FfiB if, igeo.] 
FO^tiEST AND STREAM 
110 
Ije called, in truth, the "Adirondack" Guides' Associa- 
tion, in respect to representing the entire territory. In 
my annual report last year I called your attention to the 
fact that only by working together in unison throughout 
the mountains, and abiding by the decision of the ma- 
jority, could we hope to succeed, and I urged you at that 
time to rise above petty jealousies and to work in har- 
mony for the good of the entire Association. 
In regard to the game laws, I very much doubt if any 
law could be passed that would be entirely satisfactory to 
all of us, and I confidently believe that it is far better for 
every member of this Association to strictly obey the 
laws as passed by the Legislature, even though we may 
not agree with them in every respect. A partially good 
law, faithfully observed, is far better than an absolutely 
perfect law constantly and persistently violated. I am 
sincerely desirous that it should be known throughout the 
country that an Adirondack Association guide is at all 
times a man who respects and observes the fish and 
game laws of the State, even though they may not be 
strictly in accordance with his views. Let me remind 
you that each member in joining this Association agrees 
to do all in his power to preserve and propagate the fish 
and game of the Adirondacks and to enforce the fish and 
game laws of the State. It is my earnest desire that 
during the ensuing year we all may rise above the little 
things which threaten to disunite us; that by our united 
efforts in all parts of the mountains we make the Adiron- 
dacks so attractive by the increase of fish and game, and 
the Adirondacks Guides' Association so well and favor- 
ably known everywhere, that tourists and sportsmen 
may be influenced to visit this section in far greater 
numbers than ever before, and that we may be able to 
, give them the expected pleasure and sport, and so re- 
ceive for ourselves and our section of country the bene- 
ficial results for which we all are striving. 
I have received in fees and dues during the past year 
$191. I have received from our honorary president, Mr. 
j. J. Broome, his check for $100. I have paid out for the 
benefit of the Association, as per vouchers herewith at- 
tached, $249.51, leaving a balance of $41.49. The balance 
from last year was $228.05, leaving now in the hands of 
the treasurer, $269.54. 
Respectfully submitted, 
Fred M. Sheldon, Sec'y. 
The following officers for the ensuing year were 
elected : Honorary President. Dr. Frank E. Kendall ; 
I President, Edwin E. Sumner ; Secretary, Warren J. 
' Slater ; Treasurer, Oatman A. Covill. 
The Saranac Lake Cornet Band was in attendance. 
The next annual meeting will be held at Saranat 
Lake on the evening of the third Wednesday in January, 
1901, and the convention adjourned to the banquet room, 
where two hundred guides and guests participated in a 
sumptuous repast. SE.\raR A. Miller. 
The Massachusetts Association. 
B0.STON, Mass., Feb. 9. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
1 desire to call attention to a statement contained in your 
i"!i,sue of Jan. 20, which will be found in your extract 
from the "Report of the Inland Fisheries and Game Com- 
mission'' of Massachusetts, on page 49 of your paper. 
Speaking of the conference at the State House on Nov, 
23, the Commisisoners say: "This is the first conven- 
tion of sportsmen in this State." 
Now I beg to ask your readers to look at the article 
written by me and published in your issue of Dec. 10, 
i8g8, which will be found in the last column of page 
466. This is a detailed report of the first conference of 
sportsmen's clubs ever held in Massachusetts. 
It Avas an enthusiastic meeting, and gave oui- honor- 
ahle Commissioners the cue. It was held under the 
Huspices of, and as the result of an invitation from, the 
!\lassachusetts Fish and Game Protective Association, and 
that Association is due the honor of inaugurating such 
ri movement. 
In my observation of the various manifestations of 
human nature, covering a period of half a century, I 
liave often noticed that the circumstances under which 
jjersons are wont to seek for honors that do not belong 
to them are very similar. But I will not enlarge on 
that point. 
I wish to congratulate the Commissioners that, like 
Ihe "man in Detroit, they knew a good thing when they 
saw it." I desire, also, to exonerate you, Mr. Editor, for 
certainly one has a right to expect that whatever goes 
out as a statement of fact under the seal of the old Com- 
monwealth of Massachusetts must be reliable. 
In addition to the report in your issue of Dec. 10, 
1898, I desire to add that every Boston mornmg paper 
of Nov. 17, 1898, contained a very interesting account of 
the conference of the evening previous, and the occasion 
was so indicative of promise that the Massachusetts Fish 
and Game Protective Association voted that such a meet- 
ing be held annually. 
We now come to the second annual conference, which 
was held on Dec. 14, 1899. 
The success of that meeting was very extraordinary. 
In attendance more representatives from forestry asso- 
ciations, the State Boards of Agriculture, Education, 
Fish and Game, agricultural societies, farmers' clubs, as- 
sociations of farmers and mechanics, sportsmen's clubs 
and associations, representing every coimty of the State. 
From this meeting resulted the organization 01 a Massa- 
chusetts Central Committee for Protection of Fish and 
Game, which was elected at a delegate convention, each 
association sending one representative to the meeting 
held at the Copley Square Hotel, Boston, on Jan. 4, 1900. 
I inclose herewith the list of the Executive Commit- 
tee of the Central Committee, which is noAV working in 
harmonious accord with the Fi.sh and Game Commis- 
sioners of the State for the purpose of securing legislation 
for further restricting both the killing and selling of game 
birds. 
Should other duties allow, I will go into further de- 
tails in another letter. I inclose some of the documents 
we are sending out. Henry H. Kimb.-vll, 
Secretary Massachusetts Fish and Game Protective As- 
sociation, No. 5 Park Square. 
The members of the ^Massachusetts Central Commit- 
tee for Protection of Fish and Game, ab organized Tan, 
4, are: A, B, F, Kinney, Chairman, Worcester; Henry 
H. Kimball, Secretary and Treasurer, 5 Park Square, 
Boston. Executive Committee — A. B. F, Kinney^ Wor- 
cester; Geo. H. Palmer, New Bedford; Heman S, Fay, 
Marlboro; Dr. J. T. Herrick, Springfield; William B. 
Finney, Lynn: John S. Bleakie, Falmouth; H. A. Esta- 
brook, Fitchbu'rg ; J. E. Tweedy, North Attleboro ; Joseph 
H. Wood, Pittsfield; Herbert E. Tuclc, Haverhill; Henry 
Hanson, Fall River; A. M. Lyman, Montague. "The 
chairman and secretary are members of the Executive 
Committee, ex oMcUs. 
The Minnesota Park. 
From the Si, Paul Dispatch. 
The friends and advocates of the Minnesota National 
Park have been stirred up by a dispatch from Washing- 
ton, which reads: "Senator Nelson's bill to restore the 
Nelson act (the opening up of the proposed National 
Mimiesota Park territory to settlement) will not be in- 
corporated into the Indian appropriation bill without a 
hard fight. The advocates of the park proposition are 
now keeping up a constant correspondence with Wash- 
ington. Congressman Eddy may conc'"4e to accept the 
proposition for selling the pine on bauK awJe." 
Charles Cristadoro, speaking of the situation to-day, 
said : 
"The time has come for the people of this State to 
thoroughly understand that our representatives at Wash- 
ington, with perhaps an exception or two, are against 
the park, first, last and at all times. Why this is so, no 
one seems to clearly know, except that they are against it. 
I see no good reasons given in the public press for their 
being against it, yet they tell you they are against it, and 
that is all. 
"They surely cannot be opposed to it, because its estab- 
lishment means the turning out of house and home of 
settlers and whole villages — becau.se there isn't a white 
man to-day who owns a foot of land in the reservation.. 
They surely cannot object because the Government must 
go out and dicker w:ch a lot of timber owners for the land 
and timber at treble its true value — because not an acre 
of ground asked for is owned otherwise than by the 
Governrarnt itself. They may conjure up the excuse that 
this reservation land is ideal settlers' land, and to keep 
for park purposes such a valuable tract of agricultural 
soil would be working untold hardships upon the hardy 
settler who is to come, and who, if deprived of this pro- 
posed park territory, will have no place whereon to lay 
liis head. . . 
"There are thousands upon thousands of acres of 'CHt-- 
over lands in Michigan and Wisconsin, equally valuable 
for agricultural purposes, abandoned for taxes to the 
State, and producing to-day a crop of scrub oak of some- 
what questionable value. But the settler of this land, for 
some reason or«.other, after he proved up his homestead 
holding, immediately quit the vicinity after disposing of 
his rights to the lumberman. And this land, before the 
timber was cut, was just as promising for the settler as 
that in the Chippewa Indian reservation to-day. Let 
the Nelson bill go into effect, and imagine the proposed 
park territory being opened up for settlement. What 
does that mean? The 'Winchester farmer will take 
possession. He will select his i6o-acre tract under the 
homestead law, build his shack, live on the premises at 
intervals to make his holding good under the law, (anii 
the adjacent woods by means of his Winchester, and. on 
the tick of the clock, when his proving time rolls around, 
turn the house and farm ( ?) over to the lumberman for 
a consideration. Now steps in the man with the axe, and 
saAv, the trees are felled, here and there fire gets into the 
felled tops, and when the lumberman has cut the last 
tree and hauled the last log, he leaves behind him a train 
of stumps, sand and desolation. 
"This is what it means to open up for settlement, under 
the Nelson bill, one of the grandest and most picturesque 
pieces of woodland in existence to-day on God's green 
footstool. You ask, Where, then, does all this opposition 
come? From the lumbermen in this State, men who 
to-day do not hold title to a single foot of the land in 
question, but who, under the beneficent workings of the 
Nelson bill, hope to some day. It is this influence, rich 
and powerful, that to-day stands between the citizens of 
this State, yes, of the United States, and the securing of 
the National Minnesota Park. 
"I wish it to be understood clearly that this is not a 
State proposition, but a national one. Before we can se- 
cure that territory for a park, the Senators of other 
States must likewise vote for it. With our own Minne- 
sota delegation adverse to the park, the citizens of this 
State may rest assured that no outside influence from 
other States, no matter how streng, will help one iota. 
The cause is lost and the park is a thing of the past, a 
mere memory, unless our own representatives of Con- 
gress cast their votes in favor of it. Unfortunately this 
is but too true. 
"Now, what can be done? That the State of Minne- 
sota desires this most magnificent project worked out to a 
proud and successful conclusion is evidenced by the hun- 
dreds of letters that are pouring into Washington to- 
day. That the park would be a monument for all time 
to the wisdom of its friends and promoters, and a thing of 
pride and joy forever to the State of Minnesota, no one 
who has looked into the proposition can deny. 
"Its value to this State, to the cities of St. Paul and 
Minneapolis,^ the adjacent towns to the west, and above 
all, to the city of Duluth, no one can question. It was 
opposed by Duluth some months ago, under an unfortu- 
nate misunderstanding of the scope of territory involved, 
but to-day Duluth realizes the immense benefit the estab- 
lishment of that park, almost at her back door, would 
prove. It would be as a magnet for all the East, and 
Duluth is to-day heartily in favor of it. The development 
comniittee of Duluth passed upon the matter in open 
m.eeting a few days ago, and every man present, with 
one exception (he was, I think, interested in lumber in 
some way), voted enthusiastically for the idea. 
"That not only the people of this State want the park, 
but the people of other States, who know anything of 
this region, as well, is without question. There is ab- 
solutely no sensible reason offered by any one against the 
park. The influence against it at home is rich and power- 
ful, and is represented by the lumber interests of the 
State. They are going so far as to circulate petitions 
among the very legislators who, at the request of the 
Federation of Women's Clubs of the State of Minnesota, 
voted for the memorial to Congress asking for this park, 
requesting them to recant their votes and play the 'baby 
act,' and say they didn't mean it when they so voted. 
And, surprising to say, the same influence which hag. 
turned our delegation, almost to a man, against this park 
at Washington, is inducing our own home legislators to 
stultify themselves and recant their votes because they 
didn't know when they were voting that they were step- 
ping on the toes of their greedy lumbermen constituents. 
'"The women's clubs of Minnesota are the ones to be 
thanked for the inception of this park idea. They were 
the ones who secured the memorial from our State Legis- 
lature to Congress, asking for this park. This same 
band of intelligent and progressive women is to-day doing 
all that can be done to create favorable sentiment. I 
think that if the hands of those working against this 
park can by some means be stayed so that no precipitate 
and hostile action will be taken, the influence exerted by 
this band of faithful workers in the cause of humanity 
and posterity will in the end more than counterbalance 
the influences hostile to the park to-day, and bring about 
ultimate success. 
"But no time must be lost. Influence must be brought 
to bear, and if it can be sufficiently widespread and 
powerful our representatives in Washington will seriously 
consider the question as to whether it is their best policy 
to work in the interests of a handful of lumbermen, or 
give heed to the wishes of the entire^ State. As long as 
Senator Nelson and others are fighting this park tooth 
and nail, its success is endangered. Its friends must 
make equally strong efforts, and the time to make them is 
now." 
Spring Shooting. 
Charleston, N. H., Feb. 9. — Editor Forest and 
m Stream: I have read with much interest the copy of the 
Lacey bill in your columns, with your editorial com- 
ments thereupon, and believe it to be a wise project, 
though the separate States might accomplish the de- I 
sired object individually, if they could be induced to j 
work in harmony. It seems to be impossible to get them 1 
to do so, however, in another important matter, the ! 
prohibition of "spring shooting," which is, to the best of 
my belief, one of the great causes of the diminution 
of oiu- migratory game birds, ducks, geese and swans, as 
well as the smaller game, such as woodcock and snipe. 
It is not a matter which affects tis much here in New 
England, as our flight of migratory birds is small, at 
any rate ; and spring shooting is generally prohibited, but | 
if the Western States will not work together, in the ques- ', 
tion of prohibition, it seems perfectly legitimate for the j 
General Government to interfere. It is held by law that | 
the game is the property of the State, but where the 
birds breed in Montana, North Dakota and the British 
Provinces, and winter in Louisiana, Texas and Mexico, I 
do not see that any State can claim the right of pos- 
session. While it does seem that the United States, as 
the generally recognized agent and protector of all of 
them, might wisely and constitutionally pass a law pro- 
hibiting the shooting of all such m.igratory game, from 
the first of March to the first of September, or while 
the birds are on their northAvard passage to their breed- 
ing grounds and engaged in raising their young. I pub- 
lished a letter in a Western paper about a year ago, call- 
ing the attention of Western sportsmen, who are particu- 
larly interested, to this point, but it met with no response. 
I saw, however, quite recently, a letter from a Western' ! 
sportsman, protesting against the merciless slaughter of : 
ducks and geese in Texas, in the winter, by Northern 
shooters, I will not call them sportsmen, who go down I 
there to kill for the market, and murder every bird they 
can. The only fault in the letter was that it revived the. 
old "duck egg joke," and accused the Northern Pacific 
Railroad of shipping 18,000 barrels of duck eggs in a 
year over their road to the East for Albumen. 
Now, if some patriotic member of Congress will take 
up the matter, it is probable that such a bill as I suggest 
might be easily passed, putting the whole matter into the 
hands of the United States authorities, but allowing the 
States to make such further restrictions and reductions 
of the open season, from September to March, as they 
choose, while the game is within their jurisdiction. 
To return to the Lacey bill, our extent of territory 
is so great, and our climate so different, that judgment is 
necessary in introducing the species suitable for different 
latitudes. While New England and the Northwestern 
States might prove a proper home for the capercailzie 
(formerly a native of Scotland, where it got its name), 
and the black cock, or grouse, a native of Scotland and the 
north of England, it would seem that the European and 
Indian partridges might be fitted for the Middle States, 
and the guinea fowl, a native of Africa, but now ac- 
climated in Cuba, might be introduced in the extreme 
Southern or Gulf States. The Mongolian pheasant is 
apparently succeeding in making a home wherever it has 
been tried, but the migratory quail of the old world has 
proved a failure, and we have hares enough of our 
own without importing them from Belgium, Let the 
European carp and sparrow be warnings. | 
"I enjoyed Mayne Reed's "bear story," and wish J 
you w.ould reprint Col. Thorpe's some time when you | 
are short of matter, if ever,* Mayne Reed came in 
since my day,- but "my boys" enjoyed him hugely, par- 
ticularly one giving adventures on the Amazon. "Robin- 
son Crusoe," "Sinbad the Sailor" and "Gulliver's Travels" 
were the delights of my boyhood, together with the . 
"Swiss Family Robinson," the "Pilgrims Progres.s" and 
the "Tales of the Genii," and I graduated from them to 
Izaak Walton, Salmonia and Christopher North's papers 
in Blackwood, which made me an angler for all time. 
Permit me to correct an error in your notice of 
Henry Clay in this week's number. He got the name of 
the "Mill Boy of the Slashes" from Hanover county, 
Virginia, his birth place, and not from Kentucky. He 
ran for President against Polk, the year I came of age, 
and I shall never forget my disappointment when he was 
beaten ! I wish Kentucky would send us a few more 
like him now, instead of indulging in faction feuds. 
Von W. 
*Il is sivEti iu the ciufenl titiitibet tjf Woodctaft MagMine.— Ea. 
