80 
FOREST AND STREAM 
July 20, 1912 
Published Weekly by the 
Forest and Stream Publishing Company, 
Charles Otis, President. 
W. G. Beecroft, Secretary. S. J. Gibson, Treasurer. 
127 Franklin Street, New York. 
IDY, SHOOTING. IISHING 
CORRESPONDENCE- Forest and Stream is the 
recognized medium of entertainment, instruction and in- 
lormation 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. 
m SCBSCmPTIONSi $3 a year; $1.50 for six months; 
c ~; . a co Py- Canadian, $4 a year; foreign, $4.50 a year. 
s - pa P e r ma y be obtained of newsdealers throughout 
the United States, Canada and Great Britain. Foreign 
Subscription and Sales Agents—London; Davies & Co 
1 rinch 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 
tne inch. Lovers 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. 
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. 
OUR POLICY. 
We reproduce herewith a paragraph from a 
letter written us by a prominent fisherman. The 
subject of the letter was unsatisfactory results 
obtained by the correspondent from certain fish¬ 
ing tackle used by him in Florida fishing: 
“All sportsmen heartily sympathized with 
my disastrous results and agreed with my pro¬ 
posed method of obtaining a cure, although I 
have not seen many articles on the subject, per¬ 
haps because none have been written, and per¬ 
haps because publishers of sporting magazines 
care more about the revenue which they obtain 
from the dealers as fishing tackle 1 advertisers 
than they do about promoting the interests of 
sport and sportsmen.” 
We take this paragraph as a theme worthy 
of explanation as to the relative position of 
Forest and Stream and its subscribers. 
Our first interest is to our subscriber. His 
complaints, when just, become our complaints; 
his perplexities are ours for solution. We ab¬ 
sorb satisfaction from his pleasures. For forty 
years Forest and Stream has been free from 
any control of its editorial policy through its 
advertising columns. It has been, and will con¬ 
tinue to be, just to advertisers and subscribers. 
It will not exclude from its reading space fair 
criticism, whether such criticism be aimed at an 
advertiser, an individual, or a commission. We 
prefer to boost, but when occasion rightly de¬ 
mands a knock, we wish we had the hammer of 
Thor. Our policy is for construction, not de¬ 
struction, except wherein it is necessary to de¬ 
stroy to clear the way for progress, or to take 
out of the way a purveyor who intentionally 
offers sporting goods that are not all that he 
claims them to be. 
We make every effort to develop the busi¬ 
ness of our advertisers, but we aim to do it 
through satisfaction with his goods by the sub¬ 
scriber. 
Our columns are open to letters from read¬ 
ers or advertisers, and we will do our best to 
take up any argument that may arise between 
them. Our columns are at your service. 
STATE OWNERSHIP. 
The question of the ownership of fish and 
game is a point much disputed. In a decision 
handed down by the United States Supreme 
Court in 1896, it was held that the ownership 
of the fish and game rested in the State. The 
decision was written by Chief Justice White. 
The ownership of fish and game being vested in 
the State, the State has a right to regulate the 
manner in which it is taken, or it may prohibit 
the taking of it entirely. An end would soon 
be put to the remaining fish and game of the 
State if private ownership should ever be pro¬ 
claimed. With no restriction placed on seining 
or the spearing of fish, and the shooting of 
game birds and game animals permitted at all 
seasons of the year, we might expect a total de¬ 
struction of our fish and game within a short 
time. Instead of a demand for the repeal of 
our fish and game laws, we find in place a grow- 
ing sentiment for still stricter laws governing 
the taking of game birds and game fish. We 
heartily endorse the plea of the Marion County 
Fish and Game Protective Association that a 
“close season during the spawning season of 
bass and the prohibition of spring shooting of 
waterfowl are laws that should be presented to 
the next meeting of Indiana Legislature for 
serious consideration.” A movement for their 
enactment should be supported by the hunting 
and fishing fraternity, not only in Indiana, but 
in many other States as well. 
TWO GOOD ORDINANCES. 
New York City has two good ordinances, 
one of which—the muffler cut-out on motor boats 
—is indifferently enforced. On Long Island Sound, 
around City Island, dinky ‘‘near speed” boats 
chug-chug about without regard to the law pro¬ 
hibiting cutting out of the muffler. On July 16 
a similar ordinance went into effect applying to 
muffler cut-out on automobiles. Let us hope the 
enforcement of the second law is more forceful 
than that of the first, because soon it will be time 
for aeroplanes to come under, or over, the eye 
of city fathers, and it won't do to have two 
statutes applying to vehicles of transportation, 
unenforced when it becomes necessary to cut out 
the overhead muffler. Perhaps by that time it 
will be a case of cut-out city ordinances as well 
as mufflers. 
DUCKS FIND GAME REFUGE. 
A little family of wild ducks, too impatient 
to wait for the untying of bows of red tape by 
the game refuge associations, settled down on 
the Jersey meadows, nested and hatched. Undis¬ 
turbed, they decoyed other families of ducks 
until now there is a goodly colony of ducks, 
drakes and ducklings residing peacefully in the 
waste lands of New Jersey. It is the first time 
in twenty years that wild ducks have nested in 
this section. It looks as though we did not 
need game refuges as much as game laws to 
enable migratory birds to multiply and grow fat. 
JULY CROP REPORT. 
A record crop report for July comes from 
the Department of Agriculture. It omits of 
course the probability of any great deterioration 
between now and harvest time, which, figured 
on past history by average, is not likely to be. 
1 he crop of food stuffs shows an increase in 
animal, rather than human substance, but people 
who associate abundance with cost of living need 
have no worriment on that score. Big harvests 
of oats, corn and hay betoken lower prices more 
surely than a surplus of wheat, apples and pota¬ 
toes. The prices of bread and apples practically 
are constant, leaving only potatoes to offset the 
downward trend of animal food stuffs incident 
to big crops. For another thing the significance 
of the Government crop report is emphasized 
by bright prospects for a plentiful production of 
cereals in foreign countries. A reversal of con¬ 
ditions from last year, therefore, practically is 
world-wide. The cry of famine comes from no 
quarter, a fact unusual at this season, but oftener 
true to-day than of old, when war and pesti¬ 
lence, together with undeveloped marketing fa¬ 
cilities, shortened the production and distribu¬ 
tion of staples. The crop story is no great sur¬ 
prise, but rather a confirmation of unofficial 
forecasts, which have become more and more 
optimistic since a- backward early season sud¬ 
denly was transformed into a continued spell 
of favorable farming conditions. 
AMERICAN WINS AT STOCKHOLM. 
It indeed is gratifying to find that a real 
American won the highest honors at the Olympic 
games at Stockholm, Sweden. James Thorpe, a 
Carlisle Indian, therefore an American in every 
sense of the word, won the athletic champion¬ 
ship of the world. Another victory for clean 
living was that of Harry Babcock, who though 
not an aborigine, has an American family tree 
dating way back into the great oaks of Ameri¬ 
can history. This youngster, a product of the 
educated farm district, sometimes known as the 
suburbs, a student at Columbia University, with 
no suggestion of professional taint nor likeli¬ 
hood of acquiring one, is an excellent example 
of Young America. There were those on the 
Olympic team, whose wins are more a credit to 
England than to America, as they were Ireland 
born, but they have made such good citizens we 
are proud to credit their records to America. 
The entire team was an exemplification of what 
America can do with “born home” material or 
goods sent in for finishing. 
OUT-WHALING JONAH! 
Time was when Jonah had all long distance 
records for whale transportation, undisputed 
leviathan rider of all time. A change has come 
and that too from the home of culture and 
veracity—Boston, of course. The New York 
Sun, wherein anything found passeth beyond 
conjecture, tells of a fisherman being attacked 
by a whale, tossed into the air, where he re¬ 
mained during such time as was necessary to 
make the descent, when he landed upon the 
whale’s back. Here he slid about during his 
short cruise, finally landing right side up for 
rescue. The tossing feature would indicate a 
bull whale. The whole thing sounds like a 
“bully” story. 
