Forest AND Stream. 
A Weekly Journal of. the Rod and Gun. 
Copyright; 1901, BY^FoREST and Stream Publishing Co, 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JANUARY 12, 1901. 
Tbrws, |4 a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. { 
Six Months, $2. j 
J VOL. LVI.— No. 2. 
I No. 
'I 
346 Broadway, New Yqrk . 
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THE COLORADO SYSTEM. 
We print a suggestive communication from Mr. D. 
C. Beaman, of Denver, in exposition of the Colorado 
.system which permits the sale of imported game and 
game from preserves, while at the same time forbidding 
traffic in Colorado's native, wild game. The law provides 
for an elaborate system of certificates, permits and 
Jabels; and it is manifest that the actual operation of the 
plan and the measure of safeguarding it gives the native 
stock must depend upon how honestly and watchfully it 
is administered. Mr. Beaman testifies that the operation 
of the law has been entirely satisfactory to all concerned 
and has afiforded almost perfect protection to Colorado 
game and fish taken in the open field. 
Massachusetts has had some experience quite in line 
with that of Colorado with respect to the sale of brook 
trout artificially propagated in trout ponds for the market. 
It will be recalled that a few years ago the trout breeders 
of that State made a sturdy fight to wrest from the 
Legislature permission to market their cultivated fish in 
February and March, which months are in the close sea- 
son for wild brook trout; and this they have been doing, 
in response to our inquiry as to the effect of this system 
upon the wild trout supply and fishing for market, Capt. 
J. W. Collins, chairman of the Fish Commission, tells 
us that while it would be difficult to arrive at a definite 
and satisfactory conclusion regarding the effect on the 
sale of wild trout, without making an inquiry such as has 
•not been attempted by the Commission, it is, however, 
the opinion of those who have given some attention to 
this matter that the general effect of the law is to de- 
crease the demand for trout, and especially for wild trout. 
Cultivated trout sell for from 25 cents to 35 cents per 
jjound during February and March, and consequently 
they have a material influence upon the prices for wild 
trout after the first of April. Formerly, at the opening 
of the season, wild trout sold for $1 per pound or there- 
abouts; and even at the present time dealers offer about 
25 cents per pound more for wild trout than for those 
artificially reared. It is not probable that any wild trout 
are sold before the first of April. The low price in Feb- 
ruary and March would not be an inducement to parties 
to catch wild trout for sale in those months. It is also 
believed by some that the lack of the wild trout flavor 
in the cultivated trout sold before April has a tendency 
to prejudice some people against eating trout, and there- 
fore, to decrease the demand for wild trout, as already 
indicated, especially on the part of those who might fear 
they would get artificially raised fish even when paying 
the price for wild trout. 
Manifestly, however, the case of a species of fish whose 
stipply can be kept up artificially, and where the oper 
market is provided in response to a demand for an out- 
let for the artificial supply, is very different from th( 
case of wild fish or wild game, which under open-markei 
conditions will rapidly be depleted. While it may be 
possible to keep the market filled with cultivated trout, 
it is not possible, at this time, to supply the game market 
with venison and quail and other birds from preserves. 
There are no preserves to draw any adequate supply frorw. 
An open game market, in this year 1901, generally 
throughout the United States would mean a market 
stocked with wild game. If that wild game does not 
come from the open fields of the State in which the 
market is situated, it must come from the open fields 
of other States. But under existing laws, the le^timate 
sources of supply in States where non-export laws do not 
obtain are so restricted that they would not begin to. 
stock the markets. We have come to a point in tiis 
country to-day where there is not any considerable 
amount of game capable of meeting the Colorado proviso 
of being "lawfully imported," if we concede that as a 
condition precedent to lawful importation into one State 
it must have been lawfully exported from another State.. 
In any discussion, then, of open-mai'ket systems like 
that of Colorado we must •eliminate as a possible factor 
game imported from other States. This leaves for the 
market supply the game bred in preserves. At the pres- 
ent time the amount of game bred in preserves is so 
insignificant that it, too, may be disregarded as a factor 
in the problem; although the time may come when the 
high prices paid for game as a luxury may stimulate the 
infant industry of raising venLson and pheasants for 
market, to such an extent that it will be worth while 
providing an outlet for the supply. 
Lintil that time shall have come, it will be a safe plan 
to forbid the sale of game at all .seasons. 
MICHIGAN WARDENS. 
There never was a time in Michigan when there was as 
much interest in game protection as there seems to be now. 
The tracking snow coming just at the time of the deer 
season, which had not occurred before for years, enabled 
sportsmen to kill an enormous quantity of deer. This 
has alarmed the people of the State, and they are pretty 
nearly unanimous in asking for a law that will allow the 
killing of but two deer by each sportsman taking out a 
license or a permit to shoot, and that will absolutely pro- 
tect does. The Michigan game warden system is a 
failure so far as the local wardens are concerned, for 
they are dependent upon the county boards of super- 
visors for salary, and nine counties out of ten will not 
fix a salary that would even pay a man's expenses. 
There are a few counties that have voted $40 or $50 a 
month, but that is all. The plan now under considera- 
tion is to remodel the warden system, and to divide the 
State into districts, with a warden for each district, who 
shall receive his pay direct from the State. The entire 
abolishment of spring shooting will be demanded. The 
limit on brook trout will be increased from six to seven 
inches in length, and possibly a limit on the number of 
fish or birds that can be taken in one day, or fish from 
any One stream, will be insisted upon. An effort will 
also be made to close a certain portion of the Big Manis- 
tee to all fishing, for the breeding and perpetuating of 
the Michigan grayling. This portion of the stream is not 
a trout stream, and there are very few trout in it; it is 
strictly a natural grayling stream, on which the logging- 
is a thing of the past so that the grayling really should 
increase if prptected. Unless some such expedient of 
providing a protected breeding ground shall be adopted 
for the grayling the species is doomed to extinction in 
Michigan waters. 
THE NEW YORK COMMISSION. 
In his message Governor Odell, of New York, recom- 
mends many retrenchments and the reductions of various 
commissions in order to secure economy. Among other 
things, he recommends that the Forest Preserve Board 
and Fish and Game Commission should be combined, so 
that one commission of three members should take the 
place of the present two commissions. He points out that 
the salaries and office expenses of the Forestry, Fish and 
Game Commission together with the expenses of publish- 
ing reports last year amounted to $82,875, and this was ex- 
clusive of the maintenance of hat<:heries and legal ex- 
penses. The salaries and office expenses of the Forest 
Preserve Board amounted to $14,000, and there was an 
additional expenditure of $12,000 for counsel. The legal 
work of the department, says the Governor, should be 
performed by the Attorney-General. The combination 
and reduction as recommended by Governor Odell would 
amount to a saving of probably $35,000. 
The recommendation is excellent, so far as it goes. 
Entirely too much money is put into salaries and the 
publication of expensive reports, while insufficient funds 
are found for the pay. of game protectors and the actual 
work the commissions are charged with doing. But 
the change should be more radical and further reaching 
than any' simple combination of the Forest Preserve 
Board and the Fish and Game Commission. The duties 
of the Forest, Fish and Game Commission are quite 
distinct from those of the Forest Preserve Board;, in- 
stead of combining the two, the better plan would be;to 
abolish altogether the Forest, Fish and Game Commis- 
sion as a commission, and to put in its place a ' State 
fishculturist, a State game protector, and a shellfish 
cornmissioner, provided the surveying of oyster lands and 
the other duties belonging to the shellfish office cannot 
be done by the public lands department. The State fish- 
culturist could do independently all that is now done 
by the State fishculturist under a board of five commis- 
sioners; and the State game protector could do inde- 
pendently all that is now done by him under direction of 
a board of five commissioners. The two officers should 
be entirely independent of one another and of control by 
any board of commissioners ; they should be free and un~ 
trammeled in their work, and it would be possible to hold 
them individually responsible for the performance of 
their duties. If the Legislature is desirous of retrench- 
ment, it can here retrench much more radically than 'by 
a combination of the two commissions, and it can* pro- 
vide a much more efficient and satisfactory system, by 
giving us the - independent game protector and fishcal- 
turist. 
SNAPSHOTS. 
OJiio's list of game birds has recently been enriched 
by the addition of two new species, "Japanese turkeys" 
and "snow birds." The Cuvier Club, of Cincinnati, 
prompted by the laudable desire to identify these new 
species and to catalogue them scientifically, recently 
conducted an examination into certain cold storage 
vaults, said to harbor the turkeys and snow birds, and 
with the aid of search warrants they secured a number 
of the birds quite sufficient for identification. After 
careful scrutiny, the Cuvier experts made oath that 
the terms "Japanese turkey" and "snow bird" were noth- 
ing in the world more than new-fangled names for a! 
bird already well known in this country as Virginia 
partridge, quail or Bob White. As a rule, the Cuviers 
are glad to identify, without charge; any bird specimens 
submitted to them; but in this case the dealers who had 
the birds in possession were by certain provisions of the 
Ohio law required to pay severally $25, $50, and $100 
for their instruction in how to name game birds in close 
season. 
The second chapter of "Reminiscences," by Rowland E. 
Robinson, printed to-day, will be followed by a third. 
These were the last things written by Mr. RobinsOn— the 
pleasant memories, near life's close, of the care-free days 
of youth. The January number of the Atlantic Monthly 
contains a sketch of Mr. Robinson, by Mrs. Julia R. C, 
Dorr. It is an appreciation of the creator of Uncle Lisha, 
Sam Lovel and the other characters which have taken 
their secure place in the literature of New England, and 
there is with it a description of the Robinson home, 
which readers of the Danvis stories will be glad to have. 
Mr. Willard G. Van Name makes the exeellent sug- 
gestion that when offenders against the game laws' are 
punished, the officials and interested individuals should 
take pains to have the facts fully reported in the loeal 
press, to the end that the public may be instructed in the 
matter of game protection. It is a practicable and very 
profitable plan. The average offender, who has been 
made to pay a fine for shooting out of season, naturally 
wants to hush up the affair and to avoid publicity. But 
publicity is just what is essential, if the enforcement of 
the law in individual cases is to be of instruction tp the 
public. 
We have frequently urged the enlistment of the local 
paper as a most serviceable adjunct to the right protection 
of fish and game. There is no other such power as the 
home paper in a cause like this; and it Is an agency 
which should be cultivated. 
Twenty-nine buffalo were counted by scouts last winter 
and there were possibly ten more in the Park not seen. 
This is the census of the buffalo made by Gapt Geo. 
M. Goode, Acting Superintendent of the Yellowstone 
National Park. This is an almost hopeless remnant, 
yet Capt. Goode is of opinion that with the establishment 
of hew scouting stations the Stock may yet be preserved 
and that it will increase, , 
