368 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Sept. 20, 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 
cannot be regarded. 
SUBSCRIPTIONS: $3 a year; $1.50 for six months; 
10 cts. a copy. Canadian, $1 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. 
GOOD-BYE TO SUMMER. 
The current week closes the summer season, 
equinoxially and otherwise. Fashion is arbitrary 
and all the endeavors of landlords to make their 
departing guests believe that the Indian summer 
is the most delightful season of the year to 
dwellers in the country, that the gorgeous autumn 
tints are more engaging than the vivid midsum¬ 
mer verdure, and the air of October more health¬ 
giving than the zephyrs of July do not suffice to 
prevent their flight when the stated hour arrives. 
This week the theatres and operas make their 
fall announcements, straw hats go out of date, 
swimmers leave the brine, yachts are laid up in 
ordinary, and fishing rods give place to guns. 
The blare of the horn and the voice of the 
hounds awake the dells; the programs of the 
rifle ranges are announced; newspapers teem 
with advertisements of fall meetings, of famous 
flyers, aquatic contests, of famous boatmen and 
pedestrian matches between noted walkers. 
Meanwhile lawn games are on the wane, and 
the cricketers and baseball men gird themselves 
for the final contests of the October fields. 
JUST ABOUT US. 
We invite our readers’ attention to the 
variety and amount of matter placed before them 
every week. The columns of Forest and Stream 
have never been more “full of meat” than they 
are now. We are constantly in receipt of and 
place before the thousands of our appreciative 
subscribers every week a collection of incidents, 
adventures, scientific papers, practical instruc¬ 
tions, news notes and records, which, when we 
remember that this is supplied fifty-two times 
every year, may well challenge some surprise 
among newly made acquaintances. One reason 
why we are always fresh, always entertaining, 
and always valuable is because’we have all nature 
for our inexhaustible field of study. 
Forest and Stream is one of the most 
peculiar papers in the world, intrinsically, per se, 
and to edit. In a far greater degree than any 
ether journal of which we have any knowledge 
it has been made what it is to-day by the volun¬ 
tary interest manifested in it by its subscribers 
and readers. Our correspondents number hun¬ 
dreds to each issue of the paper, and thousands 
in the aggregate. They are scattered abroad in 
every quarter of the earth. That which is a 
familiar everyday commonplace to one person 
in his peculiar sphere and location, to others in 
other parts of the world proves of rare novelty 
and interest when described in our columns. 
Thus we have at our command a corps of self- 
appointed attaches, who voluntarily contribute to 
each other's entertainment and instruction. 
Forest and Stream has become recognized 
as the proper medium for the interchange of 
views, theories and experiences. It has also be¬ 
come the purveyor of all good things pertaining 
to its broad field. While our gratification is 
great at its increased strength and usefulness, we 
are not forgetful of our indebtedness to personal 
friends of long years’ standing, as well as to 
those whose faces may be strange to us, but 
whose sympathies have become interwoven with 
ours until they have formed a spiritual acquaint¬ 
ance and alliance which it will be difficult to 
break. 
When any journal has succeeded in enlisting 
such active interest in itself, it is significant of a 
most substantial foundation. 
TURTLE STEAKS. 
Country editors are always receiving good 
things. Their desks are the only approved de¬ 
pository for overgrown pumpkins, elongated corn 
stalks and precocious spring chickens, and their 
sanctums resemble an agricultural fair. In lands 
where the creatures of the earth bring forth each 
after its kind, beasts, reptiles and fishes, marvel¬ 
ous to behold, the happy knight of the ink is 
overwhelmed with the contributions of emulous 
subscribers; the sanctum becomes a menagerie, 
the composing room is turned into a museum. 
We have been in newspaper offices before now 
where the editor habitually clothed himself in 
sheet iron before opening his morning mail. 
Florida editors are peculiarly favored in this 
way. That is one reason why the imagination 
of Florida editors has such an exalted reputa¬ 
tion all over the world. Here is a case in point. 
Someone sent the editor of the Palatka Herald 
a turtle the other day. Bestriding the back of 
the reptile, like the Delphic priestess perched 
upon her mystic tripod, the editor saw visions, 
and under the influence of the spell wrote, in 
strange symbols afterward deciphered by the edi¬ 
torial staff, the following: 
“We received a turtle a few days ago on 
whose back was marked the date 1700, and also 
the Spanish coat-of-arms, indicating that this old 
resident was in existence one hundred and 
seventy-nine years ago. What changes this old 
fellow of the deep has seen! The rise and fall 
of empires and the continent on which he partly 
lived, emerged from the thraldom of despotism, 
with the rise of a republic that has become the 
great conservator of freedom, the advancement 
of civilization, and the glory of the world. A 
few words in Spanish on the shell were trans¬ 
lated, which says: ‘Caught in 1700 by Hernando 
Gomez in the St. Sevantian, and was carried to 
Matanzas by Indians; from there to Great 
Wekiva’ (which is now the St. Johns River). 
On Tuesday, the 17th of June, the turtle was 
turned adrift in the St. Johns River, at Palatka, 
with the inscription on its back: ‘Eastern 
Herald, Palatka, Florida, 1913.’ It may be sup¬ 
posed that by this time the old fellow has scented 
salt water, and gone over the bar at high tide, 
and probably a few generations hence may take 
him up at a Spanish port on the other side.” 
WILD RICE. 
The wild rice season has come again, and 
with it numerous letters from correspondents 
pour in upon us, asking all about its culture. 
We mean to tell all we know about it now, and 
must ask all of our interested readers to look 
the article over before writing to us about the 
subj ect. 
The seed may be sown either in the fall or 
in the spring. The rice should be soaked until 
it sinks, and then sown in water from two to 
five inches in depth. The quantity of seed to 
the acre may be varied from a bushel to a barrel. 
The culture of this cereal has been in some 
cases successful and in other unsuccessful. There 
are many conditions of success and failure as in 
other crops. The majority of experiments have 
resulted favorably. 
We shall be,glad to hear from all those in¬ 
terested in its culture as to their methods and 
success. 
The Enchanted Stream. 
BY PAUL BRANDRETH. 
The magic spell of solitude is here, 
The silence of the woods inviolate; 
And here the secret playground of the deer, 
Who with his gentle-eyed and graceful mate 
Wades the sweet waters of the lushy mere: 
Who ever, be it early hour or late, 
Roams phanton-like within the forest green 
Or lurks beneath the moonlight’s silver sheen. 
From west to north, from north again to west 
The amber-gleaming stream by which he dwells 
Winds its wild course in wandering endless quest. 
So doth it flow through shaded leafy dells, 
So lingereth now upon a meadow’s breast, 
So drouses deep in fairy-haunted wells. 
Where windy cloud and flush of morning sky 
Are mirrored as in some immortal eye. 
The gentian on its grassy banks doth grow, 
The alders bend their shadows either side, 
The breeze among the pine trees whispers low, 
In icy pools the spotted trout doth hide; 
And where so’er the balsams darkling sow 
Their clustered points against the sunset tide. 
There—silver, dank with moss—mysterious, strange. 
Marshes and swamplands through the forest range. 
A buck is in the shallows! Now, he turns! 
Behold his monarch head, the velvet tips 
Of each great prong! His hoof the water spurns. 
And, now with lily stems his muzzle drips; 
Soon, when the wild rose fades and maple burns 
He dons his blue-gray coat; then scrapes and strips 
The sapling’s tender bark with polished horn— 
So, steps from out the wood, a king re-born! 
The moon sails low. Its sphere of beaten gold 
Hangs meshed within the spruce’s tangled skein; 
The dew upon the briars lieth cold. 
The air is sweet with hint of coming rain. 
Far off a vagrant fox, grown shrill and bold, 
Mocks at the stars and yelps in weird disdain; 
But, listen! Just beyond the camp-fire’s light 
The melody of water fills the night. 
Could we, O thou Enchanted Stream, like thee, 
Set the swift currents of our lives to flow 
Through beauty’s dreaming Wood; O could we see 
The days and years serenely come and go, 
Even as thou must do; could we be free 
And tameless as the deer- — then might we know 
The fruit of joys unguessed, and close the door 
On this dull careworn world for evermore. 
