Forest and Stream. 
a Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Copyright, 1904, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
'^''""''^sIx'^MoNTHsir"''^"-} NEW YORK, SATURDAY, MAY 6, 190B. {m. Ao'lull^T^A^. 
THE ADIRONDACK TIMBER INVESTIGATION. 
When the Association for the Protection of the 
Adirondacks preferred its sensational charge against 
Commissioner Middleton and Chief Protector Pond, last 
March, accusing them of collusion with Adirondack tim- 
ber thieves, we said of the affair : "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 complicity 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 wisely suspend judgment." 
Attorney-General Mayer was intrusted by Governor 
Higgins with the task of investigating the charges. The 
results of the inquiry as reported by the Attorney-General 
are given on another page. He finds that by a method of 
indirection fire-killed timber has been sold from the State 
lands in direct violation of the Constitution, while on the 
other hand, those who cut green timber have been vigor- 
ously prosecuted and punished. As to the charge of 
official corruption, the Attorney-General reports : 
"Finally, I think it but just to add that after thorough 
investigation, the examination of many witnesses and 
documents, there is no evidence that any corrupt con- 
sideration was received by the State officials or agreed 
upon between them and any of the trespassers ; but it is 
unquestioned that the policy which was followed resulted 
in illegal acts." 
ARTIFICIAL BREEDING OF WILD BIRDS. 
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has always been 
earnest in efforts to supply the inroads which excessive, 
shooting and fishing have made on the wild denizens of 
its woods and waters. It is still working on those prob- 
lems and is breeding some species of game with good re- 
sults, though attempts to rear quail have not yet been suc- 
cessful. Of all this matter of the artificial rearing of wild 
birds and mammals for stocking purposes, we know as 
yet little or nothing, and only by experiments carried on 
over considerable periods can we learn what may be done 
and how to do it. 
In Massachusetts the authorities have had the very 
important assistance of an outside experimenter who has 
accomplished something never done before. Prof. C. F. 
Hodge, of Clark University, Worcester, has reared a num- 
ber of healthy ruffed grouse from the egg, and has also suc- 
ceeded in taming two captured wild grouse. The wildness 
of the ruffed grouse has been proverbial among genera- 
tions of New England farmers, and it has been declared 
that it was impossible to rear them in captivity. People 
have said that "a patridge is always a patridge," and 
no matter how young it may be caught, it will escape or 
it will die. On the other hand, of late years accounts 
have been printed of ruffed grouse which seemed to lose 
all fear of certain human beings and came to regard them 
as friends. We recall no authentic account of the breed- 
ing of this bird in capitivity,<ifeut a dfizen or fifteen years 
ago the spruce grouse — a bird of very different habit — 
was bred by a resident of Nova Scotia. 
A most interesting fact in Professor Hodge's experi- 
ment is that of twelve eggs brought in from wild nests, 
every one hatched. His full account of the food which 
the young grouse relish is a valuable addition to our 
knowledge of the habits of the bird. 
Six birds, the breeding stock which Professor Hodge 
has to start with, is a slender foundation for a grouse 
farm, but he will presumably add to this stock by birds 
reared, as last year, from the egg. It is to be hoped that 
his experiments will be continued, and be supplemented 
by those of others and that the time may come when 
ruffed grouse and quail will be reared in captivity as 
easily as chickens are now. 
It is not so many years ago since the experiment of turn- 
ing out two western species of grouse was tried in Massa- 
chusetts, but with no result. It is evident that this was 
not the proper way to handle those birds, yet some of our 
western grouse would no doubt do well in New England. 
Pinnated grouse formerly lived in certain portions of the 
State — where a few survivors still exist — the sharptail 
grouse might well flourish there, and it is quite possible 
that if the dusky grouse — one of the most splendid of 
American game birds — could be introduced, it might do 
well. The dusky grouse, though commonly considered a 
bird of high altitudes, yet flourishes well enough on the 
seacoast of the Northwest. Experiments ought It)' be 
made in breeding all these grouse in captivity, and when 
success has been attained they may be turned out in the 
spring in small numbers to take care of themselves. 
The whole great subject of the artificial rearing of web- 
footed wildfowl is as yet untouched in this country. It 
is successfully done in England, and in many parts of the 
United States the wild geese in stands of decoys com- 
monly breed in domestication and are reared as easily 
as tame goslings. Here is a fertile field waiting for the 
right man. When the time shall come for the Common- 
wealth of Massachusetts to set apart certain wildfowl 
refuges, which shall be properly protected and sufficiently 
secluded we may expect to see wildfowl — free as well as 
domesticated — breeding in those waters. 
LONG ISLAND DUCK SHOOTING. 
While Utah and Wisconsin have just passed laws 
stopping the shooting of wildfowl in the spring, and while 
Minnesota closes the season for water fowl Dec. i and 
limits the bag to fifteen birds in one day, the Legislature 
of New York has before it a bill to repeal the present law 
forbidding spring shooting, and to permit such shooting 
for three days in each week from March 15 to May i.' 
The bill has already passed the Assembly, a number of 
members, it is said, having been induced to vote for it 
on the ground that it made no difference what the As- 
sembly did, for in any event, the bill would be killed in 
the Senate. Now, it is hoped by its promoters that during 
the closing days of the session, the bill may slip through 
the Senate and become law. 
In many of the States of the Union the open season for 
wildfowl is far too long. Several months should be cut 
off this open season. Three or four months of shooting 
each year is enough for ducks, as it is for other birds, 
and the sentiment among sportsmen and game protectors 
favors the shortening of the season by cutting off the 
spring months. The trend of sentiment among sports- 
men and game protectors is in the direction of putting 
an end to spring shooting, and sooner or later it certainly 
will be stopped everywhere. 
Tt seems a pity that the great State of New York should 
be one of the last to take this action, and above all a pity 
that it should take a backward step, which, before long, 
it will have to retrace. 
It is said that the sportsmen of New York city are in 
favor of the epeal of the present law, but we do not be- 
lieve this to be the case. Certainly the reverse of this 
sentiment is expressed by the New York papers. Those 
- that have spoken are in favor of the law as it stands. 
In most sections of the main range of the Rocky Moun- 
tains the winter has been mild and the snowfall light. 
This is a good thing for the game but a bad thing for the 
farmers and the stock raisers, who for their summer 
water depend in large measure on the winter snows. 
In the National Park the snow is going fast, and if it 
is not now practicable tO' get about over the roads in 
wagons, it will be so soon. 
The game is all looking well, and there has been almost 
no loss this winter. Usually at this season of the year 
many dead animals are seen. The very aged and the 
young and weak have already succumbed or are about 
to do so, and many carcasses of old bulls and weak calves 
are found on the hillsides and down near the rivers. This 
year there are none. 
There are printed on the page which follows two com- 
munications from California, which chance has brought 
together as if by the contrast thus afforded to heighten 
the loveliness of the one scene and the desolation of the 
other. Mr. Charles Cristadoro writes of the charms of 
Point Loma, a spot of beauty where the warm southern 
sun lights up the tinted seas, the air is fragrant and 
balmy, and the landscape, the birds and the wondrous 
products of the sea make living in the open air a delight. 
On the other hand, Mr. Chas. S. Paige writes of a coun- 
try whose pristine beauty and healthfulness has been de- 
stroyed, the land denuded of trees, of all vegetation, even 
of the soil, the air polluted and poisoned, and the human 
inhabitants ruined and driven from their homes. To read 
the story is to be filled with indignation at the outrage, 
to sympathize with the victims of it, and to share their 
impotent wrath against the heartlessness and injustice of 
those who hav^ wrought ^.he devastation, 
THE COLORADO BUFFALO CASE. 
The case of Bartlett against O'Mahoney, sheriff, was 
tried in the Lake county, Colorado, District Court on 
April 17, resulting in a verdict for the defendant. 
This case is the most important case ever tried under 
the game laws of Colorado, and is the finish of a number 
of suits involving the destruction of the last wild buf- 
faloes in the State. It has also proved the efficiency of 
the State game law of 1899 commonly known here as 
the Beaman law. 
The history of the killing of these buffaloes, as shown 
by the evidence for the State in the previous cases, is that 
in February, 1897, one of the Bartlett Brothers (taxider- 
mists in Leadville) with two or three other men, went 
into Lost Park and killed a large buffalo bull, a cow, a 
yearling bull and a bull calf. 
After doing so they sacked up the hides, skulls and 
bones and took them to a ranchman's house on the edge 
of the park where they had the ranchman's wife cook 
some of the meat which they told her was buffalo meat; 
the sacks were left in an outhouse over night, and she 
said she saw blood on the floor next day; the men also 
talked between themselves in her hearing as to their kill- 
ing four buifaloes. 
Another ranchman living near Lost Park testified that 
the buffalo^ cow for some years, and the calf since its 
birth, had run with his cattle, and he saw them every 
week until the Bartlett camp was made, and soon after 
that he saw the cow dead and her head cut off but never 
saw the calf again ; that horse tracks led from the dead 
cow to the Bartlett camp. 
They also paid the first ranchman $25 for hauling them 
to their camp and back and for hauling the hides to the 
railroad, from whence they were shipped to Leadville, 
where they were stored and nothing more was heard 
about the affair for nearly four years. 
In 1901, C. W. Harris, then State Game Commissioner, 
got on their track, and pretending to be a "buyer for a 
zoological park in New York, undertook to get hold of 
them. 
During his operations he wrote letters to one of the 
men supposed to have been concerned in the killing and 
received an answer as follows: 
"Suppose a man had extra fine big male, one big female, one 
yearling male, and one male baby, about two months old, all 
skulls and leg bcnes with them, also accurate measurements of the 
bodies, and the hides all pickled and dried and put away by a 
ccmpetent workman. All these collected, with the exception of 
baby, in dead of winter, temperature of SO degrees below zero, 
and therefore of very primest quality. Supposing, I say, a man 
had such an outfit, what would you be prepared to do? 
I want you to imagine a magnificent family, the knowledge you 
claim of the business will then assure you that their value must 
be high, say, $3,000. 
Are you prepared to talk business at this figure? 
Don't come here until you have answered this letter and have 
heard from me again. 
This letter was neither dated nor signed. Harris then 
wrote another letter addressed to the same party, offering 
$2,500 for the specimens and received the following an- 
swer, also undated and unsigned : 
If you want a really first-class article, the proposition we submit- 
ted presents the chance of your life, as we know the group 
unsurpassed by any in the U. S. In regard to purchasing live 
ones -at the figure mentioned, you may possibly be able to do so 
by buying the so-called wild animals, but certainly not the gen- 
uine wild animals, but those that are crossed and partly domes- 
ticated. One thing I would ask you to not overlook, and that, 
is "accurate measurements"; you will agree that, no matter how 
good a workman may be, in a case of this kind, accurate measure- 
ments are important factors, and certainly worth money. 
Would like you to see them, however, and if you will write that 
you are willing to come and will give at least an hour's notice, I 
will engage to have them ready for your inspection. 
Harris finally got next to the Bartletts and got a sight 
of the specimens, and had the sheriff arrest the Bartletts 
and two others, and seize the specimens, under the game 
law. There were two trials of the accused, in both of 
which they were acquitted by reason of some mismanage- 
ment on the part of the prosecution, notwithstanding the 
proof was conclusive. 
Harris then began a replevin suit on behalf of the 
State for the specimens, but before it was tried a new 
game commissioner was appointed. That suit was also 
mismanaged and dismissed .in August, 1903, and it seemed 
as though the game law was being made sport of. The 
judge of the court, however, refused to be a party to the 
farce and ordered the specimens to remain in the custody 
of the sheriff until the further ordpr of the cqurt. 
Thus matters rested until Octol^er, i^^, ivheii oue of 
