716 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Dec. 7, 1912 
THE CHRISTMAS TURKEY SHOOT. 
forty-eight inches long, muzzleloaders and 
very accurate for short range when the secret 
of the misfit sights is understood, as it is by 
every man concerning his own gun. 
As everyone 'knows, the Southland supplies 
much of the decorative material used in the 
North for Christmas. Holly, mistletoe, galax 
and leucothoe sprays are the chief items known 
commercially, though many other plants, shrubs 
and trees contribute to> the cheer of the cold 
Northern Christmas. Magnolia leaves from 
further south are also extensively used, and so 
are the pretty little ground pines from the 
mountains. Gathering these leaves, especially 
the galax, green and bronze, which is used by 
florists the year around, affords the mountain 
people a good living during the winter and 
carries them through a season that was often 
hard for many of them. Many millions of 
galax leaves are gathered every winter by the 
mountaineers, largely women and children, tied 
in bunches of twenty-five and traded to the 
little country stores for needed supplies. Often 
families will go out into the mountains, far 
from home, take along some “rations” and 
spend several weeks, sometimes all winter, pull¬ 
ing galax. They put up a temporary hut, or 
find shelter under some huge overhanging rock, 
building a front to it to keep out the wind and 
cold. They get from twenty-five to thirty cents 
per 1,000 for the leaves, and where the crop is 
good, will get from 4,000 to 8,000 leaves a day, 
usually averaging about 5,000, and the children 
less. These must then be bunched and packed 
down. The galax industry has made the moun¬ 
tain people more careful about letting fires get 
out in the woods, for that destroys the galax. 
Before Christmas the “galackers,” as they 
call themselves, are very busy, for the leaves 
are just getting good, and the more they get 
the merrier will their Christmas be. 
Northern hunters, coming to North Caro¬ 
lina for its varied attractions,, sometimes spend 
the Christmas season here, and if they do they 
are sure to have a good time, seeing the people 
at their best. One form of entertaining them 
is to get up a fox chase, which is very inter¬ 
esting, particularly if it is a red fox, for he 
will keep two alternating packs in hot pursuit 
for twelve hours and never be in the slightest 
danger, though letting the dogs get near 
enough to make it interesting. 
In the Blue Ridge country we have our 
first big snow usually not long before Christ¬ 
mas, or just about that time, and if it comes 
softly, perhaps with a little sleet to hold it to 
the trees, a picture of fairyland will be formed 
that baffles any camera or artist’s brush. 
Carrying Game Through New Jersey. 
Trenton, N. J., Nov. 26. —Editor Forest and 
Stream: Any New York gunner shooting game 
in the State of New York and reaching his home 
in New York State via a railroad which traverses 
New Jersey, should not be held up or fined for 
carrying such game, provided he exhibits a New 
York hunting license and can satisfactorily prove 
that such game was not killed within the State 
of New Jersey. 
If there is any question about such gunner 
satisfactorily proving his right to carry such 
game through our State at the time of his being 
prevented, I think in all justice to the Fish and 
Game Commission of New Jersey he should 
leave a deposit in a suitable amount, which de¬ 
posit should be returned to him when he fur¬ 
nishes such proof by affidavit or otherwise that 
the game was killed without our boundaries. 
It is not the intention of this commission to 
persecute anyone, and we do not propose to 
allow any warden or deputy warden to extort 
unjustly any fines that are not perfectly proper, 
and at any time we are glad to take up and 
carefully examine into any cases that may occur 
about which there is any question. Attempts 
are made so often to infringe and impose upon 
our laws that we simply in self defense must 
throw every possible safeguard about them, and 
I can assure you that no injustice shall be done 
anyone if it is in the power of this commission 
to avoid it. Ernest Napier, 
President New Jersey Fish and Game Com. 
2,600 Deer Shot This Year. 
Approximately 2,650 deer were killed in the 
Adirondacks this year in the forty-five days of 
open season, extending from Oct. 1 to Nov. 15, 
according to complete returns filed with the New 
York State Conservation Commission. The rec¬ 
ords of the Department, which were compiled 
from the reports of the railroad companies and 
the scouts who are stationed in the forests dur¬ 
ing the open season, show that 2,500 carcasses, 
96 saddles or the hams of the deer and 54 heads 
were' shipped out of the woods between Oct. 1 
and Nov. 15. 
The State Conservation Commission has re¬ 
ports which are indicative of the unusual in¬ 
crease in the deer population of the Adiron¬ 
dacks. Not in the memory of the oldest attache 
of the Conservation Commission has there been 
so many deer in the mountains. Game pro¬ 
tectors, wardens and watchers report deer in 
large number in all the favorite hunting places. 
Long Lake West this year yielded over 125 
bucks. Big Moose contributed 40 and Clearwater 
topped its 1909 production by 50, the total num¬ 
ber of deer killed here being 97. 
The deer shot this season ranged in dressed 
weight from 180 to 260 pounds. The largest, 
260, was taken near Long Lake West. 
The Duck Epidemic. 
Neversinic, N. Y., via Liberty, Nov. 27.— 
Editor Forest and Stream: It seems that the 
epidemic disease which has killed so many ducks 
in Utah was due to peculiar local conditions. As 
long as there is an abundance of water, the 
ducks are fairly well distributed and find plenty 
of food, but when drouths occur and the de¬ 
mands of irrigation are supplied, the ducks are 
concentrated in the fresh water ponds and 
marshes that have not dried up. The water is 
polluted and stale, and the disease again makes 
its appearance. There is no spring shooting, and 
an enormous number of ducks being undis¬ 
turbed, remain in Utah to rear their broods. 
A heavy fall of rain which fills up all the 
streams and ponds and relieves the needs of 
the agriculturists usually cures the disease by 
extending the range of the ducks and restoring 
natural conditions. Apparently it is a case of 
tenement house conditions being forced upon the 
ducks in dry season by civilization and the needs 
of a rapidly increasing population. The duck 
clubs, I am informed, had the dead ducks gath¬ 
ered and buried as soon as possible. That the 
sick ducks were all bagged by market hunters 
is an amusing yarn, as the disease was checked 
by rains before the season opened. 
We cannot have game fish and game birds 
unless the environment is sanitary and natural. 
They must have reasonably pure water and 
proper food. Theodore Gordon. 
