Forest and Stream 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Copyright, 1902, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
Terms, $4 a Year. 10 Crs. a Copy. I 
Six Months, $2. ( 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, MARCH IB, 1902. 
( VOL. LVin.-No. 11. 
*| No. 346 Broadway, New York 
The Forest and Stream is the recognized medium of entertain- 
ment, instruction and information between American sportsmen. 
The editors invite communications on the subjects to which its 
rages are devoted. Anonymous communications will not be re- 
garded. While it is intended to giv? wide latitude in discussion 
of current topics, the editors are not responsible for the views of 
correspondents. 
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particulars respecting subscriptions, see prospectus on page iii. 
GAME FOODS AND FLAVORS. 
Many of the readers of Forest and Stream are old 
enough to recall the heated arguments which appeared 
in the sportsman's literature years ago, between those 
persons who declared that the canvasback in his excel- 
lence was found nowhere except in Chesapeake Bay, and 
their opponents who said that canvasbacks were found all 
over the country and were equally good everywhere. The 
first party based their contention on the premise that 
the wild celery was found only in the Chesapeake Bay, 
and declared that except when fattened on a diet of wild 
celery the canvasback was no better than a coot. Of 
course we know to-day that both these parties were 
wrong and both were right, and the quarrel between them 
has long been one of those dead issues which has been 
laid away with a thousand others, to sleep the sleep that 
knows no waking. It has always been known that the 
food on which an animal subsists has a great deal to do 
with the flavor of its flesh. If the coot and the old squaw 
are poor eating, it is because they subsist almost altogether 
on a diet of clams and other shell fish. The grain-fed 
whistler is as good to eat as his fish-fed brother of the 
sea coast is worthless. 
But while there are a great many familiar facts bearing 
on this subject which are known to every one, there are 
also some others that are unknown, and that are curious 
and interesting. 
Nothing is more common to country dwellers than to 
find in the early spring the milk of the cows tainted with 
garlic. The wild leek, being one of the first green things 
to appear in the spring, is greedily devoured by the cows 
newly turned out to pasture, passes from the food into the 
circulation, and so taints the milk. No doubt if a cow 
yielding this milk were to be butchered and her flesh 
cooked, it would be found both to taste and smell of 
garlic. 
It may not be so generally known that in early spring 
the wild sheep of the Rocky Mountains, like domestic 
cattle, nibble with relish the new springing wild onions, 
and if killed at this season the flesh tastes strongly of 
the plant. Who knows whether the flesh of the deer and 
elk may not be similarly affected by this or some other 
plant. Happily, not many of these animals are killed in 
the spring. 
The Indians of portions of California declare that in 
early spring the quail eat the leaves of the wild onion, 
and that their flesh becomes worthless for food at this 
season because of the strong odor of onions which per- 
vades it. 
It is a well-known fact that the flesh of the spruce 
grouse and of Franklin's grouse in the winter season, 
when the ground is snow covered and their food is 
largely the buds and leaves of spruce and pine, acquires a 
strongly resinous taste which is at first unpleasant, though 
one readily becomes used to it. More familiar still is the 
fact that the ruffed grouse which has fed on the buds and 
leaves of the laurel often acquires a strongly bitter taste. 
On the other hand, it may well be that in this last case 
the taste of the flesh may come merely from absorption 
by the muscles of the flavor of the stomach contents of 
birds that have hung long without dressing. 
Old trappers know very well that the flesh of the beaver 
has a strong taste of willow and Cottonwood bark, and 
no one who has ever eaten much beaver could be in 
doubt as to the food that he was masticating, even though 
his eyes were blindfolded a hundred times. 
taken a long investigation to learn that this taste came 
from the fact that the hens were eating orange seeds. 
When they were prevented from consuming this food, the 
taste of the eggs became normal. 
In bygone years — and very likely to the present day — 
near some of the salmon rivers of the Northwest coast, 
hens' eggs during a part of the salmon run were uneatable, 
for the reason that the chickens fed so freely on dead 
salmon thrown out of the streams that eggs and flesh 
alike became tainted. It is also a notorious fact that on 
portions of the coast and on certain streams in the 
Northwest hogs can not be killed during the salmon 
run because their flesh is too fishy to be eaten. The 
flesh of bears at certain points on the same coast is re- 
ported to be so fishy at the close of the salmon run that 
even the natives will not eat it. On the other hand, years 
ago there used to be special brands of hams sold in Cin- 
cinnati which purported to be of rare excellence because 
the hogs from which they were taken had fed on chest- 
nuts or other mast. 
All of which shows that the illness from which the 
King of the Cannibal Islands suffered after partaking of 
an old sailor, whose diet for many years had consisted of 
tobacco, salt horse and rum, may not have been due 
entirely to His Majesty's imagination. 
THE ADIRONDACK FORESTS. 
The New York Board of Trade and Transportation, 
which gave most valuable service to defeating the Adiron- 
dack forest grab measure in 1896, has now through its 
Forestry Committee addressed a memorial to the Legisla- 
ture protesting against the enactment of the Davis bill 
to turn the State forests over to the pulp men and the 
camp site occupants. The people of this State, says the 
memorial, have twice passed upon this question and by 
an overwhelming vote at the polls registered their de- 
termination to keep their forest possessions intact. They 
are not likely to be deceived in this new attack. If the 
question shall come before them they will defeat it again. 
But the defeat should come now and at Albany. The 
Davis bill should be. killed. 
To come back to more familiar and homely examples, 
it has often happened that the eggs of hens in Florida 
were pervaded by a strangely bitter taste which the owners 
pf the fowls were quite unable to account for, and k has 
TO PROTECT ALASKA GAME. 
There was introduced last month in the House of 
Representatives by Mr. John F. Lacey, of Iowa, a bill for 
the protection of game in the District of Alaska and for 
other purposes,, which should receive favorable action by 
Congress. Recent years have witnessed a terrible de- 
struction of big game in that country, and persons who 
have investigated the matter tell us that the great bears 
of Kadiak Island and the Alaska Peninsula, the giant 
moose, the white sheep and certain forms of caribou are 
rapidly passing away, partly through the killing for food, 
but also largely through killing for hides and, to a less 
extent, for heads to be sold tcr taxidermists. 
By the present bill wanton destruction of birds other 
than game or of game animals is prohibited, and game ani- 
mals and birds are defined. Close seasons are estab- 
lished for certain wild animals and wild birds, and it is 
further provided that whenever the Secretary of Agri- 
culture shall deem it necessary for the preservation of 
game' birds or animals, he shall make rules and regula- 
tions modifying these close seasons, or providing differ- 
ent close seasons for different parts of Alaska, or may 
further restrict the limit of killing, or may entirely pro- 
hibit such killing for a period riot exceeding five years 
for any locality. 
The killing of females or yearlings of moose, caribou, 
deer or sheep is forbidden, and the number of game ani- 
mals that any one person may kill within a year is defined. 
Hunting with hounds and the use of steam launches is 
prohibited. The selling of hides, skins, or heads of game 
animals or birds, and the shipping of such hides or car- 
casses is forbidden, except for scientific purposes. Penal- 
ties are established for violations of this act, and it is 
made the duty of certain Federal officials, marshals and 
their deputies, collectors of customs and their deputies, 
and officers of revenue cutters, to assist in the enforce- 
ment of the act. They may arrest persons violating it 
without: warrant. 
Obviously the two important provisions of the. act are 
those which prohibit the safe, and export of hides and 
which give to the Secretary of Agriculture the authority 
to divide Alaska into districts and to frame regulations 
adapted to each. 
A hearing was had by the sub-committee having the 
bill in charge on Friday, March 7, and the matter having 
been very fully explained, all the members were in favor 
of the passage of the bill, with certain amendments, which 
are shown in the copy printed elsewhere. 
It is very fitting that the work of protecting Alaskan 
game should have been taken up by one who has done so 
much for game protection in the United States. Mr. 
Lacey's bill is a beginning of care for the wild creatures 
of this northern domain. When it has become law further 
steps may be taken looking in the same direction, 
INDIAN TERRITORY GAME. 
The bill in the United States Senate, introduced by 
Senator Quarles, provides a close season for the game 
of Indian Territory, and forbids hunting within the Ter- 
ritorial limits by non-residents except with a license to be 
issued by the United States Indian agent at Union 
Agency upon the payment by the applicant of a fee of 
$2.50 per day for each day's hunting, the time permitted 
not to exceed ten days. The moneys thus collected are 
to constitute a fund for rewards for information leading 
to the conviction of game law violators. 
The provision of the Quarles bill which concerns the 
sportsmen of the country at large is a prohibition of 
netting any birds in the Territory at any time, and the 
taking of any game for purposes of export. This will 
effectually put a stop to the export of live quail from the 
Indian Territory for stocking other covers. Many in- 
dividuals, clubs and associations have hitherto derived 
their supplies of live game from this source; the new 
order will cut off this supply. The Indian Territory quail 
no longer being available, the work of restocking will of 
necessity cease. This means a distinct deprivation, and 
one for which there can be no justification other than 
an unwise diminution of the Territory quail supply. If 
the stock of quail in the Territory is such that it may be 
drawn upon by exporters of live birds for stocking pur- 
poses, without menacing the home supply, Congress 
should not interfere to prevent this industry. 
There is ground for believing that the export of live 
quail from the Indian Territory might be conducted un- 
der some system of regulation by the authorities which 
would protect the interests of the Territory and at the 
same time serve the interests of the country at large by 
supplying the material for replenishing exhausted covers. 
The Territory is so fertile in game, so admirably adapted 
by climate, food resources and other natural conditions 
to producing quail in exhaustless supply, that Congress 
would more truly be serving the interests of the coun- 
try if instead of cutting off the quail export it made 
provision for its continuance under proper safeguarding. 
In recent years we have heard much of German forestry 
and German forest methods, but most American students 
of this science know little about it that is practical. This 
spring an opportunity is offered to students by the Bilt- 
more Forest School, which is in charge of Dr. C. A. 
Schenck, to see during the coming summer something of 
German forestry arid its methods. Under the guidance 
of Dr. Schenck a party will leave New York April 10 
and return July 8, going both ways by steamer of the 
North German Lloyd. The students of the party will 
begin in the Rhine Valley, where the types of European 
forestry will be investigated. Portions of Germany, the 
Bavarian Alps, the Tyrol, Hungary and Roumania will 
be passed over. Large stretches of forest will be traversed 
on foot, so that those making the trip will require good 
walking outfits. The total expense of the entire tour 
will not exceed $500, which includes tuition fee and 
steamer fares to and from New York. Members of for- 
estry associations, lumbermen and other friends of for- 
estry are invited to take part in this tour, which cannot 
fail to be of great interest. 
That is a touching record we print to-day from the 
pen of Rowland F. Robinson. But how there glow 
through it all the high courage and cheerfulness of thq 
strong heart which was hjs, _ 
