Forest and Stream. 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun, 
Copyright, 1904, bv Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
. ERMS, 
t A Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. I 
Six IVToNTHS, $2. f 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, MARCH 26, 190B. 
I VOL. LXIV.— No. 1?. ' 
I No. 346 Broadway, New York.! 
rhe Forest and Stream is the recognized medium of entertain- 
c:nt, instruction and information between American sportsmen. 
The editors invite communications on tire subjects to which its 
pages are devoted. Anonymous communications will not be re- 
garded. While it is intended to give wide latitude in discussion 
af current topics, the editors are not responsible for the views of 
correspondents. 
Subscriptions may begin at any time._ Terms : For single 
. rpies, $4 per year, $2 for six months. For club rates and full 
[particulars respecting subscriptions, see prospectus on page iii. 
ADIRONDACK TIMBER THIEVES. 
The Association for the Protectioii of the Adirondacks 
has made public certain charges which it has preferred 
vith Governor Higgins implicating Commissioner Middle- 
liion and Chief Protector Pond, and it has given out letters 
flivritten by its president. Judge, Henry E. Rowland, 
urging the Governor not to reappoint these officials. The 
betters are printed on another page. 
It is alleged that Adirondack timber thieves have stolen 
large amounts of timber from the State lands, and have 
then informed upon themselves and paid small penalties 
and have been permitted to remove the stolen timber. 
Evidences of the criminal operations of this character 
as contained in the records of the Forest, Fish and 
Game Commission, the Game Protectors and the Justices 
of the Peace show, the Association asserts, that the 
depredations of timber thieves have been extensive, and 
the penalties exacted from them ridiculously small in 
comparison with the value of the plunder. In one case, 
as cited by the Association, a North Elba thief who stole 
x,6oo,ooo feet of lumber, settled for it by paying a penalty 
of $440, or at, the rate of twenty-one cents a cord, and 
kept the wood. In another instance a thief who stole 
5,677 green trees paid a- tine of $2,000, or less than forty 
cents a 'tree, the penalty prescribed in the statute being 
$10 for each tree. The fines thus paid were in amount 
so far below the actual value of the timber taken that the 
transaction was equivalent to the buying of the wood for 
a song. The aggregate of the fines in the several opera- 
tions specified was $30,111.93, which represented stolen 
tmiber worth many times that sum. 
" The Association charges that systematic robbery of 
this character was conducted openly, that mills were set 
up on the State lands and lumber operations were carried 
on for months, the timber stacked up along streams or 
hauled into the streams awaiting the spring floods to 
float it to market. The thing was done so openly, it is 
declared, that the authorities must have known of it and 
should have suppressed it. In the letter sent to the 
Governor by the secretary, Henry S. Harper, the Com- 
missioner and the Chief Protector are charged with 
acquiescence in this criminal violation of law. This 
amounts to saying that Commissioner Middleton and 
Chief Protector Pond have been in collusion with the 
Adirondack timber thieves. 
The membership list of the Association for the Protec- 
tion of the Adirondacks includes many well-known 
names. Among the trustees, in whose behalf and by 
whose authority the letters embodying the charges have 
been written, are William G. Rockefeller, William G. 
De Witt, Archer M. Huntington, Edwin A. McAlpin, 
James MacNaughton, J. Pierpont Morgan, Henry Phipps, 
the Rt. Rev. Henry C. Potter, Whitelaw Reid, William 
H. Boardman, William F. King, William J. Schieffelin, 
Alfred G. Vanderbilt, W. G. Ver Plank, Alfred L. White 
and Harry Payne Whitney. The body is one, we may 
reasonably assume, which would not prefer charges of this 
nature against public officials unless well convinced of 
their truthfulness, and confident in the possession of evi- 
dence to sustain them. Such grave accusations, however, 
are not to be accepted without question until they shall 
have been proved to be true; and it is well to remember 
that at this time they are accusations only. The reply 
to them, if there be one, has not been heard. 
I There are two sides to every case. The public has 
heard only one side of this one. The other side may not 
be wholly to the credit of the authorities; it may not 
show that they have been so diligent or alert, or efficient 
as they should have been; but it is incredible that a full 
ascertainment of the facts would show any such com- 
plicity with evil-doers as the letters of the Association 
charge. Pending the rigid official investigation which 
should be insisted upon by all concerned, the public may 
,;v7isely suspend judginent, , 
That the statutes on the subject are imperfect and in- 
adequate is to be assumed from one of the recommenda- 
tions contained in the forestry message which has been 
sent to the Senate by Governor Higgins. It reads as if 
written with a knowledge of the condition of affairs com- 
plained of in the Association's letters, and a recognition 
of the necessity of new legislation to apply to them. The 
Governor recommends : 
"That the forest laws be so amended as to insure the 
prevention of trespasses, to compel the prosecution of 
malicious trespassers, both civilly and criminally, to the 
full extent of the law, and the seizure by the State of all 
timber cut or removed by trespassers from State lands, 
and to prevent the condonation of .trespasses," 
The Association urges a modification of the law to the 
effect that the care of the forests and their protection 
from depredation shall be taken from the game protectors 
and vested in the forest wardens. This suggestion has 
already been acted upon; a measure was introduced in 
the Senate last week assigning to the superintendent of 
the forests the duty of enforcing the laws for their pro- 
tection, and the prosecution of trespassers and timber 
thieves. 
HUNTING THE CARTED STAG. 
The members of a Long Island fox hunting club re- 
cently attempted to revive in New Jersey the old British 
sport of chasing a liberated tame deer with horse and 
hounds; but the authorities promptly suppressed the en- 
terprise. The same individuals have gone to the New 
York Legislature with a proposition to legalize such 
hunting in this State. They explain that they have no 
intention of killing the deer, nor even of injuring it; 
and their bill provides that if by any untoward mischance 
the dogs should do the game to death, the owner of the 
hounds would be liable to a penalty of $100. In short, 
the Long Island deer hunting as practiced under the nar- 
row restrictions of this measure would be as merciful and 
harmless to the hunted deer as would be consistent with 
getting any fun out of the chase for the huntsmen; and 
the promoters of the scheme may not justly be accused 
of abnormal bloodthirstiness. Their hunting of the carted 
stag would be strictly in an up-to-date twentieth century 
style. Nevertheless the cold truth is that no hunting of 
liberated deer can be in consonance with the sentiment 
of the day. We have passed beyond sport of that charac- 
ter. Public feeling will no longer tolerate it, and those 
who want it and endeavor to gratify their taste^ for it 
are out of their place in history. Had they been born 
long ago they might have ridden to hounds after deer 
to their hearts' content. They may not do it now, but if they 
are philosophical they will try to make the best of the 
situation, and find some solace for the "demnition grind" 
of life in such sports as are lawfully open to them, being 
always careful never to do anything which is really use- 
ful or really worth doing. 
of certain winters and the increased tax upon the stocks 
by its pursuit for sport, cannot maintain itself in anything 
like abundance. There are other and more extensive 
regions where the birds, by reason of favorable climatic 
and food conditions and immunity from pursuit by the 
gunner, breed with such fecundity as to maintain in all 
years a superabundant stock. 
In the regions where the species has a precarious foot- 
hold, it may be maintained in goodly supply only by 
restocking. In the regions bountifully adapted by nature 
to the multiplication of the species, it may be drawn upon 
for restocking purposes without in any appreciable de^ 
gree impairing the native supply. 
The desirable thing then to be achieved is the provision 
of some way in which the surplus of one section may be 
transferred to supplement the paucity of the other. To 
accomplish this end there might well be provided a sys- 
tem of transfer of the game by official agencies or under 
official direction between the States or between Terri- 
tories and States. There is no good reason why this 
might not be done as successfully, extensively and ad- 
vantageously with game as it is now done with fish. In 
regions like the Indian Territory, breeding grounds 
should be set apart and maintained and used, expressly 
for the supply of birds for stocking purposes^ This is an 
enterprise which might well be undertaken by the Depart- 
ment of Agriculture. 
QUAIL RESTOCKING. 
The New Jersey State Game Commission had laid out 
a plan of extensive stocking with quail this spring, the 
entire number of birds to be put out exceeding a thons; 
and dozens ; and they had received and distributed'" 
several hundred dozens, when the supply was suddenly 
cut off, the express companies having been notified -by 
the authorities that they would be permitted to handle 
no more birds. The New Jersey Commissioners are not 
the only ones whose plans have thus been balked. The 
extreme hardship of the past winter with its destruction 
of birds has left the covers sadly depleted, and the de- 
mand for new stock is very general in the North and 
East. Clubs and individuals are anxioUsly inquiring 
where they may procure the birds; some of them, as the 
Massachusetts Fish and Game Protective Association, 
have laid out extensive plans of restocking, and have 
given orders for extensive deliveries of birds. Under ex- 
isting complications all such enterprises will be thwarted. 
The winter-killed game may not be replaced. Man may 
not come to the aid of nature in renewing the supply. 
The stock destroyed, the covers must remain barren. 
This is a condition which should not exist, provided a 
better way may be found. It is well worth while con- 
sidering the possibility of effecting changed conditions 
more favorable to the . replenishing of the game supply. 
This is the situation; There are extensive regions of 
the United States ^vh^rg tb? quail, wh§t with the severity 
NORTH CAROLINA QUAIL IN NEW JERSEY.. 
The fight of the game protector,s;;agaii3St. the cold stor- 
age people, their most bitter enemies, still goes on, and' 
the last attack was made in the.,. State of .New Jersey, 
where the statutes — as interpreted by the; laymen — would, 
seem to be all on the side of the' game protectors. 
The lawful time to kill or ''have in possession ruffed 
grouse, quail, English pheasants. .and various other birds^ 
ends the 31st day of December.; Section 19 of the last 
issue of the Game Laws, "1904, provides that dealers may 
sell game not killed in the State for the period of fifteen 
days after the close of. ihe'.geaspn. Section 38 declares, 
that whenever the possession of fish or game is pro-J 
hibited, reference is had -equally to- fish or game coming 
from without the State ,as to that taken within the State.. 
A few days ago the game wardens made a raid on a, 
cold storage warehouse in Newark, N: J., and are said to 
have found there'-.three cases of southern quail marked 
sc[uabs, and tagg"ed~with the name of Mr. Jos. S. Mundy_. 
a Newark manufacturer who shoots much in the South. 
The quail numbered one hundred and ninety-two, and 
the legal penalty for that number is $20 each, or $3,840. 
The sariie day wardens searched a cold storage ware- 
house ill .Jersey City, and there found a large number of 
birds, the penalties aggregating, it is said, about $55,000. 
In each ' case the boxes or packages were labeled with 
the owner's name, and the cold storage people disclaim 
any responsibility in the matter, declaring that they are 
ignorant of the contents of the packages. Action will be 
talceai,. it is said,, against the owners of the birds in each 
instance. The quail w;ere seized by the authorities and 
carried off to be distributed among the hospitals. 
■■Mr. Mundy's C[uail, however, are said to have been shot 
in North Carolina, whence the law permits a single indi- 
vidual to send out fifty quail and no more in a season; 
so that if one hundred and ninety-two were brought out 
by one person the North Carolina law has been violated. 
If, then, the laws both of North Carolina and New 
Jersey were violated, and no remedy is found in the 
statute of either State, an interesting situation arises in 
which the Federal authorities might take a hand. 
Incidentally it may be mentioned that Mr. Mundy has 
retained a firm of Newark lawyers to contest any suit 
which may be brought by the State. He has so far de- 
clined to speak of the matter. 
T. E. BATTEN. 
Continued ill health has made it necessary for Mr. T. 
E. Batten to relinquish his position as advertising 
solicitor for the Forest and Stream and to withdraw 
entirely from his connection with the paper. Mr. Batten's 
many friends, both those with whom he has been asso- 
ciated in business circles and those whO' have shared 
his contagious enthusiasm in the sports of the field, will 
learn with extreme regret that he has been obliged io 
take this step, and will indulge a hope for his speedy ^|i(| 
complete restorfitiot] \q healt-h, 
