July 14, 1906.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
57 
fortunate, and in my opinion tend to make all 
the provisions to which they might be attached 
either unpopular and therefore hard to enforce, 
or a dead letter. It seems to me that some¬ 
thing should be done to correct these con¬ 
ditions. 
I reiterate what I have already said in my 
former reports upon the subject of preventing 
unnaturalized foreign-born residents to even be 
possessed of a gun in any public place. There 
is not a county in this Commonwealth where 
this class is found in any considerable num¬ 
bers that has not had its annual bill of ex¬ 
penses seriously increased because of wrongs 
that are directly attributable to the possession 
of firearms by these people. Five of the officers 
of this Commission have been shot at during 
this year by members of this class of people. 
One of them, Seely Houk, of Newcastle, Law¬ 
rence county, was cruelly shot to death. He 
was an honest man, a good citizen, a pains¬ 
taking, conscientious officer, ready at all times 
to do and dare and to risk his life to defend 
the right. I cannot refrain from asserting that 
in my opinion this Commission has lost the 
help of one whose place will be hard to fill, and 
that it is our duty to do our utmost not only to 
punish those who perpetrated this wrong, but 
to see to it that, if possible, this power of evil 
be taken from these people. I therefore again 
recommend the adoption of some law that 
makes it a crime, punishable by heavy penalty, 
both fine and imprisonment, for any unnatural¬ 
ized foreign-born resident to be possessed of 
firearms of any description in any public place 
or outside of his or their own private dwelling. 
This, as a protection to our people, as well as 
to our game and wild birds. I have had printed 
upon cloth and posted throughout the State 
several thousand posters in Slavic and Italian, 
calling the attention of these people to our law 
as it now stands, and citing the heavy penalties 
that might attach to a violation of its provi¬ 
sions. These circulars, I am sure, have done 
and are doing great good. Still, I feel that we 
should go further in this direction and insure, 
as far as possible, not only the safety of our 
game and birds, but also the peace of our 
Commonwealth. 
I will not attempt to specifically .state the 
number of complaints received, the number of 
prosecutions brought, or the reasons therefor, 
during the past year, but take pleasure in as¬ 
serting that, notwithstanding the fact that we 
have many more officers and very many more 
people interested in our work than ever before, 
the number of complaints filed and the number 
of prosecutions brought has fallen short of the 
number reached last year, excepting in the 
matter of violations by the unnaturalized for¬ 
eign-born resident. I desire especially to re¬ 
port that many dogs caught running game have 
been killed urider the provisions of the new law, 
and that the running of deer by dogs, which was 
only a few years ago a great evil, has been re 
duced to a minimum. 
I beg to report that the work of the com¬ 
mittee appointed to distribute the funds ap¬ 
propriated by the last Legislature for the es¬ 
tablishment of preserves and progagation of 
game, is moving in the direction of its appoint¬ 
ment and progressing as fairly as might be ex 
pected. We have located three sites for pre¬ 
serves—one in Clinton county, one in Clear¬ 
field county, and one in Franklin county. All 
of them most favorably located, where the in¬ 
crease of game that may be propagated therein 
will overflow into a like favorable country. We 
have received quotations upon wire, etc., and 
are ready to inclose same with the single wire 
as soon as business claims will permit. 
We have brought into this State from Ala¬ 
bama and distributed mainly through the officers 
of this Commission 3,547 quail, and in addition 
600 of these birds from the same place to the 
use of sportsmen of Lebanon county, said 
sportsmen paying for same and having the birds 
shipped to them direct. We have failed up to 
this time to secure other game, either deer or 
turkeys, which I fully expected, to do—turkeys 
from out the State and deer from preserves in 
this Commonwealth. 
For some years past certain of our preserve 
owners have shown a disposition to ignore the 
game laws within the limits of their fences. 
This, in the face of numerous decisions to the 
effect that no one can secure absolute property 
in game, and that game in preserves and fish 
in private ponds are subject to the general laws 
of the State. The proprietors of these pre¬ 
serves contend that the game therein is their 
private property, and that they have the right 
to kill at pleasure, and also the right to dispose 
of the same as they might see fit. I11 the belie! 
that these statements relative to the overstock¬ 
ing of preserves were correct, I expected to 
purchase and attempted to negotiate for a lim¬ 
ited number of deer alive from each of the 
several preserves without our Commonwealth, 
said deer to be released from said confines and 
to be allowed to wander at will. Much to my 
surprise and disappointment, I was in every 
instance notified that said preserves were not 
overstocked and that the owners had no deer 
to sell. 
My search for turkeys has met with the same 
result. Either there are but few turkeys on the 
market or 1 have not been able to reach those 
who control them. I am of the opinion there¬ 
fore that we must depend upon our own stock 
for an increase, and to do this it devolves upon 
us to give them better care and protection than 
heretofore. 
I take great pleasure in stating that I am in 
receipt of most favorable reports regarding the 
increase of our native turkeys. Many nests 
have been discovered and birds are being seen 
in sections where it was thought they had been 
absolutely exterminated. In this connection 1 
desire to say that the same reports are being 
received relative to the ruffed grouse and the 
imported quail; also that many coveys of our 
native quail have been discovered in sections 
where until last fall hunters failed to find a 
single bird. 
I have rewritten and added to my circular 
letter entitled “Save Our Birds,” dwelling par¬ 
ticularly upon the necessity of trapping and 
caring for our quail during the winter. I have 
introduced cuts representing the methods 
whereby these birds can be the most easily 
secured and kept during that time, altogether 
to my mind forming a most beneficial circular. 
Same is now in the hands of the State printer. 
I herewith attach a copy of my account with 
H. M. Long & Sons, of Wyeth City, Ala., from 
whom we secured quail for restocking purposes, 
the number bought and distributed being 3,547; 
also a copy of my record showing the disposi¬ 
tion of the birds. When the shipments of these 
birds began to arrive from the South, we found 
the birds packed in boxes more like dead her¬ 
ring than anything else'—no water and but little 
protection from injury on the road. The mor¬ 
tality list in my table shows the result. To a 
very great extent, those birds arriving alive 
were in a most exhausted condition, staggering 
and ready to die at short notice. I wrote to the 
shippers several times without result, and 
finally telegraphed them that I would no longer 
be a party to such cruelty, and that they must 
stop shipments until water could be introduced 
into the boxes and better protection insured. 
This was done, and again the list of dead in 
said table will show the result. Owing to the 
crude and cruel manner in which these birds 
were boxed in the South, it became necessary 
for me to construct new boxes equipped with 
watering troughs, and to immediately transfer 
the quail to these crates upon their arrival in 
this city. This was done in our office by Mr. 
Berrier, Mr. Black and myself. Without the 
actual experience, it is hard for any one to 
realize just the amount of labor necessary to 
accomplish this task. 
I desire also to call the attention of the 
Commission to the fact that a strong effort will 
be made before our coming Legislature to 
secure the passage of an act requiring all resi¬ 
dent hunters to secure a license before shooting 
in this State, the main purpose being to secure 
revenue wherewith to run the Game Commis¬ 
sion, to establish preserves, to purchase and 
propagate game for distribution throughout 
the Comijionwealth. The effect of such a law 
will also prevent irresponsible people, such as 
boys and worthless men, from traveling over 
the State with guns. 
Bears and Lions in Washington. 
Spokane, Wash., July 2.— Alta Russell, a six¬ 
teen-year-old girl living on the eastern slope ot 
the Cascade Mountains, 200 miles west of Spo¬ 
kane, is the envy of all other girls in this part of 
the country who attempt to hunt large game, and 
there are several of them. A few days ago, this 
young sportswoman killed her sixth bear, a fine, 
large specimen. Alta Russell is the daughter of 
John Russell, who lives in the Teton basin, a 
section which is attracting a great deal of 
attention because of the Government’s irri¬ 
gation enterprises. She and her sister 
were out hunting on Indian creek, three 
miles above her father’s farm, when they chanced 
upon a large black bear on the trail. Whether 
the animal would have let them alone if they had 
let him alone, cannot be said, for the nervy little 
girl gave him no opportunity to decide. As quick 
as she caught sight of him, she fired with her 
rifle and wounded him. This made matters worse, 
for after he had been hit, there was no uncer¬ 
tainty as to what the animal intended. Fie was 
maddened by the wound and started for the two 
girls. Alta knew that if they attempted to run 
it would be their last hunting trip, so she stood 
unmoved until he came nearer and fired a second 
shot with truer aim, which killed him. The girls 
have spent all their lives in the mountains, and 
have hunted not only in that section, but in other 
famous hunting districts in the Spokane country 
Flenry Honenkrat has killed his eighth moun¬ 
tain lion this season in the Coeur d’Alene Moun¬ 
tains, east of Spokane. He is a trapper and not 
a hunter. Last week he brought in five skins of 
this animal to the county commissioners at Wal¬ 
lace, Idaho, and will receive $75 bounty. Be 
sides the bounty, he receives $7 apiece for th 
hides. The animals were trapped near Kingston 
Idaho, seventy-five miles east of Spokane. B. 
Rabbits and Farm Crops. 
Too many of the so-called game laws are mad 
for the benefit of the sportsmen rather than th 
preservation of insectivorous birds or beneficia 
animals. We have heretofore spoken of the pro 
tection of rabbits in many States. There is nr 
possible reason for the protection of these pest* 
of the farm, except to give sport to the idle fel¬ 
lows who follow' their beagles over the farmers 
land without any regard for the farmer or hi; 
crops. No close season is needed for rabbits, foi 
no matter when or how they are hunted they will 
increase more than is desirable to the farmer. 
And now we hear that on Long Island they are 
having a pest of jack rabbits, w'hich' are far 
worse than our common hare. Sportsmen turned 
loose there a large number of these long-eared 
gentry and they have increased to such an ex;- 
tent that the crops of the truck farmers have 
suffered greatly. We do not believe that if the 
matter was carried to the higher courts that any 
farmer could be fined for shooting any wild ani¬ 
mal that is a pest to his crops at any time he 
chooses to do so. No one has a right for mere 
sport to turn out a lot of animals that prey on 
the farmers’ crops, and every farmer has the 
natural right to protect his farm and crops from 
trespass by wild animals or by the idle fellows 
that hunt them. All that is needed is for the 
farmers to unite in testing the ridiculous game 
laws that are made solely for the sportsmen. As 
it is now, the fruit grower must stand by and let 
the robins eat his cherries and the jack rabbits 
and little rabbits eat his garden truck, and under 
the game Jaws he cannot shoot them. The law 
guarantees every man peaceable possession of his 
lands, and these are serious trespasses, and we 
believe that under any sensible bill of rights the 
farmer has the right to protect his land from 
trespass. It is mainly a craze for sport at the 
expense of the farmer.—The Practical Farmer, 
Philadelphia, June 9. 
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