240 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Aug. 23, 1913- 
Published Weekly by the 
Forest and Stream Publishing Company, 
Charles Otis, President. 
W. G. Beecroft, Secretary. W. J. Gallagher, Treasurer. 
127 Franklin Street, New York. 
CORRESPONDENCE — Forest and Stream is the 
recognized medium of entertainment, instruction and in¬ 
formation between American sportsmen. The editors 
invite communications on the subjects to which its pages 
are devoted, but, of course, are not responsible for the 
views of correspondents. Anonymous communications 
eannot be regarded. 
SUBSCRIPTIONS: $3 a year; $1.50 for six months; 
16 cts. a copy. Canadian, $4 a year; foreign, $4.50 a year. 
This paper may be obtained of newsdealers throughout 
the United States, Canada and Great Britain. Foreign 
Subscription and Sales Agents—London: Davies & Co., 
1 Finch Lane; Sampson, Low & Co. Paris: Brentano’s. 
ADVERTISEMENTS : Display and classified, 20 cts. 
per agate line ($2.80 per inch). There are 14 agate lines to 
the inch. Covers and special positions extra. Five, 
ten and twenty per cent.' discount for 13, 26 and 52 inser¬ 
tions, respectively, within one year. Forms close Monday 
in advance of publication date. 
Entered as second-class matter at the Post-Office, 
New York, N. Y. 
THE OBJECT OF THIS JOURNAL 
will be to studiously promote a healthful in¬ 
terest in outdoor recreation, and to cultivate 
a refined taste for natural objects. 
—Forest and Stream, Aug. 14, 1873. 
THE FARMER AND THE SPORTSMAN. 
The correspondent who- writes of the rela¬ 
tions of farmers and town sportsmen undoubt¬ 
edly represents with substantial accuracy the 
views of some people who are not in sympathy 
with sportsmen nor with our fish and game pro¬ 
tection codes. Nevertheless, there is not room 
for a wide difference of opinion on most of the 
points he makes. We will all agree that the 
sportsman’s right to trespass and to tear down 
fences is dubious, and that a farmer has an un¬ 
questioned right to save himself from ruin by 
destroying the game that is eating him out of 
house and home. And we will all agree that it 
is exceedingly unfortunate that game and fish 
laws should be regarded with disfavor as being 
class laws, intended for the sole benefit of the 
town sportsmen. On the other hand, and there 
is abundant reason for satisfaction here, this 
mistaken notion of “class’’ legislation is sorely 
on the decline. The farmer, the landowner, the 
dweller in rural districts, the community at large 
is coming to a clearer understanding of the truth 
that game protection is for the common good of 
all. The country philosophers who hold the 
doctrines expressed by our correspondent are 
less numerous than formerly. Their contentions 
have no basis in the principles of the protective 
system, but they do borrow some color from the 
misdoings of arrogant sportsmen. The laws were 
never intended to shield the “hogs” who break 
down fences. They were and are designed to 
save a game supply for the reasonable benefit 
of decent people, who wish to shoot and fish, 
whether those people live in town or in coun¬ 
try, and whether they are living now in 1913 
or shall be living by and by in 1950. The one 
end and design and aim and purpose and object 
of the game laws is to keep alive a stock of 
game. If farmers suffer from the raids of fence 
breakers, let them enforce the trespass laws. 
The rowdyism of a few or of many should not 
condemn all. 
THE FAMILY PAPER. 
What is a “family paper”? Certainly not 
everyone which flies the term “family” at its 
masthead can rightly be classed as such. There 
are so-called “family” journals which one would 
never permit to get into his home, rather let 
the house burn down first. And then there are 
journals which not one man in a hundred, un¬ 
familiar with them, would class as “family” 
papers, but which are such indeed. Forest and 
Stream, for instance. A “sporting” paper it is 
called; yes, but—a fin de siecle phenomenon— 
a "family” “sporting” paper. And why not? 
The subjects it treats of, are they not of in¬ 
terest to all, old and young? And the manner 
of their treatment, is it not acceptable to the 
most exacting? As a matter of fact—and we 
rejoice in it—this is a “family” paper which goes 
into thousands of homes every week in the year, 
and no one ever thinks of scrutinizing its con¬ 
tents before laying it where all may read. The 
subscriber soon comes to have faith in this 
quality of Forest and Stream, and—on our 
side—the faith is never broken. 
FALL SIGNS ARE HERE. 
The few ducks that breed with us are lead¬ 
ing their broods to the best feeding grounds, 
and the young are getting strong and their 
feathers cover them. A few beach birds are 
seen along the shore. Close-flying flocks of 
blackbirds shoot across the wet meadows, bobo¬ 
links that have laid aside their gorgeous spring 
time livery of buff, black and white and become 
now simple reedbirds, modestly colored like the 
ripened grass, swing on the stems of the rushes 
and call to each other in unmusical notes. The 
blossoms are showing on the stalks of the wild 
rice, and the filling heads begin to nod. The 
flags in the marshes have attained their growth, 
and the stiff brown cat-tail spikes—their flowers 
—show above the green masses of ribbons yield¬ 
ing before the passing breeze. Soon the rail will 
be in season. 
It is almost time to get out the gun. 
SHOOTING AND FISHING BY PROXY. 
The chained-to-business philosopher, who 
makes the best of it by pursuing the shooting 
and fishing columns of Forest and Stream, may 
find here in these days a store of reading, for 
the equal of which in extent, variety and quality 
one might search the world in vain. The fact 
is that Forest and Stream gives an amount of 
material weekly in its several departments which 
has no equal, and it’s all written by the man 
who’s been. 
KINGFISHER. 
“Kingfisher” might be said to belong to 
the “realistic school” if that term were not ap¬ 
plied to writers of fiction, and the “Kingfisher” 
chronicles, an instalment of which appears in 
this number, are understood to be faithful rela¬ 
tions of actual experiences. There is no disput¬ 
ing their claims to realism. 
IT IS NOT ALL OF FISHING TO FISH. 
That comforting tenet of the angler’s phil¬ 
osophy, that it is not all of fishing to fish, is 
of ancient origin and worthy of respect because 
of its age. Here it is in the treatise of Dame 
Juliana Berners, as written four hundred years 
ago: 
“For he maye not lese at the moost, but 
a lyne or an hoke, of whiche he maye haue store 
plentie of his owne makynge, as this symple 
treatyse shall teche hym. Soo thenne his losse 
is not greuous, and other greyffes maye be not 
haue sauynge, but yf ony fysshe breke away 
after that he is take on the hoke; or elles that 
he catche nought; whyche ben not greuous. For 
yf he faylly of one he maye not faylle of a 
nother, yf lie dooth as this treatyse techyth; 
but yf there be nought in the water. And yet 
atte the leest he hath his holsom walk any mery 
at his ease. A swete ayre of the swete sauoure 
of the meede floures: that makyth hym hungry. 
He hereth the melodyous armony of fowles. He 
seeth the yonge swannes: heerons: duckes : cotes 
and many foules wyth theyr brodes, whyche me 
semyth better than alle the noyse of houndys: 
the blastes of hornys and the scrye of foulis 
that hunters: fawkeners and fowlers can mak. 
And yf the angler take fysshe: surely thenne is 
there no man merie than he is in his spyryte.” 
We have improved on the spelling since the 
Dame’s “Treatyse” was printed in i486, and cur 
fishing tackle is finer nowadays, but the senti¬ 
ment is there, and who shall say that it will not 
hold good for another four centuries? 
TO SHOOT OR NOT TO SHOOT. 
What is the rule about shooting into wild¬ 
fowl sitting on the water? There are two 
schools of partridge or grouse shooters, one 
which maintains that it is sportsmanlike only to 
shoot the bird on the wing, and one which goes 
in for potting it on a limb. All are agreed that 
quail may not be shot on the ground. What is 
the principle, and what is the practice, with re¬ 
spect to ducks? There are professors of sports¬ 
manship, those who set up to give instruction, 
guidance and counsel in the art, who write books 
for the benefit of the novice, and who tell us 
that a duck is a lawful target whenever and 
wherever and however it may be covered. In a 
company of ten duck shooters, how many would 
subscribe to such a ruling? 
To My Dog Blanco. 
BV J. G. HOLLAND. 
“My dear dumb friend, low lying there, 
A willing vassal at my feet; 
Glad partner of my home and fare, 
My shadow in the street. 
I look into your great brown eyes. 
Where love and loyal homage shine, 
And wonder where the difference lies 
Between your soul and mine! 
I scan the whole broad earth around 
For that one heart which, leal and true, 
Bears friendship without end or bound, 
And find the prize in you. 
Ah, Blanco! did I worship God 
As truly as you worship me. 
Or follow where my Master trod 
With your humility: 
Did I sit fondly at His feet 
As you, dear Blanco, sit at mine, 
And watch Him with a love as sweet, 
My life would grow divine.” 
