348 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Published Weekly by the 
Forest and Stream Publishing Company 
Chas. A. Hazen, President Charles L. Wise, Treasurer 
Harwood Palmer, Vice-Pres. W. G. Beecroft, Secretary 
22 Thames Street, New York. 
CORRESPONDENCEForest and Stream is the re¬ 
cognized 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 cets. 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 
Subscriptions and Sales Agents—London: Davies & Co., 
1 Finch Lane; Sampson, Low & Co. Paris: Brentano’s. 
Entered in New York Post Office as Second class matter. 
THE OBJECT OF THIS JOURNAL 
will be to studiously promote a healthful interest 
in outdoor recreation, and to cultivate a refined 
taste for natural objects. 
—Forestand Stream, Aug. 14, 1873 
HONI SOIT, ETC., ETC. 
We are entering upon the Spring season with 
an average of one foot of snow lying over the 
greater part of the middle and northern United 
States, and with low temperatures reported every¬ 
where. The trout season is only about a month 
away. What will happen when old Sol bends his 
rays to the real task of clearing off winter’s 
snowy blanket? We are a little afraid that our 
earliest anglers will find freshets of snow water 
against them. The almanac is no longe regarded 
by fishermen as a true guide, and as for the sev¬ 
eral more or less inspired astrologers who are 
telling us that the closing days of March will be 
marked by blizzards and other tempestuous dem¬ 
onstrations — well, the worst we can hope for 
these prophets of evil is that they will be caught 
by their own predictions, and find themselves un¬ 
prepared for the sunny days of April when the 
weather settles down and the trout begin to wake 
to new life. 
WHERE SPORT BLENDS WITH PROFIT. 
An acre of water may be made more productive 
and profitable than an acre of land. Marshes and 
swamps are the natural breeding ground of half 
a dozen different fur bearing animals, the musk¬ 
rat being the most common example, and a musk¬ 
rat farm, by the way, is not to be despised as a 
by-product of the farm, or as a direct enterprise. 
The clearer water of ponds and lakes can be 
made to yield a harvest of fish food that make 
the eight to ten bushel per acre wheat production 
of worn out soil seem trivial in comparison. True, 
not everybody owns a pond or lake, but there are 
hundreds of both lying as idle as the abandoned 
farms. In a larger way the Government is at¬ 
tempting to increase the productivity of our in¬ 
land and coastal waters. It is high time that such 
efforts be given public encouragement. The cost 
of living problem does not originate altogether 
with what comes off the surface of the land. 
What comes out of the water, or what can be 
made to come out of the water, is equally im¬ 
portant. 
TWENTY YEARS AFTER. 
Twenty years ago last month Forest and 
Stream announced its famous platform plank, 
“The sale of game should be forbidden at all 
times,” and for six months after the promulga¬ 
tion of that article of faith it was hotly debated 
in these columns. 
This was a new principle in game protection, 
and it took some little time for the public to un¬ 
derstand just what it meant, and to realize that 
the old ideas that had governed since the begin¬ 
ning must now be adjusted to the changed con¬ 
ditions of a rapidly developing country.. 
So radical a method for putting an end to the 
depredations of the market hunter, and thus 
checking the rapid diminution of our supply of 
game, had never been suggested. Forest and 
Stream devised this remedy and had the cour¬ 
age to make this announcement—certain to be 
unpopular with many people and to be bitterly 
opposed by a large class of the shooting public. 
We all know what has happened in the twenty 
years that have passed. The principle an¬ 
nounced in 1894 won the approval of a large ma¬ 
jority of sportsmen and of all the bird protec¬ 
tors of the United States and of Canada, and 
since that time has so commended itself to the 
public intelligence that it has been embodied—in 
whole or in part—-in the laws of more than 
forty-six states of the Union and provinces of the 
Dominion. In many places it has been well en¬ 
forced, and in many places it has put an end to 
market shooting, and so to the commercialization 
of wild game. 
Many people have worked hard and. faithfully 
to induce various states to pass laws forbidding 
the sale of game, and when successful they have 
rejoiced over their victory and with them have 
rejoiced all Americans who are genuinely anx¬ 
ious to see our game protected. Such men have 
been efficient workers in a noble cause; they 
have fought the good fight. 
Nevertheless, it should not be forgotten, as so 
often it is forgotten, how this principle first 
originated and where belongs the credit for its 
announcement. 
GAME PROTECTION PAYS. 
The report of the Crown Land department of 
th.e Province of New Brunswick for 1913 shows 
that 583 non-resident game licenses were taken 
out during the year. Of these 546 were issued 
to residents of the United States. Estimates of 
the quantity of game killed included 1,499 moose, 
2,075 deer and 454 caribou. Of course not all of 
this game was shipped, for much of it fell before 
the guns of the 8,084 resident hunters who took 
out licenses. The number of hunting tags re¬ 
ceived by the Crown Land office for the year of 
1913 accounted for 378 moose, 46 caribou, and 511 
deer. The mere recital of these figures is enough 
to show that New Brunswick is one of the great¬ 
est moose hunting provinces in Canada. The 
record of fines imposed on those who violated 
the law is also proof that the province is alive to 
the valuable asset it possesses in its big game, and 
that it intends to preserve it against unlawful 
slaughter. Last but not least, New Brunswick 
collected $50,000 in 1913 from the sale of game 
licenses. As the license is the smallest part of the 
expense of visiting sportsmen, some estimate may 
be formed of the amount of money left in the 
hunting districts by them. Some very large 
moose heads came out last fall, five of them 
measuring sixty inches and above. But can New 
Brunswick stand the drain of 1,500 moose with¬ 
out depleting the native stock? 
TWO WILD DUCKS FOR ONE NOW. 
Much praise is due the Government, or rather 
the Department of Agriculture, for its enterprise 
in having made a scientific study of food for wild 
ducks.. The results of the observations and inves¬ 
tigations of its specialists are to be embodied in 
a series of pamphlets written in understandable 
language, and which will be offered for public 
distribution soon. It is a comparatively easy mat¬ 
ter to attract duck life to suitable grounds and 
waters, now that the migratory bill is in effect, 
and it is altogether likely that with a little atten¬ 
tion, the propagation of wild ducks in these lati¬ 
tudes may become a comparatively easy problem. 
THE DUCKS STILL ALIVE. 
The newspaper press for the past several weeks 
has published reports of annihilation of water 
fowl on Long Island through starvation occa¬ 
sioned by the blizzard weather. We are glad to 
be able to say from the results of our own inves¬ 
tigation, and confirmation received after investi¬ 
gations by the State and National authorities, that 
these stories are for the most part exaggerated. 
Naturally the rough weather contributed to in¬ 
creasing mortality among ducks, but every bird 
noted as lying motionless on the water was not a 
dead duck by any means. The food problem 
must, however, have been a serious one for coast 
water fowl along northern shores for a month 
or two past, but it is pleasing to record that the 
game authorities were not slow to lend assist¬ 
ance, and large quantities of grain and other suit¬ 
able food were scattered by them where it was 
needed and where it could be obtained. This 
work is in line with true conservation. We will 
not be surprised if the exaggerated stories of the 
starvation of ducks this winter spring up from 
time to time as an argument in favor of the lib¬ 
eralization of the migratory bird law and the at¬ 
tending evil of spring shooting. 
Just how the grouse, quail, and other birds 
fared during the inclement weather, it is too early 
to report. We shall be glad to hear from our 
readers on this matter. From the almost unani¬ 
mous response to the appeals of state game de¬ 
partments, the Audubon society and other organi¬ 
zations to feed the birds, there is ground for the 
belief that the destruction of game and other 
birds was minimized to a large extent. 
Deer in the Adirondacks are said to be plenti¬ 
ful and in fine condition in spite of the cold and 
snow. Spruce and hemlock trees are furnishing 
fodder. 
Railroads caused nearly half the forest fires in 
Colorado and Wyoming last year, and almost one- 
sixth were set by lightning. In California light¬ 
ning started more than half, with railroads a 
comparatively insignificant cause. 
