Forest and Stream. 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Copyright, 1900, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
'''''''''' '^'iJ^'^.r^t'S'-^''''^-} NEW YORK, SATURDAY, MAY 5, 1900. Uo. zr^Jt'Zi~%^-Yo.. 
The Forest and Stream is the recognized medium of entertain- 
tient, 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 
iJf current topics, the editors are not responsible for the views of 
correspondents. 
Subscriptions may begin at any time. Terms: For single 
copies, $4 ijcr year, $2 for six months. For club rates and^ful) 
particulars respecting subscriptions, see prospectus on pag>. iv. 
THE STRIPED BASS IN PACIFIC WATERS. 
Secretary James S. Turner's report of the success of 
the San Francisco Striped Bass Club calls attention anew 
to one of the triumphs of lishculture in American waters. 
There was a time, and not so long ago, when a striped 
bass club for the Pacific Coast would have been an 
anomaly, and yet there are in California hundreds of 
anglers who now fish for the species quite as a matter of 
course, and without recognition of the fact that for the. 
fish they are indebted to the enterprise of one man. The his- 
tory of the species in Pacific waters dates from 1879, when 
Fish Commisioner S. R. Throckmorton, of the Califor- 
nia Board, suggested to Prof. Baird, then United States 
Fish Commissioner, his conviction that the great bay of 
San Francisco, and San Pablo and Suisun bays con- 
nected with it and the creeks running into them would be 
well adapted to the propagation and growth of striped 
bass. 
In July of that year Mr. Livingston Stone, of the 
United States Fish Commission, collected in the Navesink 
River of New Jersey one hundred and thirty-two fish 
from one and one-half to three inches long, and thirty 
medium sized specimens, which he undertook to transport 
to California. He succeeded in taking through one 
hundred and thirty-five of them in good condition, and 
these were deposited in Karquines Strait at Martinez. 
The undertaking proved to be entirely successful. In the 
first year after the planting a specimen was taken in the 
Bay of Monterey, about one hundred miles south, and 
an open roadstead on the Pacific Ocean, and others were 
taken in the Straits of Karquines. 
To make assurance doubly sure, a second lot of three 
hundred fish was carried from the Shrewsbury River, 
New Jersey, in 1882, and deposited in Suisun Bay. From 
that time until the present the fish have thrived and 
increased, until now the waters of the California coast 
are very generally stocked with them. The center of 
abundance is San Francisco Bay and its tributaries. The 
fish is found all over San Francisco Bay, Suisun Bay, San 
Pablo Bay and the lower courses of the Sacramento and 
San Joaqttin rivers. It regularly ascends the San Joaquin 
for a distance of twenty miles, and has been taken one 
hundred miles above the mouth. They go up the Sacra- 
mento as far as Sacramento and even beyond. The fish 
has been reported from points as widely separated as 
San Diego and the Oregon line. 
In our issue of July 11, 1889, is recorded the capture in 
San Francisco Bay of a bass weighing forty-five pounds. 
Secretary Turner tells us specimens have been taken 
weighing fifty-eight pounds, and the markets show fish 
weighing over forty pounds. Many tons of the fish are 
taken annually, and the addition to the food supply of 
the coast is beyond computation. There are numerous 
fishermen and a growing industry of black bass fishing. 
The suggestion of Commissioner Throckmorton, the ready 
co-operation of Prof. Baird and the skilled practical 
services of Mr. Stone have added to the wealth of the 
country a resource whose value is to be computed in 
millions of dollars. In these times when we are hearing 
so much of those who are giving new territory to 
the United States, let us not fail to recognize the public 
services of these men and their fellows, who have thus 
added immeasurably to the prosperity of their time and 
country. When the history of the last quarter of the 
nineteenth century shall be written, it will be but a partial 
record which shall omit to give place to the achievements 
of fishculture and to the workers in the field who have 
restored to the rivers of the East and the West, the North 
and the South, an abounding supply of native species, or, 
■ as with the striped bass in San Francisco Bay. have 
- tocked them with new wealth. 
It was only natural that with a fish of such superb 
qualities as a game fish angling for it should beconie 
popular; and as may be learned from Secretary Turner's 
letter, the fishing in the vicinity of San Francisco is con- 
ducted in a way which encourages the best there is in 
sport with the rod. 
THE NEW YORK COMMISSION. 
On April 25 the Forest, Fish and Game Commission 
of the State of New York, which had held office for five 
years, expired by limitation, and the new Commissioners 
recently appointed by Gov. Roosevelt took chargje. On 
the day before they assumed office, the new Commis- 
sioners, by request of the Governor, met him in the Ex- 
ecutive chamber. There were present besides the Commis- 
sioners a number of persons interested in fish, forests 
and game. 
At the meeting the Governor expounded quite fully 
his views on the work to be done by the .Commission. 
Himself a keen sportsman and an ardent lover of out- 
door life and all that pertains to it, his views met the 
acceptance of all who were present, and his frank talk 
cannot .fail greatly to strengthen the hands of the new 
board. When it was over, no one present stood in any 
doubt as to what Gov. Roosevelt expects of the board. 
He is heartily in favor of the protection and the preser- 
vation of the forests, the waters and the game and fish 
of the State, and of protecting these without fear or favor. 
The task before the new Commissioners is not an easy 
one. They have to deal with officials, many of whom, 
liave hitherto considered politics first and the work they 
were hired to do second. No doubt in time they will 
get rid of those employees who may prove inefficient, and 
by the aid of experts in the different branches will put 
their work on an effective footing. But all this will take 
time and effort, and they will be constantly, hampered by 
the confused, confusing and often incomprehensible laws 
which now burden our statute books and are a disgrace 
to the intelligence of the State. 
Notwithstanding all the difficulties that are now plain 
to be seen, and all the others that before Idng are likely 
to come up, we believe that the Commission will win 
through, and will do service to the cause of fish and game 
orotection better than any yet done in this State. One 
direction in which the Commission's efforts may well 
be expended is in striving to simplify and clarify the laws 
which bear on the forests, the waters, the fish and the 
game. The absurd exceptions which now practically 
nullify so many laws should be done away with and an 
effort made to express in a few words and clearly just 
what the statute may intend. 
THE FIRST TOWN FOREST. 
Of late years in certain communities in this country 
there has been some general planting of trees on Arbor 
Day, and many municipalities and towns possessing parks 
]>lant trees in them for beauty and for shade. Such a 
thing as a town forest, however, is unknown in the 
United States, although in Europe such forests are com- 
mon and often yield a considerable revenue to the town. 
The first town forest of the United States is soon to be 
started at Brunswick, Me., and here for the first time for- 
est planting is to be undertaken on a large scale and as 
a business enterprise by the town. Brunswick owng a 
tract of about 1,000 acres of waste land. Long ago this 
land bore pine forests, but it was lumbered over and 
burned over, and recently has produced nothing but 
huckleberries and weeds. At a recent meeting of the 
town council $100 was appropriated to improve this land 
by planting it with white pine. 
Seed will be purchased and planted and a nursery estab- 
lished in which the young trees are to be cared for. After 
the seedlings have reached the proper age th©y will be 
transplanted and finally set out on the town land in their 
permanent positions. After this they will require little 
protection except from fire. 
At present the land to be planted is entirely unpro- 
ductive, and the cultivation of this forest, if successful, 
will not only add greatly to the beauty of the town's sur- 
roundings, but will be profitable as well. 
Persons familiar with certain counties in Pennsylvania 
and New Jersey will recall how great a charm is added 
to the landscape by the presence about many of the houses 
of fine old white pines, which were evidently planted as 
saplings in the dooryards of these houses many years 
ago, and which, protected by their situation, are now 
mature trees, rising far above the houses. An acre of 
such grand forest trees as are to be seen in these Penn- 
sylvania dooryards would represent a considerable sum 
of money, and if much of the waste land in New England 
now given up to rocks and tangles of underbrush bore 
such, trees, the addition to the wealth of the country would 
be very great. And this at no cost save the trouble of 
planting" and protecting for the first few years. 
The planting of the Brunswick forest will be under the 
direct supervision of Mr. Austin Gary, but the Division 
of Forestry of the Agricultural Department will assist 
in organizing and carrying out the work. 
The State of Maine is lo be congratulated that one of 
its towns has. had the energy and foresight to undertake 
a work of this importance, and it may be hoped that 
with this example before them other towns may take 
similar action. 
SNAP SHOTS. 
There comes a letter from a correspondent living in the 
mountains of the Northwest, which reminds us that the 
course of life of its writer was entirely changed by a single 
hunting trip. A dweller in a large city, he went on an 
expedition after elk, saw the big-game country, was 
enarnored of it, and lost no more time than was absolutely 
necessary to break off and away from the old surround- 
ings and take up life amid the new. All this happened 
years ago, and the story of the hunt was told in our 
columns at the time. The years have brought to the 
mountain man no regret for his move. He counts the im- 
pulse which prompted him to make the change a happy 
one, and there are more than one of his friends who, while 
wanting resolution to follow his example, are impelled to 
applaud his course as the better part. His enthusiasm 
for the wild surroundings is as abounding to-day as it was 
in the beginning; and with the lapse of time has come 
no abatement of the satisfaction he found in the wilder- 
ness retreat when first it captivated him. 
It is not an uncommon experience for one who breaks 
away temporarily from everyday environment, and re- 
leases himself from the spell of town life to relapse for a 
time into simpler, quieter living, to fancy that he would 
be contented to live such a life permanently. But quickly 
following upon the thought comes the question whether he 
actually would be contented to settle down to a wilderness 
existence; and with the average person to harbor this 
question is to abandon the impulse. The more primitive 
life is acceptable for a time, and as a change, but for most 
persons it would not do permanently. No matter how 
rich the enjoyment and satisfaction might be in the 
crowded hours of a fortnight in the woods or in camp on 
the shore, a large measure of the enjoyment consists in its 
novelty, and twelve months of the experience would to 
many people be likely to prove tedious and intolerable. 
Inventive skill is forever finding new uses for old things 
or some use for what has hitherto gone to waste. On the 
flats of the Lower St. Lawrence River, in the Provinces 
of Quebec and New Brunswick, grows a sea grass known 
by the local name of herbe a bernige — brant grass — or 
herbe . a outarde — wild goose grass. Formerly it was 
valued only as an attraction for the wild fowl, the brant, 
geese and ducks, which stopped to feed on it in their 
migration, spring and autumn. Recently a new use has 
been found for the wild goose grass; it is cut, seasoned 
to get the salt out, and tised by upholsterers and carriage 
manufacturers to take the place of hair and excelsior and 
the Florida "Spanish moss." Thus, what were formerly 
only wild shooting grounds have been made to yield an- 
nual crops of no mean value. Another instance of utiliza- 
tion of what has formerly been considered worthless vege- 
table product is found in a*'Vermonter's invention of a 
substitute for rubber, a chief component of which is the 
cabbage palmetto of the South. Projectors of the enter- 
prise have secured options on vast tracts of the palmetto 
lands of Florida. 
The Lacey Game Bill passed the House on Monday of 
this week. There is good ground for confidence that the 
measure will be approved by the Senate, and that shortly 
we shall have the authority of the Interstate Coimnerop 
(Commission applied to the protection of game. 
