FOREST AND STREAM 
209 
|May, 1922 
THE MENACE OF POLLUTION 
O UR citizens generally do not seem to know, or if 
they do know, they do not give much attention to 
I the terribly serious menace to health caused by 
the pollution of our inland streams and rivers. Physi- 
cians in suburban communities say that most of the 
small town epidemics of disease are caused by the pollu- 
tion of water adjacent, to the towns. It is known that 
horses, cows and other animals that have slaked their 
thirst in polluted streams have died or become so sick 
they were of no further use to their owners. Even the 
“Ole Swimmin’ Hole” is not safe any more. Nearly 
every person who bathed in one stream near New York 
City got a skin rash, caused by some deleterious sub- 
stance in the water. 
Our peace officers. State police, and especially our fish 
and game wardens, who come in contact with pollution 
in our inland streams more than any other agency, 
should be in a position to make summary arrests of per- 
sons who cause pollutions in the same manner that a 
violator of our fish and game laws is treated at the pres- 
ent time, except that the penalty shall be large enough 
to deter a second offense. It should not be necessary to 
prove that the pollution actually killed or poisoned a 
person, animal or fish. The pollution of one of our 
stocked streams will kill more fish than all our fishermen 
can take in one season. It would be an easy matter and 
profitable in most cases for our cities, towns and indus- 
tries to provide disposal plants for the waste substances 
how allowed to pollute our streams, rivers and bays. 
Pollution is not known in France, Belgium, Holland, 
Germany and other European countries. Our army offi- 
cers and other investigators abroad found the streams in 
these countries absolutely free from pollution, with trout 
and all kinds of fish in streams adjacent to tanneries and 
Other industrial plants living as contentedly as if they 
were in our Adirondack streams. The tan-bark, chem- 
icals and other deleterious substances which we allow to 
fun into our rivers as waste are used as by-products in 
European countries, thereby paying over and over again 
the original cost of the disposal and rectifying plants. 
CIVILIZATION AND THE FOREST 
P REHISTORIC man lived in wet, unhealthy caves 
or excavations ; that is, whenever he felt the neces- 
sity for shelter. He didn’t know what a nice domi- 
cile could be made of wood and had he known, he could 
bot have built one with the rough stone implements at 
his command. 
Our present forests began to grow some twelve to 
twenty thousand years ago. The bulk of the earlier 
Iforests, the forests that preceded those that started 
twelve to twenty thousand years back, probably was 
not so well adapted to building materials, being a forest 
'of ranker growth and lacking the solid texture of pres- 
ent common varieties of wood. 
The first man who felled a tree with a crude stone 
implement or cut it down by use of fire set in motion 
k)ne of the greatest of world movements ; it was destined 
to affect all nations and all individuals for all time, or 
as far into the future as imagination will carry us. It 
:gave impetus to the dawn of civilization. It lead to 
the convenient use of fire and warmth and made com- 
imerce by sea possible. 
The cutting down of the first tree was a direct link 
in the discovery of America and the circum-navigation 
■of the world. It was the prerequisite in the expansion 
•of agriculture. Nothing that comes out of the earth or 
igrows above it has surpassed wood in its adaptability 
to man’s needs. Nothing, except fire, air and water 
is so indispensable to man’s life and comfort. Man has 
flourished from time to time without one or more of all 
the other soil products, but he has never prospered 
without wood. The demand for wood is growing not- 
withstanding the discovery of substitutes, while wood 
is diminishing rapidly. Forests of the future must be 
provided by the people of to-day. Failure to do this 
will place upon present generations the guilt of adding 
a great burden to the cost of li\'ing and of shirking our 
beholden duty to civilization. 
EIGHT INCHES FOR TROUT 
T he Anglers’ Club of New York is starting a cam- 
paign "to get pledges from its 200 members and 
from other fishermen to recognize eight inches as 
the “sportsmen’s limit” for trout, as distinguished from 
the legal limit of six inches, asking them to return to 
the water all fish, either native, rainbow or brown, un- 
der this size. 
This is a good move, heartily meeting the approval 
of Forest and Stream, and the propaganda should be 
encouraged. While it may be true of an occasional 
stream, more or less remote and filled only with small 
fish, that the taking of trout as small as si.x to seven 
inches even quite freely could not justly be deemed 
unsportsmanlike, certainly if the proposition of the 
xA.nglers’ Club was made the popular practice it would 
vastly benefit angling in our much-fished Eastern 
waters, such as the Catskill, Pennsylvania, New Jersey 
and White Mountain streams. 
SONG BIRDS AND HUNGRY CATS 
W ITH the return of the migrating millions of song 
birds, which nest and rear their young in the 
North, public attention is called to the impor- 
tance of guarding these feathered visitors from the 
prowling cats that are sharpening their claws and lick- 
ing their jaws in anticipation of the annual feast on 
soft-meated fledglings. For while insect-eating birds 
are protected from the man who would kill them or 
rob their nests, the cat is still permitted freely to vary 
an unlimited menu with young robins, thrushes, wood- 
peckers, orioles, wrens and other songsters. 
It is urged that precautions be taken wherever pos- 
sible to keep cats out of trees in city and farm gardens 
during the nesting season. Si.x-inch collars of tin, set 
at right-angles to the tree-trunk, six or eight feet above 
the ground, have been found to be a cheap and effective 
contrivance to- keep the cats away from bird-nests, both 
day and night. It is an unwritten rule among sportsmen 
that a cat found stalking in the woods or fields shall 
be shot. Farmers have discovered that once it tastes 
wild bird meat, the best pet cat loses any value it may 
have had as a mouser. As far as the statutes are con- 
cerned, the cat is still utilizing its nine lives to advan- 
tage in bird-hunting. 
“IN THE MAINE WOODS 1922” 
T he Bangor and Aroostook R. R. have just issued 
their yearly booklet for 1922 entitled “In the Maine 
Woods.” It is more voluminous than ever and is re- 
plete with stories of experiences in the wilds, and comprises 
a veritable mine of information concerning rates, guides, 
fishing waters, camps and hunting arrangements. 
It may be procured by sending 10 cents to Geo. M. 
Houghton, General Passenger Agent, Bangor, Me. 
