Forest and Stream 
A Weekly Journal. Copyright, 1906, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
\ NEW YORK, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1906. 
VOL. LXVII—No. 10. 
No. 346 Broadway, New York. 
Terms, $3 a Year, 10 Cts. a Copy. 
Six Months, $1.50. 
The object of this journal will be to studiously 
promote a healthful interest in outdoor recre¬ 
ation, and to cultivate a refined taste for natural 
Objects. Announcement in first number o{ 
Forest and Stream, Aug. 14,1873. 
TO WEEKLY PURCHASERS. 
Owing to a change in the method of distribut¬ 
ing the Forest and Stream, readers who are ac¬ 
customed to purchase the paper of newsdealers, 
at news stands, in book shops, and elsewhere, 
are advised to leave with the dealer from whom 
they buy a standing advance order to supply them 
regularly. If any reader has difficulty in pro¬ 
curing the paper, he is requested to communicate 
with the publishers. 
FEDERAL GAME PROTECTION. 
It is only a few years ago that the United 
States Government began to take a hand in gen¬ 
eral game protection. Previous to that Con¬ 
gress had passed a law regulating the destruc¬ 
tion of game in the Indian country, game laws 
for the District of Columbia and for the Yellow¬ 
stone National Park, and a law designed to pre¬ 
vent the wanton destruction of fish and game in 
Mount Ranier National Park. But it was only 
in May, igoo, that a general protective law was 
enacted by Congress, the results of which have 
been most gratifying. 
Ten years ago, in 1896, the Supreme Court in 
the case of Geer vs. Connecticut held that the 
game was the property of the State. The prin¬ 
ciple thus announced was so encouraging to all 
game protectors as to give a new impetus to 
game legislation by the States, and by Congress 
as well. A number of measures were introduced 
in Congress, many of which failed, but the Lacey 
bill passed both House and Senate twice and at 
last became a law. 
The provisions of this bill are well understood. 
Its effect is to hold up the hands of State game 
protective officers by giving to the Federal 
Government a certain oversight of game after 
it had passed out of the jurisdiction of State 
officials. Many States had enacted non-export 
laws and already a number had nailed their flag 
to the Forest and Stream Platform Plank, 
“Forbid the sale of game.” The dealers in game, 
however, had a thousand devices by which State 
laws and State officials were evaded, and from 
some States there were shipped many millions 
of game birds in trunks, barrels and boxes 
labeled, “poultry,” “butter,” “eggs,” “household 
goods.” 
It was possible for the Federal authorities to 
watch this game as State authorities had not 
been able to do, and the two sets of officials 
working together have done a vast deal of good 
and have prevented the illegal shipment of great 
quantities of game. Their work has tended to 
the increase of game over much of the land. 
Moreover, the Federal authorities have co¬ 
operated with the Audubon Societies, and have 
thus done a great deal of good in the protection 
of bird life generally. This has been an un¬ 
doubted benefit to the farmer. 
Since the year 1900 a number of game and 
bird refuges have been set aside. Previous to 
that year there were but two away from Wash¬ 
ington, the Yellowstone Park in Wyoming and 
Afognac Island in Alaska. Now there are no 
less than eight; the Stump Lake Reservation in 
Dakota, two reservations on islands in the Great 
Lakes, the Wichita Forest Game Refuge, the 
Breton Island Reservation, Passage Key Reser¬ 
vation, and Pelican Island Reservation. Here 
birds or game are breeding undisturbed, greatly 
increasing in numbers and giving valuable object 
lessons to our people. 
WILD RICE AND ITS PLANTING. 
Wild rice ( Zizania aquatica) -is an annual 
plant, belonging to the grass family. It grows 
in great abundance in the Northwestern States, 
and in some portions of Canada, being also 
found in favorable localities in the New England 
and Middle States and in Virginia. Further 
south it gives way to another variety, the 
Zizania miliacea, which is of perennial growth, and 
distinguished from the aquatica by the ovate 
grain. The wild rice has various other local 
names, among them Indian rice, Canadian rice, 
wild oats and water oats. 
The wild rice is a favorite food of water birds, 
mallards, black ducks, teal,,wood ducks, and the 
Carolina rail. During the last few years much 
attention has been given to the introduction 
and propagation of the rice in the waters of 
different portions of the United States, to serve 
as an attraction for the wildfowl, the final object 
being “to improve the shooting.” Our columns 
have contained many reports, good, bad and in¬ 
different, of the attempts at wild rice culture. 
Some months ago we made extended inquiries 
of those who had engaged in the sowing of wild 
rice. The replies, which covered a very wide 
country, indicated that in the majority of in¬ 
stances the efforts had been unsuccessful. The 
failures were in many cases easily explained by 
the parsimony with which the seed had been 
sown. In other localities the rice had not 
grown, because the soil was not adapted to it. 
The familiar principle that certain soils are best 
fitted for the production of particular crops as 
wheat, oats, etc., is applicable to wild rice. It 
is not so much a condition of climate as of soil 
that determines the success of wild rice culture. 
Where the planting has been successful the pro¬ 
moters have been rewarded with the knowledge 
that they have in some measure added to the 
food supply for the water fowl, whose increase 
they so much desire. Among the obstacles to 
the introduction of this plant, are the muskrats, 
which are extremely fond of its leaves, devour¬ 
ing them as fast as they appear above water, 
thus preventing the germination. Deer, also, in 
the same manner impede its increase, and some 
kinds of fish feed on its seed. 
We have from time to time chronicled several 
such favorable results of wild rice planting, 
where the enterprise of the individual or club 
has actually succeeded in attracting the fowl to 
waters which had for years been barren of all 
shooting. As a guide to others who are con¬ 
sidering the enterprise of wild rice planting, re¬ 
ports of experience with it would be welcomed. 
ADD THE GRAYLING. 
The announcement made some years ago that 
Dr. Henshall, of Montana, had discovered a 
method of successfully hatching and rearing 
grayling was most interesting to fly-fishermen 
who have had experience with this beautiful 
fish. Efforts made to hatch it in Michigan 
waters do not seem to have had any practical 
results, and recent accounts appear to show that 
it is there almost extinct. 
The questions asked by our Beaverkill cor¬ 
respondent ought to be answered, and his sug¬ 
gestions acted on. Few things add more to the 
pleasure of fly-fishing than a feeling of uncer¬ 
tainty as to what fish is likely next to rise to 
the fly. Anglers in the Rocky Mountains have 
many of them experienced this delightful doubt, 
and we recall taking in three successive casts 
from a deep hole in Ross’ Fork, in Montana, a 
trout, a grayling and a whitefish. 
It is obvious that for the stocking of Michi¬ 
gan waters—which are accessible to most of us— 
Michigan grayling would be best. But there 
seems no reason why the fish fauna of a large 
number of the streams in the northern Rocky 
Mountains should not be enlarged by the ad¬ 
dition of the grayling. It is only about twenty 
years ago that a large number of the lakes and 
streams of the Yellowstone Park were entirely 
barren of game fish, and we well recall a trip 
made through that delightful region in company 
with Commissioner Marshall McDonald, who 
investigated stream after stream and lake after 
lake with the utmost enthusiasm, and discovered 
in each stream and in each lake an abundance of 
fish food. 
Soon after that the first stocking was had of 
some of these barren waters, and now many of 
them swarm with exotic trout of great size 
which afford great pleasure to the angler. The 
grayling is a very beautiful fish, with fighting 
qualities quite equal to a trout of the same size, 
but possesses much less endurance. It is also 
an excellent table fish, and is well worthy of 
introduction and cultivation wherever it will live. 
