
profound study and the application of the most earne.st 
effort that we will be .able to keeip the ifihabitants of 
forest nad stream with us." ' E. Hough. 
1200 BoYCE BuitDiNG, Chicago. 
Ontario Moose Opening. 
Editor Forest and Stream : 
There has just come from Ontario a case-hardened 
statement that protection does not protect. This refers 
not to an economic assault upon free trade and a tariff, 
but instead to the question of moose. It appears from 
this Canuck report that Ontario is dissatisfied. In the 
beginning, the Ontario Government set out to insure ab- 
solute immunity until 1000 for all moose within its bor- 
ders, and, in a measure, it has done so. But by protect- 
ing its moose, the Government has unwittingly devel- 
oped the art and trade of pot-hunting and poaching, until 
the state of Denmark were a veritable posey compared to 
the stalwart aroma of this game-law scandal. 
Now, to oft'set this evil, it propo.sed to repeal the uct 
protecting moose until 1900, and behind this appeal to re- 
peal I am informed are many prominent citizens. It is 
their effort to have Ontario thrown open next September 
to moose hunters, or, in other words to lop off one year 
from the restriction. 
The statements made by these gentlemen is that the 
close season has had the successful effect of driving awav 
all the visiting sport.smen, to the benefit of the Indian and 
half-breed head and skin-hunter. No man, abroad for 
pure amusement, desires to antagonize the laws. He 
may, of course, go out on occasion and play ducks and 
drakes with the most ponderous statutes of a Community, 
but I decline to believe that he obtains more than a_ ficti- 
tious enjoyment out of the anarchy. This, as it will be 
understood, has effectually kept sportsmen from stray- 
ing into Ontario, and. on the other hand,_ has _ simply 
passed over their privileges to the aforesaid Indian and 
half-breed. 
In consequence of the close season. Ontario has been 
stripped of the income from visiting sportsmen. In ad- 
dition, the close season has lulled the game wardens into 
the belief that there was no one in the woods likely to 
slay the prohibited game. Like other game wardens, 
these Ontario officials spend all their time searching out. 
substantial offenders and ever refrain from annoying ilu-. 
local poacher, in this case the Indian and half-breed. So 
the Indians and the half-breeds slay moose where and 
whenever they choose, and the only result obtained by 
Ontario is the price of experience. 
To remedy this state of affairs, it is purposed to or- 
ganize an association of guides formed somewhat on the 
order of the Maine Association. It is asserted that if 
many of these Indians and half-breeds were able to obtain 
employment as guides they would give up the occupa- 
tion of pot-hunting. In organizing them, there will be 
an effort to point out the value of preserving the game. 
It will be shown to them that the revenue from sports- 
men is much greater than that from pot-hunting. Once 
they come to understand this, it will be plain sailing. 
In order to give these men an interest in their work, it 
is proposed that all members of the association be made 
deputy game wardens. Th&y will be held personally re- 
sponsible for the conduct of their parties, and will be re- 
quired to report on (he killing of all game by persons 
whom they conduct. 
In relation to this matter. I have talked to Mr. CoHn 
Rankin, of the HudsoTi'.s Bay Company, of Mattawa, and 
to Mr. C. C. Farr, of Haileybury. Both are in favor of 
opening- Ontario next September. Moreover, they de- 
clare that public sentiment in Ontario is for it, and that 
no opposition has been organized. Mr. Rankin says that 
the restriction upon moose has certainly increased the 
supply, but that it would have increased equally with a • 
limited open season and a suitable protection in force 
from January to September. 
'The sportsmen, as a class," said he, "kill the fewest 
moose. When they have killed the number allotted by 
law they cease hunting. With the pot-hunter it is differ- 
ent. He keeps on killing as long as he can find moose 
to kill. With an open season there would be game war 
dens in the bush and these game wardens, if properly in- 
structed, would keep a strict watch upon the pot-hunter 
and sportsman alike." 
Mr. Farr has personal knowledge of the slaughter done 
by the pot-hunters. He is convinced tliat if the guides 
were made game wardens they would find it to their in- 
terest to prevent pot-hunting. After talkingwith these two 
gentlemen and others, I am convinced that they are right 
and that it would be the best thing for Ontario to gi\-e 
up protection that does not protect, and permit its people 
to once more enjoy the income from which they have 
become separated. M, H. F. 
American Game Parks. 
The "Forest and Stream's" Fifth Annual Report on Game 
in Preserves. 
Moosilauke Fish and Game League. 
Replying to your inquiry of the i6th, would say that 
I have not the good fortune to own either a fish or game 
preserve, but am pleased to be able to tell you that the 
results of the efforts put forth by the Moosilauke Fish 
and Game League have been very satisfactory. 
This league was organized something over four years 
ago, for the purpose of securing the co-operation of the 
farmers, and other residents of the farming districts, in 
this section toward securing a better observance of our 
existing fish and game laws. We have succeeded even 
better than expected, having at present nearly 200 of this 
class on our membership list, the majority (or a large 
number) of whom, previous to the organization of our 
league, were either actual violators of our fish and game 
laws, or, at best, were not in sympathy with them; in- 
clined rather to oppose any action of our State Commis- 
sioners looking toward any appropriation for these in- 
terests. The result of the changed state of feeling among 
this class of our population is very apparent in the very 
marked increase of brook trout in our mountain streams, 
and of lake and salmon trout and bass in our ponds and 
lakes. 
The increase in deer the past three years, not only in 
my immediate section, but throughout the State, has been 
nothing short of phenomenal. During the season just 
closed (Dec. 15), some thirteen deer have been shot 
within a radius of twelve miles of the railroad station at 
this point. The largest number in any previous season, so 
far as known, is four. In the more thickly wooded sec- 
tions north of here, where ten years ago a man could 
tramp all day without coming across a deer track, he can- 
not now go twenty rods in any direction without crossing 
several, and in certain favored localities the tracks are as 
thick as sheep tracks in a farmer's barnyard. We have 
not yet gotten together the figures on the total number 
killed this season, so far as reported, but it is safe to say 
the number will exceed the total of any three previous 
years together. Should the present increase continue, it 
will be but a short time when the shooting and fishing 
of northern New Hampshire will be inferior to that of 
Maine only in expanse of territory. 
Several gatne leagues in the State, as well as a num- 
ber of private individuals, have turned loose ring-necked 
and Mongolian pheasants within the past two or three 
years, but after the first season they seem to disappear 
completely. We occasionally hear reports of a scattered 
bird or two being seen in the neighborhood of Corbin's 
Park, but in most sections none are reported after the 
first season, notwithstanding every sportsman is on the 
watch for them. This would indicate that these birds 
leave the country after the first severely cold weather. We 
should very much like to hear from leagues and sportsmen 
in other northern States who have tried this experi- 
ment. 
With best washes for the success and increased pros- 
perity of Forest .\nd Stream during the year, I am, 
E. Bertram Pike. 
Woodland Caribou for Game Preserves. 
During the past two years I have imported three wood- 
land caribou. The States of New York, Pennsylvania 
and New Jersey have preserves well adapted for the habits 
and browsing propensities of this deer, yet it is a ques- 
tion if a single animal can be found therein. 
The distinctly hardy qualities of the caribou render it. 
capable of existing in low, marshy forests, where most 
other varieties will not thrive, and in many instances when 
its more delicate congeners are not available, this animal 
will be found valuable for stocking inexpensive tracks of 
swamp forest land. It is equally well adapted for pre- 
serves already in existence, and will browse comfortably 
along with the other cervidae. 
It is a mistaken idea that this deer can not endure the 
midsummer heat of a temperate climate, and also that 
litchens are absolutely necessary for its health and 
existence. 
The caribou, while not large and powerful, is exceeding- 
ly refractory as a rule, having a very nervous and restless 
disposition, and it consequently requires the seclusion ot 
a dense undergrowth. A lowland range, where the more 
tender watery substance plants and shrubs, such as 
litchens, willows, birch, etc., may be found, is very desir- 
able. 
The success of propagation depends greatly upon the 
manner of transfer from the place of its nativity to new 
ranges. It is needless to say that many failures in the 
propagation of ruminants are more directly due to ineffi- 
cient care and protection while en route than to ehanged 
climatic conditions and food. 
I am deeply interested in the propagation of .game ani- 
mals and birds, and trust the day is not far distant when 
our preserves will show rare collections of deer and other 
