FINS, FEATHERS AND FUR 
13 
THE PLAYGROUND OF THE NATION 
Minnesota has a Ten Thousand Lakes associa¬ 
tion and we hope that every northern Minnesota 
booster will become a member. 
The object of the association is to place before 
the world the unsurpassed advantages of north¬ 
ern Minnesota as a summer resort and outing- 
ground, and there is no spot on earth that can 
compare with northern Minnesota in that re¬ 
spect. 
Ten thousand lakes is not a mere figure of 
speech—it is a concrete fact, and the lakes are 
the prettiest in the world. The hills and valleys, 
great timbered stretches and the rivers and 
streams all combine in the greatest picture of 
natural beauty to be seen anywhere. 
Even our own people have no real conception 
of the grandeur of the scenery of northern Min¬ 
nesota, and now that we are building good roads 
and otherwise providing for the tourist it is rea¬ 
sonable to believe that the efforts of the associa¬ 
tion will meet with speedy response, and that 
soon the fame of northern Minnesota as a play¬ 
ground will be known the country over. 
We have but to make our wonderful domain 
known to have it apreciated by the thousands 
upon thousands who are looking for exactly what 
we have to offer—people who would be satisfied 
with much less. 
Vermilion, Pelican, Pokegama, Leech, Red, 
Winnibegoshish, Rainy and Lake of the Woods 
are the best known lakes of the ten thousand, 
because of their size, but there are thousands of 
lesser bodies of clear, sparkling water that are 
just as atractive, and are awaiting the pleasure 
of the people who long for the real beauty in 
nature. 
A consistent advertising campaign will bring 
people to us from afar, and they will bring 
others with them, because there is no other lo¬ 
cality that approaches northern Minnesota.— 
Hibbing Ore. 
ST. CROIX BIRD CLUB 
The St. Croix Bird Club has sent out 500 of 
the following circular letters calling attention to 
the economic reasons for bird protection: 
Stillwater, Minn., April 22, 1918. 
The United States Bureau of Biological Survey estimates 
the loss to crops due to insects for on year over one 
billion dollars, or enough to pay 4 per cent interest on 
twenty-eight billion of our Liberty Loan, or to put it in 
other words the crops destroyed each year by insects 
would feed the entire population of Belgium. According 
to this bureau the total saving of crops each year by 
birds amount to over four hundred million dollars. Out¬ 
side of the cost of insecticides used by farmers and fruit 
growers, over eight million dollars are spent for spraying 
fruit trees alone. Why this expense when a little care 
and humanity towards the birds will provide nature’s 
remedy for this enormous loss to crops by insects. 
Birds do a service to mankind that cannot be repaid. 
They destroy insects, rodents and pernicious weeds. Their 
capacity for food is greater in proportion than that of any 
other vertebrate. 
A young crow will eat twice its weight in a day of 
anything that will be brot to it. 
Reliable ornithologists have records that a robin will 
eat seventy cut worms per day for fifteen days. 
The New Jersey Department of Agriculture estimates a 
loss of over one hundred million dollars per year from 
cut worms alone. 
Scarlet tanagers have been seen to eat fifty gypsy moths 
a minute for eighteen minutes. 
. The U. S. Department of Agriculture and the National 
Audubon Association have placed the following birds on 
their Black List. 
COOPER HAWK, SHARP SHINNED HAWK, THE 
COSH HAWK, THE HORNED OWL, THE ENGLISH 
SPARROW. 
It is true that birds do some damaee to fruit but any 
farmer who shoots or allows any birds not on the black¬ 
list to be shot is certainly not doing his duty to his 
country or justice to himself for the labor that he spends 
on his crops. 
Can we not depend upon your help, and to do your “bit” 
for your country in protecting all birds as they are sure 
to repay you many times? 
L. H. SEYMOUR, 
Member, National Audubon Association, Agent, Minnesota 
State Game and Fish Department. 
Note—In addition to the above black list the 
Minnesota law classes blackbirds and crows as 
injurious birds and gives them no protection. 
AMERICAN FISHERIES SOCIETY OFFERS 
PRIZES 
In order to create greater interest in fish cul¬ 
tural and other problems and to stimulate ex¬ 
pression on this subject at the next annual meet¬ 
ing of the American Fisheries Society, to be held 
in New York State in September, 1918, the 
Society offers three prizes along the following 
lines: 
1. For the best contribution on fish culture from the 
viewpoint of a practical fish culturist. This to be either 
by new and improved practical, fish cultural appliance, or 
a description of methods employed in the advancement of 
fish cultural work. 
2. For the best contribution on biological investigations 
addressed to fish cultural problems. 
3. For the best contribution addressed to the problems 
of the commercial fisheries. 
A committee of three members of the society to be ap¬ 
pointed by the president to pass upon the material sub¬ 
mitted; one of them to be a practical fish culturist, one a 
scientist, and one a practical commercial fisherman. The 
conditions governing the competition are as follows: 
1. Any person who is a member of the society, or who 
duly qualifies as a member prior to September 1, 1918, may 
compete for the awards. 
2. Each competitor to notify the secretary of the society, 
Mr. John W. Titcomb, State Fish Culturist, Albany, New 
York, before September 1, as to the particular prize for 
which he intends to compete. 
3. Each paper or exhibit offered in competition to be 
in the custody of the secretary of the society on or be¬ 
fore September 5, 1918. 
4. Each device, apparatus, process, or method for which 
an award is asked to be represented by a sample, a model, 
or an illustrated description, and each to be accompanied 
by a complete statement of the points for which an award 
is asked. The society to reserve the right to publish any 
papers or photographs submitted in competition prior to 
their publication elsewhere; provided, however, that in the 
event of having failed to publish within six months after 
the meeting the author will be at liberty to publish same 
when and where he may elect. 
5. The commttee appointed by the President to determine 
the competitors who are entitled to awards, and the deci¬ 
sion of the committee to be final. 
6. In order to obtain additional information when desir¬ 
able the committee to call before it persons who may have 
entered the competition, and also other persons. 
7. The committee may, at its discretion, withhold the 
awards in any case if, in its judgment, no sufficiently 
worthy contribution is presented, and it may divide an 
award if there are two competitors offering contributions 
which are deemed of equal merit. 
8. The committee to make its final report to the society 
rot later than the morning session of the third day of 
the meeting. 
The amount and nature of the prizes will be announced 
later. 
NOTES FROM WARDENS 
Game Warden Goodell of Herman on March 
6. reports 126 red fox pelts purchased by a 
single buyer in his town since last fall, all killed 
near Herman. 
Game Warden James Beatty of Cook saw 
eight deer in on bunch crossing the International 
boundary one day recently. 
Game Warden Gibb of Wilder reports a great 
mortality of muskrats in the Heron Lake dis- 
trist—cause unknown—possibly scarcity of food 
and water. 
