Forest and Stream 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Copyright, 1901, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
Terms, $1 a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. I 
Six Months, |2. ( 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1901. 
( VOL. LVI.— No. 6. 
} No. 346 Broadway, Nbw York 
^The Forest and Stream is the recognized medium of entertain- 
nient, instruction and information between American sportsmen. 
The editors invite communications on the subjects to which its 
pages are devoted. Anonymous communications will not be re- 
garded. While it is intended to give wide latitude in discussion 
of current topics, the editors are not responsible for the views of 
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 iii. 
REPORT OF THE U. S. FORESTER. 
The report of the Division of Forestry for the fiscal 
year ending June 30, 1900, possesses especial interest as 
showing how great is the public desire for instruction in 
methods by which utility and value of the wood lands 
can be increased. In striking contrast to the public apathy 
of a few years ago, there exists at the present time an 
interest in forest matters in the United States which is 
widespread, effective and intelligent. Congress has not 
. kept up with this change in the public sentiment, and while 
the appropriations of the Division have been somewhat 
increased, they are not nearh^ sufficient to enable it to 
comply with any considerable portion of the demands 
made upon it. Something of the change in sentiment, and 
of the magnitude of the problems that confront the Divi- 
sion, may be gathered from the fact that in the year 1898- 
1S99 applications were made for working plans for forests 
covering 1,513,592 acres, while at the end of the succeed- 
ing year these applications covered an area of 51,192.714 
acres. Meantime the working force of the Division had 
grown from sixty-one to one hundred and twenty-three 
individuals. It is thus obvious that what is how holding 
back public foiestr}^ of the United States is not the lack of 
a wish of the people to have forest matters receive atten- 
tion, but a lack of comprehension on the part of Con- 
gress of the public feeling on the subject. 
The most wholesale demands on the Division for assist- 
ance come from the Secretary of the Interior, who re- 
quests working plans for the management of the timber 
on the national forest reserves and for a study of various 
•matters within their boundaries, so that he may be in a 
•position to administer these reserves intelligently and 
wisely. To investigate these forest reserves and -to pre- 
sent practical plans for their care and working would, as 
■ Mr. Pinchot observed, "absorb the whole present force 
of this Division for many years," and of course cannot be 
done at present. Next in importance is the application 
made by the Forest, Fish and Game Commission of New 
York to prepare working plans for the forest reserves of 
that State. The area is a million and a quarter acres, and 
even to do this would severely tax the resources of the 
Division. Besides these requests for assistance there 
have come from many sections of the treeless West ap- 
plications from farmers for information as to the best 
methods of tree planting, and for the study required to 
make the experience of planting in past years available 
for future guidance. All these and many other matters 
are pressing upon the Division, which is hampered by 
lack of force, lack of office room and lack of money. 
During the past year applications were received for 
working plans for more than 48,000,000 acres. More 
than 2,000,000 acres were examined, working plans were 
begun for 1,325,000 acres, plans were completed for 179,- 
000 acres and 54000 ac^res were put under management. 
A beginning was made of drawing up working plans 
for the management of the Black Hills Forest Reserve. 
Planting plans were prepared for fifty-nine land owners in 
eleven States, and a study of the effect of forest cover on the 
flow of streams was begun in southern California. This is 
the first study of the kind ever attempted, and promises 
results of extreme interest. It is being made on lands 
of the Arrowhead Reservoir Company, which for eight 
years has been making careful observations of precipita- 
tion, run off, evaporation and temperature, all of which ob- 
servations it has .turned over to the Division. 
The preliminary study made of the "drainage basin 
which furnishes the water supply to the city of Johnstown. 
Pa. — city of flood — together with the plans and recom- 
mendations with regard to it, has already been noticed in 
the newspapers. 
Besides these important operations carried on, special 
investigations have been made en other subjects not less 
important. Comxjiercial trees h^ve been studied in the 
East, the West and the South, and. reports on certain im- 
portant species completed. The study of forest fires has 
been continued and much material gathered which awaits 
publication. Studies have been made in forest history, and 
a great amount of material gathfcfed which will ultimately 
appear. 
For the ensuing year no special changes of plans are 
looked for. Matters already in hahd will be carried for- 
ward as speedily and as far as the resources — in men and 
money — of the Division will permit. 
In view of the radical change of sentiment about 
forestry matters which has taken place in the past few 
years, of the money value of its products and of its gen- 
eral importance to the country, it may be confidently ex- 
pected that Congress will Sipeedily increase the appro- 
priation for the Division of Forestry to ah amount in 
some degree commensurate with the importance of the 
work and with the insistent demand for it which is com- 
ing from the people at large. 
selves are likely to imagine that they have made some 
great discovery. 
We hope, therefore, to hear more on this subject from 
men of experience. Facts are what are needed to reach a 
conclusion on this matter and not opinions. Yet a man 
may well enough express his opinion as to the motives' 
that govern the actions of a particular animal if he will 
give his reasons for these opinions. 
BIRDS AND FRUIT. 
THE NORTH AMERICAN ASSOCIATION. 
We invite careful reading of the report of -the Nor|:h 
American Fish and Game Protective Association's con- 
vention in Montreal last . week. As we have previously 
said of this organization, it is composed of a Jnember- 
ship which compels respect and inspires great confidence 
in the ultimate accomplishment of its . purposes. Those 
who are most prominent in the movement are persons who 
have long been identified with actual work in the field .of 
fish and game protection. The newly elected president. 
Mr. John W. Titcoinb, of Vermont, was the founder of 
the Vermont Fish and Game League, and as . Fish Com- 
missioner of his State has made, an enviable record. And 
so of others active in promoting the Association; they 
are persons who because of their experience and authority 
• in these mattecs have influence in their respective States 
and Provinces- One feels that we have here in an asso- 
ciation for united effort something more substantial than 
the ineffective and inconsequential resolution-adopting 
convention which has become so familiar.' . 
We are of the opinion that the Association will do well 
to restrict -itself to present limitations as ,to geographical 
scope. A group of States and Provinces with definite 
territory to work within "will accomplish much rhore than 
one which attempts to cover the entire countrj'-. That 
has been one mistake with the so-called national . move- 
ments. This contin'erit is entirely too large for any one 
body of sportsmen to control. The rule is that a geo- 
graphical section may be covered efficiently, but with the 
whole continent to consider effort is wasted. Mr. C. E. E. 
Ussher's proposition to promote the formation of allied 
associations of other groups of States and Provinces is 
most excellent, and the good offices of the North American 
Association in this direction should have cordial wel- 
come, i ^''''^^i'gi 
DANGEROUS tVILD ANIMALS. 
The editorial on the dangers which threaten the out- 
door dweller from attacks by wild animals, and the corre- 
spondence which that editorial has called out, have 
awakened a widespread interest, which may. very' Avell re^- 
sult in something quite useful. ' 'i' 
Wild animals are not all. alike, and it is, of cdtirse, .im- 
possible always to tell what they will do. To every rul^ 
there are exceptions, and the best that can be 'done is to 
strike the general average. As there is great difference in 
the physical characteristics of animals witliin a species, 
some being larger or smaller or swifter or slower than the 
average, so there will be differences in temperament, some 
being bolder, more timid or more ferocious than others. 
It is impossible therefore to predicate with certainty just 
what an individual of any species will do, but if we had 
facts enough it would be possible to tell what an animal 
of a given species would be likely to do under certain 
conditions. 
We are all of us likely to generalize from our own 
limited experience — an unsafe thing to do.. Many of our 
older readers will recall that in their pot' hook days they 
labored painfully to reproduce a line in their copy books 
which read humanum est errare, which they did not then 
know means it is very easy to make blunders. This is 
nowhere more readily seen than in matters connected with 
natural history, about which even to-day so little is 
known that people yjho see sometiijn| that is ney/ to them- 
Among the bills amendatory of the game laws no\V be-, 
fore the New York Legislature is Senate Bill No. 43, in- 
troduced by Mr. Brackett. It provides that Section 78 
of the present law, which deals with the protection of 
certain wild birds, shall be amended by addition of these 
words, "Nor does it apply to farmers and fruit growers 
while defending their crops from the ravages of birds." 
In other words, protection is removed from all song afid 
insectivorous birds, so far as farmers and fruit growers 
are concerned. 
It certainly seems an extraordinary thing that at a time 
when the interest in bird protection is so great, when the 
general Government, most State governments, institu- 
tions of learning and the presses of many publishers are 
doing all they can to educate the public and to demon- 
strate that birds are useful and not harmful, a bill such 
as this should be introduced into the Legislature of the 
Empire State. The amount of fruit destroyed by the birds 
protected by Section 78 is so inconsiderable as not to be 
worth thinking about, while the vast numbers of noxious 
insects destroyed by these same birds would, if undis- 
turbed and allowed to propagate their kind, cause damage 
amounting to many hundreds of thousands of dollars an- 
nually. Most farmers and fruit growers know this and 
look upon the birds as allies. As for those who do not 
know it, the law may well restrain them. 
NEW YORK FISH COMMISSION. 
The bill to reorganize the New York Fish Commission 
has been reported by the Senate Committee in a form 
modified from the original, in a way which is said to have 
the approval of Governor Odell. It provides for a single 
commissioner of forests, fisheries and game, to be ap- 
pointed by the Governor, and to receive a salary of $5,000. 
From 1901 to 1903 he is to have two advisory or consult- 
ing commissioners, appointed by the Governor, who will 
hold office for two years only ; after that term the single 
commissioner will .serve indefinitely. The work of the 
department is divided into four Irranches, comprising the 
fish, the game, the shellfish and the forest, and the com- 
missioner will appoint a head for each. 
This is to put the work of fishculture, game protection 
and forest conservation on a business basis. It is to give 
New York the single-headed commission the Forest and 
Stream has so long urged. 
The office thus created is one of great importance and 
responsibility, and there is every reason for confidence 
that Governor Odell will appoint to it a person qualified 
to discharge it. There i? material in the present board: 
the succession to the place of such a man as President 
Wadswoi-th or Commissioner Middleton would be re- 
garded with satisfaction by those who are concerned to 
see this branch of the State's service efficiently ad- 
ministered^ 
Come now, men and brethren, let Us reason together. 
Is it worth while, just because a shooter shoots more 
pme than we think is fitting, to launch out in unbridled 
invective upon him and call him bad names? Is con- 
formity to an ill-defined and fluctuating standard of game 
shooting of such transcendent moment that in the re- 
buke of its transgression we must say good-by to the ob- 
servance of good breeding and common decency in our 
speech to or respecting our fellow men? Can intemper- 
ance in game killing be reformed only by intemperance of 
speech? Is the "game hog" to be turned from his ways 
only by the unparliamentary vocabulary of a strenuous 
blaekguard? We do not believe it. But if the promotion 
of game protection does depend upon publicily shouting 
bad names, most of us are in the position of the good old 
Quaker of the story, who, when he was spattered by mud 
in the street, called the styet gamin to him and said, "J 
•^ill give thee a penny to 4wear for cse," 
