544 
FOREST AND STREAM 
December, 192] 
FOUNDERS OF THE AUDUBON SOCIETY 
ADVISORY BOARD 
GEORGE BIRD GRINNELL, NEW YORK, N. Y. 
CARL E. AKELEY, American Museum of Natural History, New York. 
EDMUND HELLER, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C. 
WILFRED H. OSGOOD, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, 111. 
JOHN M. PHILLIPS, Pennsylvania Game Commission, Pittsburgh, Pa. 
CHARLES SHELDON, Washington, D. C. 
GEORGE SHIRAS, Sd, Washington, D. C. 
JOHN T. NICHOLS, American Museum of Natural History, New York. 
WILLIAM BRUETTE, Editor 
JOHN P. HOLMAN, Managing Editor 
TOM WOOD, Business Manager 
Nine East Fortieth Street, New York City 
Member of Audit Bureau of Circulation 
THE OBJECT OF THIS JOURNAL WILL BE TO 
studiously promote a healthful interest in outdoor rec- 
reation, and a refined taste for natural objects. 
August 14, 1873. 
ALFRED WAGSTAFF 
C OL. ALFRED WAGSTAFF, whose splendid 
work as a conservationist, humanitarian and 
thorough sportsman, gave him national fame, 
died at his country home, Talulah, near Babylon, Long 
Island, October 2, in his seventy-eighth year. 
In a life-time largely devoted to promoting all that 
is best in sportsmanship, Colonel Wagstaff achieved 
much, and his name will be long remembered and hon- 
ored by all who appreciate earnest, self sacrificing 
work in the cause of conservation and game protection. 
Having been admitted to the bar in 1886, his practical 
knowledge of the law aided him materially in giving 
valuable co-operation to those associated with him in 
the cause of game protection, and as a member of the 
New York legislature, from 1867 to 1874, he had op- 
portunity to help in the enactment of good game laws, 
as well as in their enforcement. 
While an active and enthusiastic sportsman during 
the years of early manhood and middle age, he held 
closely to the principle of moderation, proving his sin- 
cerity in practice as well as in precept, and in later 
years the greater portion of his time was devoted to 
securing better protection for game, and for prevention 
of cruelty to animals. For many years Colonel Wag- 
staff was president of the New York Association for 
the Protection of Game, and in 1906 he was elected 
president of the American Society for the Prevention 
of Cruelty to Animals ; the service thus given being a 
labor of love, as he put aside business interests to de- 
vote practically his entire time to the great work to 
which he dedicated his remarkable ability and tireless 
energy. 
An immeasurable debt of gratitude is due him as 
one of the comparatively few who, more than half a 
century ago, devoted well-directed energy to the ap- 
parently thankless task of checking the slaughter of 
game birds and animals then so plentiful that the 
average shooter seemed inclined to believe the supply 
inexhaustible. American sportsmanship holds a high 
place in public estimation to-day, and it is well to keep 
in honored remembrance the noble life-work of Alfrec 
Wagstaff — one of the pioneers who did so much to- 
ward attaining its present standard. 
A PERMANENT TRIBUTE TO GEORGE 
SHIRAS 3rd 
M ORE than a year ago four wild-life protective 
associations agreed that some action ought to b< 
taken to express by material evidence, to Hon 
George Shiras 3rd, their keen appreciation of the grea\ 
service he had performed for wild-life protection bjj 
first announcing the principle of the Federal Protectior 
of Migratory Birds. 
To carry out the thought a silver coffee service, suit 
ably inscribed, was quietly presented to Mr. Shiras by 
the Boone and Crockett Club, the American Game 
Protective Association, the Camp Fire Club of Amer- 
ica, and the National Association of Audubon Societies 
The gift was a surprise to Mr. Shiras who, in acknowl 
edging it, did not assent to the accuracy of the inscrip- 
tion which, in effect, said that his genius had discovered 
the distinction between animals that are migratory anc 1 
those that are sedentary or local, and that as a result 
of this discovery the greatest single accomplishmenl 
ever made in wild-life protection had been brought about 
He denied that the proposal to place migratory birds 
under Federal jurisdiction was the work of genius, and 
called it merely an illustration of the American aptitude 
for meeting and solving serious problems as they might 
arise. He added that even if he had furnished the 
seed — the idea — it was those who had tilled the soil 
and knew how to gather the crop — the donors — that 
now deserved the thanks of sportsmen, nature lovers and 
agriculturalists. 
While it is true that no single man may claim all the 
credit for bringing about this beneficent change, yet 
to the leader — to him who raised the banner that so 
many hastened to follow — must be given the chief honor. 
LOOK BEFORE YOU LEAP 
W ITHIN the past few years there has grown up 
a craze for the reclamation of swamps — for drain- 
age. It has been asserted with wearisome repetition 
that if we could get all the water off the land and cultivate 
the soil covered by this water, we should greatly in- 
crease the area of our agricultural land and so the 
supply of food we produce. This is not true, but it is 
a catching statement which appeals strongly to those 
who do not stop to think. We are all of us likely to 
be caught by phrases that sound well, to act without 
due consideration, and to realize our mistakes only 
after we have made them. 
To say that by draining lakes, marshes, and swamps 
we shall get more land for cultivation, sounds well but 
is misleading. It is forgotten that much of this under water 
land will not grow crops and that already there is abundant 
excellent cultivable land which can be had at far less cost 
than that of draining lakes, swamps, and marshes, if 
only it is fertilized. Yet promoters induce capitalists, 
or even counties, states, and the Federal Government, 
to put up the money to take away the water from these 
natural reservoirs — money enough, if intelligently ex- 
pended for fertilizer, to greatly increase the present 
production of the soil. 
Often it is found that the land covered by this water 
is unfit for cultivation; that draining this land lowers 
the water level of other lakes and streams and that 
areas that formerly were excellent agricultural land 
