Forest and Stream. 
A Weekly Journal op the Rod and Gun. 
Copyright, 1904, BY Forest AND Stream Publishing Co, - 
Trrms, ^ A Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. ( NEW^ YORK SATURDAY, MARCH 4, 19 OB. ] No. 346°BrcadwIV, I^EW^OKX. 
Six Months, $2. f * ■ ' . — 
ENLARGING THE WORLD'S FOOD SUPPLY. 
That story in our angling columns of striped bass fish- 
ing in Pacific waters is an exposition of the marvelous 
results which have followed the enterprise of the United 
States Fish Commission in transplanting a species. The 
establishment of this valuable fish in California was an 
achievement which has contributed in incalculable meas- 
ure to the economic resources of the country. 
We are indebted to Mr. Hugh M. Smith, of the U. S. 
Bureau of Fisheries, for the statistics of the shad and 
striped bass fishery of the Pacific coast: 
Total cost of planting shad and striped bass on Pacific 
Coast, under. ?5,00O 
Average annual catch of these fish at present time, pounds 4,000,000 
Yearly market value of the catch $165,000 
Aggregate catch to end of 1904, pounds 26,400,000 
Total value of the catch to the end of 1904 $955,000 
This is one of a score of successful undertakings in 
transplanting and acclimatization. In the current report 
of the Commissioner of Fisheries, Mr. John W. Titcomb 
notes the introduction of trout into the waters of the 
Black Hills of South Dakota, streams which were once 
devoid of fish, but are now themselves sources of supply. 
In like manner the eastern brook trout carried to Colo- 
rado has thrived there to such an extent and become so 
firmly established that, as Mr. Titcomb says, "it is now 
possible to collect more eggs of this species from the 
natural streams and ponds at the subsidaries connected 
with the Leadville station than are collected from any 
station in the East, where the fish is native." 
Quite as noteworthy as tfiis stocking of American 
streams from other American waters is the vast contribu- 
tion the United States is making to the food fish resources 
of the world by sending its native species to foreign 
waters. One of the most remarkable of recent- achieve- 
ments in the field was the consignment presented to 
the Argentine Republic. The story has already been told 
in our' columns. The shipment consisted of eggs of steel- 
head trout (20,000), brook trout (100,000), lake trout 
(50,000), whitefish (1,000,000), and landlocked salmon 
(50,000) . They were sent out in charge of Mr. Titcomb, 
were en route from forty-six to fifty days, and arrived 
at their destination and were hatched with an average loss 
of less than 10 per cent.; having been transported a 
greater distance than had been recorded in the history of 
fishculture, taken across the equator, and carried by team 
300 miles over a hot, sandy country, and hatched in a 
season of the year the direct opposite of that in which 
they would have hatched at home. 
Other contributions to foreign countries noted in the 
report included a generous shipment of rainbow trout 
eggs to Canada, rainbow trout and whitefish to England, 
black-spotted trout to Wales, rainbow trout to France, 
i and brook trout to Japan. 
A LICENSE FOR ALL HUNTERS. 
The Gates bill, now in the New York Legislature, pro- 
vides for the licensing of all hunters, whether resident, 
non-resident or unnaturalized persons, for hunting deer 
and bear; and for the licensing of non-residents and un- 
naturalized persons for the hunting of small game. The 
bill is patterned after the systems in force in other States. 
Applicants for licenses are required to give such particu- 
lars as to their residence and personal appearance as shall 
serve to identify them. The licenses are to be issued by 
the county clerks and to be in force for one year 
only. For the hunting of deer and bear everyone, 
whether resident or non-resident or unnaturalized per- 
■ son, must have a license. The fee for resident licenses is 
nominal, being 75 cents; that for others is $25. The 
shipments of game must be accompanied by the coupons 
attached to the license; these being two in number, give 
the privilege of shipping two deer in a season; and ample 
provision is made for recording shipments and preventing 
abuse of the shipping privilege. 
The requirement of a license for killing game other 
than deer and bear applies only to non-residents and un- 
naturalized persons. The bill prescribes that before a 
non-resident or unnaturalized person shall hunt any game 
other than deer or bear, he must procure a license, for 
which the required fee is $10. This is excellent so far 
as it goes, but it does not go far enough ; for it fails to 
secure very essential control of the unnaturalized shooter. 
Most of the abuse of the violation of the law relating 
to the killing of song and insectivorous birds is com- 
mitted by the foreigners who go out from the cities and 
shoot in the suburbs, killing without discrimination 
everything that flies within range of their guns. Under 
the Gates law, if such shooters desire to take out a license 
they may do so, but there is nothing to prevent their 
going out and shooting without a license, and then mak- 
ing the claim that they are citizens. This throws upon 
the officer the burden of proving; that they are not en- 
titled to the shooting privilege. On the other hand, if 
all shooters, whether citizens or non-residents or un- 
naturalized persons, were required to take out a license, 
every individual would in turn be identified, and there 
would be no such possibility of evasion by numbers of the 
very class the law is attempting to reach. 
Under present conditions there is no good reason why 
every shooter who goes ofif from his own lands to kill 
game should not be required to have a license for that 
purpose. The time has come when it is absolutely neces- 
sary to exercise such control over shooters as can be 
secured only by some system of registration and identifi- 
cation. The Gates measure might well be amended, and 
would prove more effective, if it required of every resi- 
dent hunter of small game a license with some such 
nominal fee as it now exacts from the resident hunter of 
larger game. We believe that it is the experience of other 
States where universal license systems are in force, that 
the results are such as to commend them. / , 
A FISHING RIGHT DELUSION. 
The notioii that if private waters have been stocked 
with fish at State expense outsiders have a right to invade 
them for the purpose of fishing, is as persistent as it is 
mistaken. Corrected in one quarter, it bobs up serenely 
in another. The protracted Rockefeller-Lamora litiga- 
tion over this point has only recently been brought to a 
conclusion. It ended in a reiteration by the higher courts 
that property rights may not be invaded in any such way 
as that demanded by the advocates of free fishing in pri- 
vate waters. Now conies Senator; Drescher in the New 
York Legislature with a bill which provides that any 
waters which have been stocked with fish by the State 
subsequently to April 17, 1896, shall be open to the public 
to fish in, and the Forest, Fish and Game Commission 
is required to keep such waters ppe.n to the public, and to 
maintain sign-boards proclaiming that they are open, and 
warning all persons from molesting. or interfering with 
anyone wading or fishing in them. Another measure for 
which Senator Drescher stands sponsor forbids owners 
of private waters which may have been stocked by the 
State since April 17, 1896, from displaying upon them 
signs warning of? trespassers. The particularity of these 
bills as to the date of the stocking points to some specific 
waters like those involved in the Rockefeller preserve 
controversy in the Adirondacks as the special object of 
the f ramers of the measure. It appears to be an attempt 
to secure by statute a right of fishing which the courts 
have held does not exist under the present law; but it 
will prove futile to achieve any such end. The Legislature 
has no power to confiscate property by throwing open 
private lands to the public. The bills made into laws 
would prove nugatory. They would not be sustained by 
the court. They are crude, illTConsidered, and in conflict 
with common law rights. , . ■ • 
THE FULLERTON PARK CRITICISMS. 
Something over two years ago there were published in 
various newspapers, east and west, interviews given out 
by one James Fullerton, "of Montana," charging gross 
mismanagement of the affairs of the Yellowstone National 
Park. Game killing and general loose management were 
charged, and the blame for the supposed "abuses was 
placed on the superintendent of the Park. 
That public charges should be made 'ag:ainst an officer 
of Major John Pitcher's high standing was a: great out- 
rage—a matter sufficiently serious to call for a contradic- 
tion as public as the charges had been. Such a "contradic- 
tion was printed in Forest and Stream^ and it was 
pointed out that the author of the charges was a person 
entirely unworthy of credit, or ' a'ttehtioft and wholly 
irresponsible, and that the charges themselves were un- 
supported by one particle; of evidence'. 
It was explained that a long time before he got into 
the daily newspapers, Fullerton had visited this office and 
had made to us the charges which other papers after- 
wards printed. Cross-questioning by those who know the 
Park and its history made it quite evident that Fullertdri 
was talking about things ,of which he had no knowledge; 
attempts to pin him down to anything like specific details 
were fruitless. He had no facts, knew nothing of his 
own knowledge, was simply retailing irresponsible gossip, 
or else had been induced to make these charges and had 
been primed with stories to support them by someone 
who was hostile to the Park or to those administering it. 
Fullerton had nothing to relate that was modern, but he 
did tell a lot of old stories of things that had happened 
there a dozen or twenty years ago. 
The matter was brought to the attention of the authori- 
ties at Washington, to whom Fullerton was reported to 
have written, and it was learned— as might have been 
expected- that the Washington authorities, knowing 
Major Pitcher very well, were not disposed to pay the 
slightest attention to the tale Fullerton related. So, after 
a week or two of brief notoriety, the author of the 
"charges" went back to Red Lodge, where he belonged, 
and relapsed into his accustomed obscurity. 
As confirming the conclusions reached at that time 
with regard to Fullerton, it is interesting to learn that 
he has recently become insane, and has been removed 
from his home to an asylum. This will hardly surprise 
those persons possessing any knowledge of the Park who 
talked with him when he came East to make his charges. 
A malicious person who was in his right mind would 
not have made public statements so utterly without 
foundation and so easily disproved as those which Fuller- 
ton made, and which some of our well meaning, but not 
too well informed, contemporaries published with scare 
heads of portentous size. 
THOMAS J. CHAPMAN. 
Prof. Thomas J. Chapman, for many years a promi- 
nent figure in educational circles in western Pennsylvania, 
died last week at his home in Ingram, Pa. Prof. Chapman 
was born in Blairsville, Pa., in 1836, and .when but 19 
years old chose, the vocation of teaching, which he 
followed for the rest of his life. He was the superin- 
tendent of schools in Cambria county. Pa., for eight years, 
professor of English in the Indiana State Normal School 
for two years, and principal of the North School, of Pitts- 
burg, for seventeen years. He was a close student ol 
history and wrote several books on local history which 
have a high reputation for accuracy and are quoted in 
more general works. He was a facile writer, contributing 
frequent letters to Forest and Stream and to other 
periodicals. Although he neither hunted nor fished. Prof. 
Chapman was a lover of nature, and one of her close 
students. He took great pleasure in reading the Forest 
and Stream, and, like many another, was a great admirer 
ot the writings of Rowland E. Robinson and Fred Mather. 
His last contribution to our columns was printed but a 
short time ago. Mr. Chapman was a man of high ideals 
and lofty thought ; and in his very pleasing writings there 
was always much to inform and to elevate. 
As reported in our fishing columns, the Canadian 
authorities have declined to interfere with the netting of 
pike-perch on their spawning beds in Missisquoi Bay of 
Lake Champlain. The reasons are political. The fisher- 
men have votes. Because of their votes they must be 
protected in the netting privilege they have so long en- 
joyed, whether or not that privilege means great public 
loss and a foolish waste of the natural resources of the 
country. The netting of these fish is precisely what our 
correspondent terms it— "rascally rapacity." It should be 
suppressed, and suppressed by the Canadians. To look 
to our own Government to correct the evil by a regula- 
tion forbidding the importation of pike-perch, is to look 
for something which must be, at best, extremely remote. 
. A BILL before Congress provides a nenalty for the 
transportation of the gypsy moth, boll weevil, plum 
curculio, hop plant lice, and other insect pests from State 
to State. The measure was prompted by the proposition 
of an enterprising Texan who made an offer: to a Wall 
Street brokerage firm to stimulate the cotton market by 
collecting boll weevils in infected districts and liberating 
them in localities not yet affected. The penalty provided 
by the bill is a fine of $5,000 and five years imprison- 
ment, a punishment by no means excessive when rneasureci 
by the enormity of the offense. 
