Forest and Stream. 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Copyright, 1900, by Forest and Stream Pubushing Co. 
BRMs,f4AjBARjocT^^ NEW YORK, S AT U R D A Y, M A R C H 31, 1900. ] no. 34I b^.o"w;7,'new york 
The Forest and Stream is the recognized medium of entertain- 
tvent, instruction and information between American sportsmen. 
The editors invite communications on the subjects to which its 
pages are devoted. Anonymous communications will not bt re- 
garded. While it is intended to give wide latitude in discussion 
of current topics, the editors are not responsible for the views ol 
correspondents. 
Subscriptions may begin at any time. Terms: For single 
copies, $4 per year, $2 for six months. For club rates and full 
particulars respecting subscriptions, see prospectus on page iv. 
WORK AND PLAY, 
It is now many years since there has been such a gen- 
eral and substantial revival of manufacturing interests as 
has prevailed during the past few months. This benefi- 
cent industrial impetus inaugurates an era of general 
prosperity which promises to continue indefinitely into the 
future. 
It is particularly felt and welcomed by the manufac- 
turers of sportsmen's goods — the makers of guns, trap- 
.shooting and field paraphernalia, rifles, pistols, ammuni- 
tion, boats, fishing tackle, golf goods, camping outfits, 
etc., most of whom are now running their machinery 
to its full capacity in order to fill the large orders already 
in hand, and there is every business prospect that they 
will need to so run it for many months to come. 
This indicates that, in the hard times, the people at 
large were forced to deny themselves many of the things 
they needed in pursuit of sport or recreation, the neces- 
sities of life enforcing the observance of due economy. 
Thus, through the then limited ability to purchase came 
a partial trade stagnation. On the other hand, with the 
ability to purchase comes a most generous patronage to 
all who cater to wholesome sports and recreation, on 
a scale so large that it seems to indicate their growth 
to a degree greater than was ever observed heretofore. 
This aside from the general prosperity of the industrial 
interests. 
Throughout the land many new gun clubs have been 
formed, many more are in process of formation, and there 
is a greater activity and reawakening of interest among 
many members of the older clubs. Grounds and their 
equipment receive more attention now than formerly, and 
in one instance. Interstate Park, on a scale far away 
greater than was ever before contemplated. 
An international rifle and pistol contest, to take place 
this year at Paris some time during the Exposition, has 
already been considered, in so far as the preliminaries are 
■concerned, and the trapshooting contests which will take 
place during this great international event have been con- 
sidered also, and probably will have contestants from the 
first rank of America's trapshooters. Many other branches 
of sport will there be represented. 
All this portends a more healthful freedom from the 
cares of life, after the years of restriction; for inces- 
sant mental and physical labor grind and wear out the 
physical machine, which- needs the repairing conferred by 
rest and recreation, than which none are better than those 
of the days afield with dog and gun, or days with rod 
and line, or in camp where the best of nature's medicines 
are ever present — sunshine, pure air and her beautiful 
handiwork. 
BIRD PROTECTING IN DELAWARE. 
The recent announcement that certain New York bird 
skinners had made a contract with persons in Delaware 
to furnish them 20,000 birds this spring has stirred up a 
great deal of interest. The Governor of Delaware and 
other authorities have been bombarded with letters and 
telegrams on the subject, and Mr. Witmer Stone, of 
Philadelphia, who is the chairman of the A. O. U. Bird 
Protective Committee, went to Wilmington to interview 
the Governor, and to urge him to prevent any such whole- 
sale slaughter. Governor Tunnell is much interested in 
the subject, and has announced that the laws forbidding 
the killing of birds will be enforced, and that in cases 
where the law does not cover the offense the trespass 
act will be used against the butchers. 
Mr. Stone's first move on hearing of the proposed con- 
tract was to issue :> circular pointing out the damage likely 
to enstte to crop lirough the destruction of the birds 
which hold in check the noxious insects which are the 
farmer's worst enemy, and calling for tJip coroperation 
ef the fanners and pf all intelligent: Gjtizgns of Pelavy^re 
in suppressing the outrage. This circular he sent to every 
newspaper in Delaware and to every postmaster in the 
southern half of the State. 
Mr. Stone also communicated with the Delaware Game 
Protective Association, whose interest was readily en- 
listed. The Association sent a detective to Milford, Del., 
who, after some investigation, discovered that the men 
named in the original article had actually agreed to 
collect certain birds in large quantities for some agent in 
New York. It was, however, positively denied that they 
intended to collect "song birds." The Association agent 
warned these men that in case of violation of the law 
they and the railroad agent who received the birds for 
shipment would at once be arrested, and the notices in the 
newspapers, together with the threats of the detective, so 
aroused public sentiment that the men who intended 
to do the collecting are said to have entirely given it up. 
We understand that Mr. Stone has also had some corre- 
spondence with the agent of the Millinery Merchants' 
Protective Association, who has declared that no Amer- 
ican song bird will be accepted by New York milliners or 
used, but he acknowledges that many useful birds such as 
gulls, terns, grebes and others are contracted for when- 
ever it is possible. 
The A. O. U. committee and the Audubon societies 
stand for the protection of all native American birds 
that are not positively injurious, and believing that they 
have the support of public opinion, these various asso- 
ciations intend to protect them, and if the public are 
suificiently interested in the subject they will certainly 
do what they intend. 
. The publication of the alhticle telling of this arrange- 
ment, and the agitation which followed it, have served a 
very useful purpose in awakening an interest in the 
preservation of the birds. Ofircials in Delaware, from the 
Governor down to constable, have had the matter brought 
squarely before them ; besides, the farmers, who are gradu- 
ally coming to recognize the practical utility of the birds, 
are likely themselves to take hold of the matter, and by 
driving gunners off their land do as much as can be 
effected by the officers of the law. 
It is not to be doubted that in Delaware bird skinners 
will be unpopular this spring. 
FISHCULTURE AS A COLLEGE COURSE. 
In addition to the studies in forestry to be carried on 
during the coming year in the New York State College 
of Forestry, there are others hardly less important, and of 
peculiar interest to all readers of Forest and Stream. 
Dr. B. E. Fernow, whose admirable equipment for his 
work and whose broad views are well known, intends to 
carry on, concurrently with the forestry work, instruction 
in fishculture and in game preservation. 
As the work of the college becomes better known, the 
interest in that work among the students and others in- 
creases. In the first term of the institution four students 
were registered. At present there are seventeen, who 
come from all over the country. The spring work for the 
students of junior and senior year will be held in the 
college forest, and will consist largely of practical work in 
forest protection, in silviculture, including planting, im- 
provement cuttings and other branches, in forest mensura- 
tion, fishculture and game preservation. 
The fishcultural instruction, which we believe is the 
first course of the kind undertaken in any college in 
the United States, has been put in charge of Dr. B. W. 
Evermann, whose qualifications, practical and scientific, 
are of the very highest. The course will consist of a 
series of daily lectures, together with laboratory work, field 
excursions to various waters, and visits to the State 
hatchery at Clear Water. The varioiis Subjects to be 
taken up are natural reproduction among fishes, the fishes 
propagated artificially in America, the salmon family, the 
black bass, the shad, care ot fish fry, methods of shipping 
eggs and young fish, stream pollution and fish protection, 
and finally the history and results of fishculture in 
America. 
The course in game preservation will consist of lectures 
and demonstrations by Prof. Gifford, which will be illus- 
trated by field excursions. 
This whole subject is one of such extreme interest as 
to merit more than a passing notice. The establishment 
of this course is the first result of a change in public 
opinion which began long ago, and has been growing— »• 
though very slowly— up to the present time. Fishculture 
and game protection, and so fish and game, and their pur- 
suit, are dignified at last by having a place in the curric- 
ulum of a university. 
Moreover, Dr. B. E. Fernow, the dean of the faculty 
and director of the college, wishes to extend the benefits 
of this course to as wide a circle as possible, and desires 
to have it known that every one interested in fishculture 
is welcome to participate in it. The opportunity is one 
which should appeal to a great many persons, and it may 
be imagined that not a few of these will endeavor to ar- 
range to take part in the course, which it is intended shall 
begin May 7 and shall last two weeks, unless something 
now unforeseen should make a postponement desirable. 
BIRDS AND MARCH STORMS. 
After a winter of exceptional mildness, with little 
snow, during which the game birds were exposed to no 
dangers from the elements, came the fierce storms of early 
March which, it is feared, destroyed a great many birds 
in some localities. On different occasions, over the coun- 
try from Michigan south to Tennessee and east to New 
Jersey, snow fell very heavily, covering the ground to the 
depth of a foot or more, and then changing to sleet, and 
later to rain, formed a crust which lasted for days or for a 
week. In many places this crust was strong enough to 
support a man's weight and required the exercise of con- 
siderable force to break through it. 
The danger to quail and sometimes to ruffed grouse 
from such conditions is too well known to require ex- 
planation. This danger, of course, varies with the time 
of the day during which the crust is formed. During 
the hours of daylight it is not very common for quail to be 
entirely covered by the snow. They move a.bout a little 
bit, or, even if sitting huddled together under a bush, they 
shake the snow from their feathers from time to time, so 
that when night falls they are still uncovered by the 
snow. If, however, the snow continues to fall during 
the night, they may be covered, and if during the night it 
chansces to sleet their doom is sealed. 
While the ruffed grouse makes a practice 6f diving be- 
neath the snow and is often covered up in snow storms, 
he does not always roost on the ground. Many a time 
toward evening when snow is falling the tracks of a 
ruffed grouse may be seen where he has wanderfed thro'igh 
the woods, evidently in search of some sheltered rest'ng 
place for the night. He mav be traced from one low 
growing cedar to another, oerhans looking for a sheltered 
spot on the ground, but often, it is quite certain, honning 
up into the branches two or three feet above the ground 
and passing the night there. From such situations they 
may frequently be started on snowy winter afternoons. 
It may perhaps be laid down as a general proposition 
that unless a crust forms over the snow late at night or 
very early in the morning, quail and ruffed grouse are in 
no very great danger of being covered up and destroyed, 
but, of course, a snow storm followed by sleet absolutely 
seals up for the birds the ordinary sources of food supply. 
It is after such a storm more than any other time that they 
need to be looked after by the sportsman or the kind 
hearted farmer, and a little effort in the way of furnishing 
them bare ground in sheltered sunny places and food to 
eat will be well repaid by the well being of the birds, 
which will continue to resort to the place and to offer 
pleasing pictures to the careful observer, long after the 
necessity for the food has passed. 
It would be interesting to learn from our readers in 
different parts of the country what effect, if any, these 
March storms have had on the birds. A communication 
on this subject is printed in another column, and we 
should be glad to hear some otfier readers. 
SNAPSHOTS. 
The U. S. Senate has adopted a resolution introduced 
by Mr. De Vries, of California, directing the Secretary of 
the Interior to treat with the owner of the famous Big 
Trees of Calaveras county, with a view to their acquisi- 
tion by the Government. The owner contemplates a 
sale of the trees and their conversion into lumber. They 
belong among the majestic natural phenomena which the 
people of this generation should preserve for those who 
shall come later. Let the Big Trees be put under protect 
tion as a public possession. 
