Forest and Stream. 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Copyright, 1904, by Forest and Stream Publishing G<S. 
Terms, $4 a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy, i 
Six Months, $3. ) 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, APRIL 2 3, 1904. 
J VOL. LXII.— No. 17. 
I No. 346 Broadway, New York- 
"tht t^OREST Ai^D Stream is thfe recognized mediuin of entertaih- 
nifent, ihstructio'n and information between American sportsmen. 
The editors invite communications on the subjects to which its 
pages Jire devoted. Anonymotis communication's v^^ill not be re- 
gdMed. While it is intended to give wide latitude in discussion 
of cUfrerit topics, the editors are not responsible for the vievvs of 
cofresj)ondents. 
Subscriptions may begin at any time. Tefms: For sihgJfe 
copies, $4 per year, $2 for six months. For club rates arid fiiil 
particulars respecting subscriptions, see prospectus on page iii. 
STATE GAME REFUGES. 
Two interesting letters which we print this week call 
renewed attention to the desirability of action by 
State and city governments "toward the preserving un- 
touched of wild areas of country, and the making such 
wild areas attractive by introducing and protecting the 
various creatures native to the soil. 
It is generally known that, for economic purposes, 
great tracts of the United States public domain have been 
set aside and reserved as preserves of one sort and 
another. The forest reserves of the Federal Govern- 
ment aggregate more than sixty million acres, but it is not 
generally known that nearly 1,700,000 acres of land have 
been set aside by some of the States as State parks, State 
forest reserves and preserves, State forest stations and 
State forest tracts. These, however, are found in only 
a very few States. Pennsylvania has more than 300,000 
of these acres, New York 1,250,000, California a 
little more than 40,000, Michigan more than 57,000, Min- 
r.esota more than 20,000 and Massachusetts less than 
15,000. These areas are, as stated, of State creation, and 
must not be confounded with the measures introduced 
in Congress looking to the establishment of a national 
park in Minnesota and another in the Appalachian range. 
All the States of the Union agree that the game should 
be preserved, and pass laws to that end, but along with 
the preservation of game should go also the establishment 
of localities where that game may live and thrive, free 
from molestation, and even from fear of harm. 
To the average human being, living wild animals are, of 
all things, the most attractive. Who does not remember 
the circus and the menagerie of his youth, and his joy 
to-day in watching wild creatures undisturbed? It is 
quite within our power, if we wish it, to have within 
easy reach of us haunts of these wild creatures, where 
they shall be so free from fear that we may see them at 
almost any time. Examples of the natural tameness of 
ail wild creatures are so familiar that they hardly need 
be cited. The game in the Yellowstone Park, the wild 
ducks in certain preserved sections of Florida, the water 
fowl of far Lays an, the wild fowl which in their migra- 
tions continually alight with the domesticated wild fowl 
in the New York Zoological Society's Park- in the Bronx, 
all show very clearly that what we in our stupid, civilized 
way call wild creatures are really not wild creatures, but 
are fellow beings only too glad to live with us in peace 
and amity if we will permit it.- Wildness — meaning fear 
of man— is an acquired habit. 
In every State in the Union there are great tracts of 
land unoccupied and useless in the sense that they make 
no financial return — yield no income — to their owners. 
Such lands, as so often said, ought to be purchased by 
the State, and, being left in their present condition of 
v.ildness, might be stocked with native game. The cost 
v,'ould be trifling — the mere fencing of the tract, and the 
wages of men who should patrol it — but the return in 
pleasure, in interest to the citizens of the different States, 
would be very great— absolutely out of proportion to the 
cost of the park. 
Massachusetts— usually in the van where progress is 
concerned— has seen the wisdom of such a course and 
has established no less than twelve reservations of this 
nature. Some of them are very small, being little more 
than twenty acres in area, others much larger, as the 
Bluehills reservation of 4,850 acres. 
The time is coming when the public of the different 
States will demand action of this sort by their legislators, 
and the sooner that time comes the better for all of us. . 
The character of the land to be set aside will, of course, 
vary in different sections of the country. In New Eng- 
land and the East such lands are likely to consist largely 
of bavren mountain sides, increased, perhaps, by areas 
01 abandoned farrris. In the West, marsh lands which are 
irreclaimable and iiable to ffequefit overflow, may fitly be 
set aside in the same way, while the South possesses 
great areas of canebrake and low land subject to over- 
flow, which might be made parks and preserves. The 
subject is well worth attention and Careful thought by 
all our readers. 
NEW JERSEY PROHIBITION. 
The shooting of "fowls, pigeons and birds," after the 
manner commonly known as trap shooting, is made un- 
lawful within the State of New Jersey by act of the 
Legislature of that State, which met in special session 
on Wednesday of last week. The act is to take eflfect 
on and after July 4 next. It is so comprehensively word- 
ed that it absolutely prohibits, for trapshooting purposes, 
the use of crows, sparrows or pigeons, or, in fact, any 
other kind of birds. Its prohibition is absolute in gen- 
eral and in particular. It ends pigeon shooting. 
The prohibitive area is growing. The immense terri- 
tory, all New England and New York, is thus still further 
enlarged by New Jersey's adverse act; In the West, the 
opposition grows also. Iowa recently prohibited the sport 
in question by statutory enactment. Several other States 
have shown open hostility or threatening disapproval of 
it, and it is fair to infer that other States will prohibit it. 
The act of the New Jersey Legislature is specially dis- 
astrous to this sport. New Jersey's trapshooting inter- 
ests, from the viewpoint of financial investment and quan- 
tity, surpass those of any other State. It was the most 
active section in respect to pigeon shooting. Within its 
boundaries are situate the houses and grounds of three 
famous, wealthy clubs, namely, the Riverton Gun Club, of 
Philadelphia, the Carteret Gun Club, of New York, and 
the Westminster Kennel Club, the latter a recent immi- 
grant to that State. The many thousands of dollars in- 
vested by these clubs will be lost so far as the trap- 
shooting features are concerned. 
Of the New York clubs, the Hell Gate Gun Club, the 
Emerald Gun Club, the New York German" Gun Club, and 
olherSj with an exceedingly large membership in the ag- 
gregate, will either become inoperative or will disband. 
The moral effects of this law will be still more im- 
portant and far reaching, for with such an important 
precedent for guidance, the Legislatures of other States 
are encouraged to vigorous action against pigeon shoot- 
ing; and, furthermore, they will find weaker opposition 
to prohibitive legislation. 
However, in this connection, be the loss to the sport 
what it may, the sport of shooting at the traps is not 
ruined. Its devotees have still unrestricted liberty to 
shoot at targets^ which, after all, is no mean test of 
skill, although it will never hold so high a place as pigeon 
shooting in the esteem of the relatively small class which 
devotes itself to that form exclusively. 
In any case, when pigeon shooting is prohibited by law 
in any section, it is incumbent on all good citizens to 
obey the law and the laws. 
NEJV JERSEY BEACH BIRDS. 
The actions of the Legislatures of New York and New 
Jersey during the session now ending, present a strong 
contrast. In New York, after a hard battle, the bill pro- 
viding for the repeal of the anti-spring wild fowl shoot- 
ing bill was defeated, while New Jersey formally enacted 
tl'.at shore birds or bay snipe may be shot from the ist 
of May to the 31st day of December. In other words, 
may be shot throughout the breeding season and during 
the whole time that, they are with us. All protection is 
withdrawn from this group of birds. 
This action is extraordinary and regrettable. It is op- 
posed to the sentiment with regard to game protection 
of the country at large, and we believe to the sentiment 
of the great majority of the sportsmen of the State of 
New Jersey. It is a step backward so remarkable as to 
call for sharp comment by the residents of the State. 
The beach birds reach us from the south about the first 
of May, and, after tarrying for a short time, the most of 
them pass on northward, though a few species remain and 
breed with us. For these species there is thus no pro- 
lection. All during the breeding season gunners may 
roam abroad, shooting the birds on their nests^ and iti- 
cidentally shooting any other bird that may present itself 
to view. The foreign gunner, joying in his half holiday 
on Saturday and the whole one of Sunday, and absolutely 
ignorant of our laws, delights to spend his time in the 
country with a gun and to kill everything that wears 
feathers ; and when, as is sometimes done, the head and 
feet and feathers of the slaughtered birds are removed, it 
would take an expert anatomist, and osteologist to say 
to what species it belonged. In this new law the alien 
gunner of whom we hear so much complaint will find his 
opportunity to slay at will — a temptation and an oppor- 
tunity furnished him by the State. 
New Jersey has long enjoyed the bad eminence of being 
one of the few States which still permits the summer 
shooting of woodcock. The present law is on a par with 
that one, and, as the New Jersey statutes now read, the 
birds of the snipe family have very little protection. Eng- 
lish snipe may be shot during March and April and in 
the autumn, bay snipe from May i to the end of Decem- 
ber, and woodcock in July and in the autumn. The wild 
fowl are little better off ; they may be shot from the ist of 
September to the 30th of April, while ruffed grouse, quail, 
English pheasants, prairie chicken and wild turkey may 
be shot from the loth day of November to the 31st day 
of December, except on game preserves, where the 
shooting may begin on the ist day of October. 
The New Jersey Legislature cannot be congratulated on 
its game protective work for the season of 1903-4. 
POWER BOATING. 
It is now pretty generally known that the objectionable 
clauses incorporated in the Grosvenor bill relating to 
the pleasure power boat have been stricken out, and so 
the owners of motor craft will not be interfered with this 
year by any legislation. While we are very glad the 
Grosvenor bill did not become effective in so far as it 
related to the pleasure boat, we regret that there do not 
exist the effective laws needed to regulate the handling of 
power craft. Incompetent persons will attempt to sail 
3'achts and handle boats, and often with disastrous re- 
sults. All yacht sailors should be surrounded with every 
possible protection for the safety of all concerned. We 
fear that should one or two bad collisions or explosions, 
accompanied with loss of life, take place within the near 
future, the power boat would be legislated against in a 
most drastic fashion. This would be unfortunate and 
detrimental to the sport, and we should at once have regu- 
lations on the order of what was suggested by the Amer- 
ican Power Boat Association not long since. 
■ There are other matters, however, which may prove a 
menace to the sport; the demand for small power boats, 
the past year has been unprecedented, and in some cases 
the builders have been unable to fill orders. If these 
boats were of good design and proper construction, we 
would welcome their appearance, but in many instances 
the desirable features that make up wholesome craft are 
lacking. However, just so long as the purchaser 
is satisfied with these shoddy craft, overloaded with their 
vulgar brass and nickel rails and gaudy cushions, the 
builder will turn them out. Until the consumer de- 
mands something better the builder has no incentive to 
produce a real boat. The builder does not pose as a 
public benefactor and he has no intention of educating the 
buying public to higher standards. A large percentage of 
men who have taken up power boating are not yachtsmen, 
and are not familiar with yachts, nor qualified to pass 
upon the requirements of boats of any kind. They take 
up the sport because they believe it will afford some ex- 
citement and amusement. Speed is the one thing they 
have in mind, and instead of going to one of our repu- 
table designers they put themselves in the hands of some 
builder who constructs a boat from either a model or a 
crude drawing of his own. This builder does not know 
vv'hat constitutes a combination of lightness and strength 
as does the scientific designer, nor does he realize what 
strains such a boat has to meet, The result is, the pow- 
erful engines rack the boat to such an extent that it is 
next to impossible to keep her from leaking. One season 
will be sufficient to demonstrate how useless are many of 
the craft now being built; they will prove themselves not 
only unseaworthy, but slow, owing mainly to faulty de- 
sign. 
