308 
FOREST AND STREAM 
March 8, 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. 
CORRESPONDKNCE — Forest and Stream is the 
recognized medium of entertainment, instruction and in¬ 
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are devoted, but, of course, are not responsible for the 
views of correspondents. Anonymous communications 
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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. 
GOOD NEJVS FOR THE COUNTRY. 
Federal protection of migratory birds is 
now the law. The measure, after passing the 
Senate by a vote that was practically unanimous, 
went to the House, where it was locked up in 
the room of the Committee on Rules with no 
apparent prospect of being reported during the 
last hurried days of the session. However, the 
bill was finally attached as a rider to the Agri¬ 
cultural Appropriation bill, and in that form 
passed both Houses of Congress. 
This is an enormous victory for the protec¬ 
tion of wild life, and ought to add hundreds of 
millions of dollars to the productiveness of the 
United States, to say nothing of America at 
large. If Senator Root’s resolution, calling for 
an international commission to consider the gen¬ 
eral question of protection of migratory birds by 
the different Governments of North America, 
should be favorably acted on, the result will be 
of incalculable benefit to this continent. 
In the Senate Committee’s report on the 
McLean bill, issued last spring, the whole matter 
was tersely put in the following language: “All 
* * * the evidence goes to demonstrate the 
existence of a natural economic relation between 
these three orders of life (vegetation, insects 
and birds). There is a sort of interdependence, 
and the existence of each one is dependent on 
the existence of the other. But for the vege¬ 
tation, the insects would perish; but for the in¬ 
sects, the birds would perish, and but for the 
birds, the vegetation would shortly be destroyed 
by the unchecked increase of insect destroyers.’’ 
That both Houses of Congress should have 
acted favorably on this measure shows better 
than anything else how earnest and vigorous has 
been the campaign of education carried on by 
bird protectors all over the land. Individuals 
have urged the matter on their representatives 
in Congress. Associations have done the same 
and have appeared before Committees of Con¬ 
gress in behalf of the measure. Newspapers 
have presented the case in all its forms, and of 
all the newspapers Forest and Stream was the 
first to take up the subject. 
Hon. George Shiras, 3d, introduced the first 
bill in Congress and wrote a splendid brief on 
it. He was the pioneer. The most effective, 
because most direct, work done in behalf of the 
matter was that carried on by the American 
Game Protective and Propagation Association, 
under the direction of John B. Burnham, its 
president. There has perhaps never been a more 
effective presentation of any subject bearing on 
game protection than was given at the hearings 
held March 6 last, before the Senate Committee 
on Forest Reservations, and the Protection of 
Game, and the House Committee on Agriculture, 
at Washington. We have more than once 
pointed out the importance of that hearing, and 
called attention to the splendid work done by 
Mr. Burnham, Mr. Haskell, Mr. Faylis and 
others in this connection. It is to the energy 
and industry displayed by this association that 
the passage of the bill at this time is chiefly due. 
THE COMING CHANGE. 
The calendar tells us that spring has come, 
but as yet we must accept this on faith. To 
the average man the only physical evidence of 
its arrival is that in the middle of the day the 
sun has more power than a month or two ago. 
The sodden fields still lie bare and brown 
as they have since the storms of November, and 
the naked trees stretch their gray branches to¬ 
ward the sky and wave in protest against the 
winds of March as they did against those of 
December. 
Nevertheless, the change is at hand. Though 
in our walks abroad we still see only winter birds 
and hear only winter sounds. 
Down by the warm springs the grass is fresh 
and green, looking brighter now than it will 
look two months hence, because of its present 
contrast with the universal gray. In the swamps 
the shining purple hoods of the skunk cabbage 
are two or three inches above the ground or the 
water, and hidden in each hood is the stalk al¬ 
ready covered with tiny flowers. The most 
abused of our wild plants, the skunk cabbage 
is nevertheless the earliest of the spring flowers. 
Soon the increasing strength of the sun will 
stir the warm earth, and all over the meadows 
the grass will begin to start. Long before the 
flowers come or green grass, we shall see the 
earliest migrants, the robins and phoebes, the 
forerunners of a host that will reach the height 
of its abundance in early May. 
In the good old times when there were 
woodcock, one might go out at night a little 
later and listen to the voice of this long¬ 
billed songster, as, high in air, he talked to his 
mate below, and strove to out-sing his rival from 
the next swamp. Nowadays, it is only in espe¬ 
cially favored localities that one may hear the 
mating call of the woodcock. 
The angler is. now preparing his tackle for 
use on the warming brooks, and before long will 
be afield, whipping the streams—perhaps frozen 
—as he has whipped frozen streams in years 
gone by, but at least having the joy of feeling 
the limber rod once more in his hand. 
May his first catch be a good one. 
A HARE RAISING FAD. 
A furor for raising Belgian hares swept 
over the United States about fifteen years ago 
and ceased almost as rapidly as it began, partly 
no doubt because it passed into a fad for rais¬ 
ing fancy stock for exhibition purposes. In 
some instances, however, the business has pros¬ 
pered, and during the past year, partly perhaps 
as a result of the high price of meats, there 
have been numerous signs of awakened interest 
in the industry. The Belgian hare is prolific, 
easily raised, little subject to disease when prop¬ 
erly cared for, and its flesh is nutritious with 
an excellent flavor. There would seem to be 
no good reason why farmers and others having 
the necessary facilities should not engage in 
raising these animals both for the purpose of 
providing meat for home consumption as well 
as for the market. At twenty cents per pound, 
which the meat readily commands in the local 
markets, there should be a safe margin for 
profit. Moreover the meat is becoming more 
and more in demand by the hotels and cafes in 
the cities as the popular knowledge of the value 
of the succulent meat is increased. There have 
been many inquiries made to the Biological Sur¬ 
vey of the Department of Agriculture relative 
to the means and methods of raising Belgian 
hares, and to meet this demand the Department 
has prepared a circular letter giving the essential 
facts in relation to raising these and other do¬ 
mesticated rabbits. 
IMPORTING GAME BIRDS. 
The importance of regulating the importa¬ 
tion of foreign birds was exemplified in a strik¬ 
ing manner during the past season at the time 
of the outbreak of a highly infectious quail 
disease, which spreads with great rapidity. When 
the disease was originally discovered by the 
Bureau of Animal Industry of the Department 
of Agriculture in 1907, large shipments of birds 
were being made from the West and Southwest. 
The infection was carried from Central Alabama 
and Southern Kansas northeastward to many 
points, even as far as Nova Scotia, and attempts 
to check the disease proved unavailing. During 
the past year, on account of the scarcity of birds, 
nearly all of the stock used for propagating pur¬ 
poses was imported from Mexico, and such 
shipments came directly under the control 
of the Department. The total importa¬ 
tions from Mexico was 7,770 quail. Imme¬ 
diately upon the discovery of the disease in 
February all importation from Mexico was sus¬ 
pended by the Department, and prompt infor¬ 
mation concerning the dangers of infection was 
furnished to the importers and shippers with 
the result that the disease was discovered and 
confined to five or six places in Missouri, New 
Jersey, District of Columbia, New York and 
Connecticut. So far as could be ascertained by 
the Department, the disease did not spread be¬ 
yond these points, and the malady was soon 
eradicated. 
