464 
FOHEST AND STREAM. 
tJuKE 17, 1899- 
we seem to laiow more about the past than about the 
ftiture, and we look back for something lost — boyhood 
days, the old home, father and mother, brothers and 
sisters, friends and incidents are recalled. 
It may be sentiment to reconsider the past, but to the 
country-bred boy that sentiment is sacred. There is no 
home like the boy's home. There is no spot like the spot 
on which the man is born. There it is that every scene is 
imperishably fixed on his memorj^ There were his play- 
ground and his school, there the little church to which he 
went, there the paths his father and his mother trod. No- 
where else will he ever know who lives under every roof, 
nowhere else will linger so familiarly the names of the 
neighbors. Though years and oceans separate him from 
it, always in his heart is the thought that he will some 
day return to it. When he revisits it there are more 
familiar names on the gravestones than familiar faces in 
the street, but the roadways and the lilacs, and the sweet- 
brier and the wild rose, the grass of the fields, the kiss of 
the west wind, the shadows of the clouds upon the 
meadows, the cool fragrance of the Avoods — all these are 
the same ; they have not changed, and the soul of the old 
playmates and schoolmates is still in them. Though their 
outstretched hands have crumbled into dust, the neighbor- 
ly sympathy is in the very air and cannot be lost so long 
as that breathes. The longer he lives, the closer is the 
tug upon his heart.strings to lavish on the old home some 
expressions of his love. And that is what Tm thinking 
of at tliis moment. W. W. Hastings. 
Adirondack Ruin. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I returned the otlier dav from a trip to the northern part 
of Herkimer county, N. Y. I did a httle fishing, tramped 
through the woods and saw nearly all of my friends in the 
vicinity of Northwood. The boys all had Jiomething to 
tell, chiefly about deer hunting and other exclusively forest 
topics. What they said was not altogether pleasing, not 
was all that I could see inspiring of hope for the preserv- 
ing of the game and the game covers. I got n letter from 
my father, who is at Northwood, on June 3, after my re- 
turn. He said that the woodsmen in Wilmurt are talking 
of setting fii-e to the woods tliis summer and burning as 
much of the country as possible. I heard considerable of 
this talk myself, and there Avas nerve behind the talk to 
apply a match to a brush heap or two at the foot of some 
hill. The men who talk this way are not guides, but 
woodsmen. They have been insulted by men who seek to 
keep them from following the public highways of the 
country, and from hunting on the State lands v/here game 
is to be found in any considerable quantity. 
The woods are in very bad shape. I saw a mile of 
spruce pulp logs boomed in the West Canada Creek at 
Hinckley. The logs were from ift. in diameter at the 
butts down to 3 or 4in. During the half-dozen years just 
passed the same boom has been jammed yearly Avith logs. 
At first it was spruce saAV logs culled from the Avoods in 
scientific style. The butts were alleged to be a foot or 
more in diameteir. The supply of spruce was going to 
yield a perennial harvest, it was stated, and the woods 
would last forever under judicial harvesting. I suppose 
the pulp logs are taken out on the same principle. 
"Culling" the woods is getting to be a regular mania. 
Actually the only woods thing not worth culling .seems to 
be the blackberry briers. It is said the ferns are better 
for a little trimming, the partridges thicker because of a 
little killing of the old birds, the deer better off if the big 
bucks are killed, and the trees better for a little culhng._ 
The "scientific" culling of the spruce forest, as carried 
on in all the Avestern part of the Adirondacks, is some- 
thing to wonder at. This is the first result I have noticed. 
In dry time there is only about two-thirds as much water 
now in the West Canada Creek as there was ten years ago. 
In high Avater there is more. 
All the softwood saw logs in the West Canada Creek 
Avatershed have been cut out. That left big gaps on the 
hardwood ridges. The sun reached the ground in places 
and there the springs dried up. The dead tops are as 
tinder. Is there any wonder that the streams are wither- 
ing? 
But pulp wood is soft wood only. The problem how to do 
some more culling was ever present. What could be done 
with the great beech and maple trees which cover a large 
part of the rocky Adirondack hills ? The idea of transport- 
ing them by railroad naturally came. The mills which 
cut up all the spruce were handy to the railroad. But 
the railroad wasn't always handy to the hardAvood. The 
woods are cut through along the western side now by a 
railroad, and so the hardwood is easily transported. The 
big birch trees are going first. Birch is very ornamental, 
especially for ceilings and doors. So the birch goes now 
as fast as the saws will take it. 
It appears that with just the birch being "culled"_ the 
woods were still able to hold their own, or else they didn't 
go fast enough; the trees still croAvded each other Avith 
natural barbarism. Such wilderness is noAV being done 
away with by civilizing processes. 
The woods five miles above NorthAvood are nearly all 
hardwood. A hundred years ago a fire swept over that 
district. A part of the burning still remains open. The 
charred logs lie where they fell. Briers and ferns cover 
most of the open, but poplars, wild cherries and other trees 
are taking root in all parts of the clearing, and woods 
bid fair to grow where the burning was not already re- 
deemed. On all sides of the burning open there is a dense 
second growth of tall slender birches and maples. It 
is so close in places that one can travel through it only 
with difficulty. Around this second growth is a fine 
forest of hardwood, with hardly a trace of the old burn- 
ing in it. Here and there are rocks scaled by the heat, 
little bunches of second growth and occasional patches of 
briers as bad as barbed wire. It is a fine cover for game. 
The eye of an excelsior-making man caught sight of 
.some of the trees Avhile he was partridge shooting. _ Tn 
second growth the trees are apt to have a pretty straight 
grain. The trees were just right as to size. As a result 
a camp was completed in the center of the finest of the 
second growth on May 25, and a gang of men put to work. 
Twenty-five thousand cords of wood are to be taken out ''as 
a starter." Everything goes— birch, beech or spruce, hem- 
lock or balsam. A gasoline engine is being put up right in 
edge of the woods to split the blocks. Should it 
blow up there would be a pretty mess, and li the weather 
is dry enough ther« would be another burning. 
The whole western border of the Adirondacks is a mass 
of AA'oods, Avitli dead, dry underbrush. The uncjerbrush is 
being added to along every stream which will float a log. 
Of the streams, Black RiA'cr is most important. On it 
there are several saw mills and pulp and paper mills. The 
largest pulp mill in the M'orld is to be erected on it, it is 
said, very soon. Moose River and Little Black Creek, 
both of which reach into Plerkinier county, are tributaries. 
The AVOods counties affected by the pulp industry are 
Hamilton, LcAvis, Herkimer and St. LaAvrence. The parts 
of the woods which the rivers do not reach are cut by 
railroads. The railroads" carry everything — hard and soft 
Avood both. The spectacle of the Avealthiest State in the 
Union allowing a few companies to clear aAvay the forest 
AAdiich covers the sources of most of the State's rivers is 
one to think about. After the timber is all gone the 
land will, of course, be sold to the State at about six 
times its original cost. 
■ I have heard that there are preserves in the woods 
from Avhich the timber is not taken in up-to-date scientific 
style. These preserA-es offer shelter to the game which 
still remains. Where only real sportsmen hunt over 
them, the overflow of animals from the preserves Avill sup- 
ply adjoining territory. Consequently, Avhen the State 
does as it ought to and buys up the land in that region, 
and properly patrols it with gamekeepers— makes a State 
club of it — the game Avill increase everywhere. The deer 
Avill become especially numerous. But if certain styles 
of clubs prevail, then there will be trouble for everything 
from the chipmunks to the hunters. 
The efforts made to protect the game are interesting. 
Deer are around Northwood every summer. They are 
seen in the pastures, in the little w^ood lots near by, and 
berry pickers scare them out of the bushes. Partridges 
flock in every woods patch, and every man and boy has a 
gun, some' tAvo or three. All sorts of woods stories are 
heard there. The residents are all Avoodsmen. The terror 
of the game laAV is on no one. So far as I know there 
hasn't been a prosecution for violating the game laAV at 
Northwood in ten years, and I have been in constant touch 
with the Avoodsmen all that time. The other day, when I Avas 
in Northwood, a man told me that he had heard of twenty- 
tAVO deer being killed by crusters last winter. One party 
on two trips killed thirteen. There ought to be lots more 
deer in the neighborhood. There is no better region for 
Avintering deer than that from the Twin Lakes to the 
South Branch of Little Black Creek. The deer are there 
every winter. Before spring they are dead — their throats 
cut or their heads chopped off. One Avants deer meat. 
But he wouldn't go if his neighbor wouldn't. The neigh- 
bour will go anyhoAV. So both go together. 
At Wilmurt," ten miles aAvay, there Avere, I believe, five 
men fined $I00 each for hounding deer. Around Wil- 
murt the deer are not plentiful enough to .still-hunt. 
Twelve miles north and beyond is good still-hunting 
ground. The Adirondack League OAvns a lot of land up 
there somewhere, and claims the right to stop people from 
going up the Creek to the hunting grounds. The League 
is believed to be back of the prosecution of the bounders. 
The trail up the West Canada is forty years old. The 
law says (laws of 1890, Chapter 568, Section 100) that 
twenty years' travel makes a trail a public highway. Ap- 
parently the League don't think all laws are equally im- 
portant. The woodsmen don't pretend to be lawyers. 
They are afraid of the League's pOAver. One can talk 
morality to them by the rod, and they look sullen and go 
crusting and talk about a dry spell and what Avonders a 
single match will do. 
The woodsmen believe the game is to be preserved. 
They see that men have been fined, and that it is danger- 
ous to let dogs run free. But they persist in calling it 
"Canachagala cold storage preservation." A friend of 
mine, Byron E. Cool, at North Lake, was at Canachagala 
Lake early last summer. When he came back he wrote a 
story of the trip for the Boonville Herald. He told of 
finding three deer sunk with rocks to the bottom of the 
lake on the floating ground. He added that "everybody 
knows none but League members or guests are allowed 
to hunt on Canachagala Lake." It stirred the Avoodsmen 
quite a good deal. Canachagala Lake is a State reservoir, 
a feeder of the Black River and Erie canals, but the 
League claims it. One's sympathies can't always run 
to upholding game laAvs. 
As the editor sees, I spent most of my time gadding 
around. I did catch a few fish, but mostly I was seeing 
the woods and talking to my friends, _ 
The season was very late, but now is in full speed. The 
leaves are fully out, and fishing worth having begun. 
Mr. Haskins and Did Thomas Avere at Will Light's. 
They were fishing every day and all day long. Hasldns 
has been coming to tlie West Canada for thirty-four 
years. He ftays a month or tAvo each year, ^nd sees 
the finish of many a big trout every year. He and Did 
are inseparable. Each one says that the other never says 
things except when a rock rolls from under his feet and 
causes him to settle down waist, breast and whisker deep 
in the water. Then even the bubbles coming up are full 
of sound. They were the first men 1 ever saw Avho 
could cast a fly and make it settle on the water like a 
cherry blossom. When I used to say "fish pole," Mr. 
llaskins taught me better. When I insinuated, this year, 
that I Avas going to use worms as Avell as artificial flies, he 
remonstrated with me, and I used them only once. The 
pair got plenty of fish, as did all the fishermen who 
kncAv how to handle their rods. I saAv Will Lovel land 
a ij^lb. trout. It was a picnic. Will is the best fisher- 
man in the country. He said afterward that the fish 
fought harder than any one he ever saw. The trout 
cavorted among the boulders and from the surface to the 
bottom, working all the while, but finally came to net still 
flapping. 
Will Light and George Squires put 30,000 trout into the 
creek this spring. There ought to be better fishing in a 
few years, but cold bed attrocities will have to be stopped. 
If it Avasn't for the men Avho are cutting aAvay the 
forest the prospect for the future of the Adirondacks 
would be good. I don't blame the men who make monef^ 
from their own land, but it does seem as if the State 
ought to see the sense of buying up the endangered terri- 
tory, and all the rest, at once. Raymond S. Spears. 
New York City- T 
Adirondack Rivets and Ltimbefmen. 
J^rtmi ihe Albany Journal^ fune 7. 
The decision of the Court Of Appeals in what is known 
as the Moose River case is a very important one in the 
effect Avhich it Avill have upon the preservation of the 
forests and the protection of trout in the Adirondack 
streams. It places the pulp manufacturers and the lum- 
ber companies at a serious disadvantage, as it declares 
unconstitutional every law making Adirondack streams 
public highways for the floating of logs. 
The ground taken by the court is that these laws are not 
passed for the benefit of the general public, but are mere 
subterfuges to get around legislation so that private in- 
dividuals may enjoy special rights in the use of the 
specified waterways. This view of the court is strictly in 
accordance with the facts in every case where the 
Legislature has passed a bill for the benefit of the lum- 
bermen, who drive their logs through the Adirondack 
streams, and often kill large tracts of timber by building 
dams to provide sufficient water for their purpose. 
This practice kills the trout, and has been so destruc- 
tive, especially in the Ausable River, that once excellent 
fishing grounds are no longer available. Trout not killed 
by the logging are destroyed by the sawdust that is boldly 
emptied into the streams by the mills in defiance of the 
laAV. 
The law just declared unconstitutional was passed ui 
1894 for <:he benefit of the lumber firm of Thomson & Co., 
in which Lemon Thomson, John A. Dix and Senator Cur- 
tis N. Douglas, of this city, are interested. This firm had 
had legal trouble with W. S. DeCamps, who objected to 
the lumbermen going over his property. They then got 
the bill through the Legislature, but were enjoined, and 
the case was stubbornly fought until the present decision 
Avas reached. 
. The DeCamps brought suit for damages for crossing 
their land and were. aAvarded $1,805. The defendant lum- 1 
bermen fell back upon the Legislature and got a bill passed , 
declaring Moose River a public highway for floating 
logs. The DeCamps got an injunction and questioned 
the constitutionality of the law. The court holds that the 
declaring of Moose River to be a highway was not for 
public but for private purposes, since it was merely to 
assist lumber interests, and was therefore unconstitutional. , 
It is understood that the lumbermen have cut $19,000,- 
000ft. of lumber and that the decision prevents taking it 
out. Dr. SeAvard Webb may become involved in the 
matter, as the Thomson Company purchased its land from 
him for the purpose of taking out the timber by water. 
Under the decision no logs can be floated down a stream 
Avithout the consent of the OAvners of the riparian rights, 
which means that these owners can charge such tolls as i 
they see fit for the use of the streams for the floating of 
logs. This Avill increase materially the cost of getting 
lumber out of the woods, and in some cases practically . 
will put a stop to lumbering, on account of this increased 
cost. In the case of Thomson & Co., the firm can get its ' 
logs out by rail from its lumber tract to its mills at Mc- 
Keever on the Adirondack & St. Lawrence Railroad, by ! 
hauling the logs a short distance. 
The pulp mill men claim that it is unAvise for the State 
to ignore such large bl^siness interests simply to benefit 
a few sportsmen ; that the value of all the trout in the i 
Adirondack streams is infinitesimal in comparison with 
the value of the pulp mill interest. This State's pulp in- 
dustry is three times as large as that of any other State 
in the country. There are ninety mills, representing an j 
investment of over $25,000,000, and a very large number of 1 
men are dependent upon pulp manufacture for a liveli- 
hood. The claim that they were denuding the watersheds 
of the rivers that take their rise in the Adirondacks the I 
pulp men deny, and say that they are exercising great 
care in the cutting of trees for the protecting of their 
future supply. 
This claim is not admitted by those who have been 
working to secure better protection for the Adirondack 
forests. 
Fall of the Giants. 
What is believed to- be the finest lot of walnut timber 
in the United States is noAv being cut out on the wood- \ 
lands in the . heart of the Miami Indian Reserve, in the I 
southern part of Wabash county, Ind. On these seventy-five 
acres of land are sixtj^'-five massive walnuts, none of which 
is less than 4ft. in diameter, and ranging up to 9ft. 6in. 
The monarch of the lot is perfectly straight. Its trunk 
is not broken by a limb for 66ft. One of its forks was , 
33ft. long and 3ft. through. Two trees, standing together,* • 
denominated "the twins," are each 5ft. through and 6ift. , 
to the first branches. At one place eighteen walnut trees i 
from 2 to 3ft. in diameter had to be felled in order that a ' 
7ft. tree, around which they were thickly clustered, might 
be felled without splitting its trunk. • i 
Besides the splendid Avalnut, there are mammoth oaks 
from 6 to 8ft. in diameter, Avithout limbs for a distance of 
from 60 to 70ft., and there are shellbark hickories from 
3 to 4ft. through, with no branches np to 7Sft. 
The ^'Jerusalem Cricket.*' 
Philadelphia, Pa., June 6. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
In the issue of Forest and Sream, May 20, page 385, Mr. 
E. Hough gives a rather good description of the well- 
knoAATi Western sand cricket. It is a common insect in 
many localities, and was first described by Dr. Cyrus 
Thomas in "Haj^den's Geological Survey.s," 1871. Its scien- 
tific name is Stenopelmatus fasciatiis. As Professors 
Comstock and Smith in their Avorks on insects have al« 
ready given it the common name of sand cricket, this 
name must stand, while Mr. Hough's inappropriate name 
"Jerusalem cricket," must be rejected. 
C. Few Seiss. 
Take inventory of the good things in this issue o' 
Forest and Stream. Recall what a fund was given 
last weelc. Count on what is to come next week 
Was there ever in all the world a more abundant 1 
weekly store 3f sportsmen's reading? 
