January, 1920 
FOREST AND STREAM 
25 
on dead animals lying out in the fields and some- 
times visits the farmer’s poultry yard. 
The birds have the hardest time. For the seed 
eaters little is left now except the poor harvest to 
be gleaned from the tops of weed stalks that project 
above the snow, or the few berries that still cling to 
vines and trees. At best the pickings are small. 
The meat eaters have a food supply in the exposed 
crevices and crannies of the bark of the trees, where 
lie hidden the eggs and pupse of many insects. 
Moreover, here and there some friendly person has 
hung up in a tree a bit of suet, or an old beef bone 
to which some meat clings, and when this is dis- 
covered it is visited by the birds until all the food 
has been consumed. 
Now is the time for the to go abroad 
into the covers where he shot in Autumn and to 
practise another sport. Instead of carrying his gun 
and a pocketful of cartridges, let him load himself 
with a grain sack containing an armful of old hay 
and hayseed and with a pocketful of grain. Tracks 
in the snow, or his dog will show him where the 
birds spend most of their time, and in some sheltered 
place near here let him tramp down the snow as hard 
as he can over a space of three yards in diameter 
and then scatter his chaff, and on the chaff throw 
some handfuls of grain. From the spot that he has 
trodden down let him scatter out into the woods and 
field two or three lines of chaff, feeling sure that 
every bird that crosses one of these trails will follow 
it up, scratching and picking among the hayseed, 
and at last finding the place where the grain is 
strewn. The food supply should be often renewed 
and above all the chaff scattered again after every 
snowfall. 
From all points of view it pays to feed and pro- 
tect the birds. It is humane, it gives pleasure to him 
who does it and above all it is one of the greatest 
acts of conservation that could hold the attention of 
true sportsmen. , 
ALL MUST HELP 
CIGNS multiply ttiat at last sportsmen generally 
^ feel the necessity of doing something to increase 
and conserve our. game supply. 
For a long time people were content to talk about 
the need of better game laws, for it is characteristic 
of Americans to believe that to remedy an evil con- 
dition it is only necessary to pass a law against the 
abuse. We are learning now that laws, however 
good they may be, accomplish nothing unless en- 
forced, and that they will not be enforced unless they 
have the support of public opinion. Sportsmen are 
beginning to realize that they themselves must work 
actively in behalf of the measures that heretofore 
they have only talked about, and then work to see 
that they are diligently executed. 
While there is more or less difference of opinion 
among sportsmen as to the cause of the scarcity of 
ruffed grouse there seems to be substantial agree- 
ment as to the fact that the finest game bird of our 
Northeastern states has to all appearances become 
very few in numbers. But what shall be the remedy ? 
To prohibit all shooting of ruffed grouse for two, 
three or five years, or to take such steps as will at 
least tend toward a permanent check upon the, de- 
struction not only of the ruffed grouse, but quail and 
small birds as well? To prohibit the killing of 
grouse for a term of years, while it would undoubt- 
edly be obeyed by the true sportsman with almost 
no exception, would not have the slightest effect 
upon the actions of the farmer’s boys who would 
shoot and snare as they undoubtedly do now, nor 
would it stop the professional market hunter, who, 
the law of the state to the contrary notwithstanding, 
is by no means out of business. The trouble seems 
to be that not proper means is taken to enforce the 
laws of the state. The game-wardens are sadly in- 
efficient or, as in many localities, they are conspicu- 
ous by their absence. Unless the sportsmen in gen- 
eral can be educated up to the idea that every man 
be a game warden in one sense, and be willing to 
make sacrifices for the common good and to be con- 
stantly on the lookout for offenders, reporting them 
to the authorities, there can be little hope of much 
lasting benefit coming from just the passing of laws 
to prohibit shooting or the enactment of close sea- 
sons, however good and important such legislation is. 
One of the many reasons whicji fed our forefath- 
ers to emigrate to this country was to avoid the game 
laws of the Old World, and a hatred of all legislation 
in the direction of the preservation of game is one 
of the sentiments handed down to us. No men 
seem, as a rule, to feel this more strongly than do 
many of those who sit upon the bench, and courts, 
and almost invariably deal with violations of the 
game laws at least as leniently as evidence and their ' 
oaths wiU permit. It is high time for sportsmen to 
take up in earnest the preservation of our game. 
WINTER 
’T’ 0 many, winter is an unwelcomed guest, and they 
1 look forward impatiently to that season when 
the song of the robin is heard in the land. But surely 
such have not entered into the treasure of the snow. 
It is quite true that thousands who lived in the city 
during the winter of 1917-18, were too chilled and 
discouraged to recognize the purpose of winter in the 
economy of nature. They did not stop to consider 
the fertilizing power of a snowstorm. Here is what 
a keen observer of nature writes: “Many a sheaf 
of wheat is a sheaf of reaped snowstorm. Many 
bushels of golden grain are but snowflakes turned 
to life, in rye and barley. The great wheat-fields 
must have snow or a substitute for it.” Winter 
comes, and with its white blanket covers the ground, 
keeping it warm for the coming of spring. It safe- 
guards the grain. We owe the bloom and brightness 
of the summer fields to the gloom and blight of win- 
ter. To recruit its exhausted energies the earth must 
have the snow. 
Then for a moment we must consider that without 
the perpetual snow of the mountain regions, the 
earth would be reduced to a lifeless desert. The 
snow sends down from the highlands its coolness to 
revive the drooping vegetation sweltering under a 
tropic sun ; it forms the mighty rivers which water 
the plains, bringing health and joy to the millions 
living on their banks. The grinding forces of the 
snow as they descend the slopes, remove particles 
from boulders and rocks, and these are carried by 
the streams and deposited in the plains. The soil 
in which our grain grows was carried to us by the 
snowstorms of past ages. 
We must recognize the ministry of Winter. It 
makes possible the Spring. Winter and Spring are 
chapters from the Book of Life. There are chilly 
blasts which sweep down human history, and as long 
as man lives he must protect himself against them. 
Our fear of excessive cold is intense and inveterate. 
Life must not become too easy for us. The chilly 
blasts are essential to its strength and perpetuation. 
