Sept. 14, 1912 
FOREST AND STREAM 
329 
Sport in Florida 
By J. A. L. WADDELL 
have no restriction on the amount of game 
which may be killed or captured in a day or a 
season. 
(c) That the daily limit should not exceed 
twenty-five birds a day, and that in the case of 
waterfowl a weekly bag limit should be pro¬ 
vided in addition to the daily limit. 
NON-GAME BIRDS. 
(a) That the model law recommended by 
the National Association of Audubon Societies 
for the protection of non-game birds be enacted 
in the States of Maryland, Kansas, Nebraska, 
Idaho, Montana, Utah, Nevada, Arizona and 
New Mexico, in order to make legislation of 
this character uniform throughout the Union. 
(b) That legislation regulating the traffic 
in aigrette or heron plumage be enacted in 
Pennsylvania, Maryland, Georgia, Illinois and 
such other States as have not yet extended 
proper protection to these birds now nearly 
extinct. 
PROPAGATION. 
It is recommended that encouragement be 
given for the propagation of fish and game ani¬ 
mals and game birds in the various States under 
the provision of the State game authorities. 
GAME REFUGES. 
Inasmuch as game refuges afford the most 
effective means of protecting the scattered rem¬ 
nants of our native game, it is strongly recom¬ 
mended that every State should have one or 
more State refuges. Commissioners and war¬ 
dens should be given adequate authority to ar¬ 
range for refuges on private or State lands, and 
to co-operate with the proper officers of the 
Federal Government in the establishment of such 
refuges on public lands not now utilized for 
other purposes. 
FEDERAL LEGISLATION. 
Attention is called to certain bills now pend¬ 
ing in Congress providing for Federal jurisdic¬ 
tion of migratory birds, and the establishment 
of National game preserves. The Weeks bill 
(H. R. 36) and the McLean bill (S. 647) re¬ 
lating to migratory birds are now on the calen¬ 
dars of the House and Senate. The Catron bill 
(S. 6942) establishing a game preserve at the 
headwaters of the Pecos River in New Mexico 
has already passed the Senate, and the Kent bill 
(H. R.) and the Perkins bill (S. 6109) pro¬ 
viding for Federal game refuges, are in the 
House Committee on Agriculture, and on the 
Senate calendar respectively. Commissioners 
should carefully consider these measures and 
give them such support as they can through 
their senators and representatives. 
J. H. Acklen, Chairman, 
Commissioner of Tennessee. 
H. C. Davis, 
Commissioner of Delaware. 
John B. Burnham, 
President American Game Protective 
and Propagation Association. 
Jesse E. Mercer, 
Commissioner of Georgia. 
James Henry Rice, Jr., 
Commissioner of South Dakota. 
The general sentiment of the convention 
was against the sale of native game and also 
against the spring shooting of wildfowl. 
I T is such a long time since I last wrote for 
your paper that I fear you are beginning to 
feel like cancelling my name from your list 
of regular correspondents. The main reason for 
my long silence is that my professional work of 
late years has been so exacting that I have been 
able to take but little time for outings—far less 
than I deem I am entitled to or than is advis¬ 
able from the point of view of health mainte- 
YOUNG PARTRIDGE. RAISED ON GAME FARM OF AMER¬ 
ICAN GAME PROTECTIVE AND PROPAGATION 
ASSOCIATION. 
nance. In my opinion, every hard-working pro¬ 
fessional man should take at least two vacations 
per annum, and the longer he makes them, the 
better for both his physical and his mental wel¬ 
fare. It is my ambition in my old age to devote 
nine months of the year to work and three 
months to fishing and shooting, but I greatly 
fear that adverse conditions will prevent the 
materialization of this desire. 
Business calling me to Jacksonville about the 
middle of January, I invited my son, Leonard, 
to join me on the trip and try both the fishing 
and the shooting of Florida after the completion 
of my work there. For many years I had been 
desirous of investigating for myself the sport 
possibilities of that State, having read so much 
about it in Forest and Stream and in the stand¬ 
ard books of Holder and others, but until this 
year no opportunity to do so had offered. 
Before leaving home my arrangements were 
made to go from Jacksonville to Bartow, join a 
small party of sportsmen there, and proceed by 
automobiles or wagons eastward to Kissimmee 
Lake for shooting quail, ducks and jacksnipe, 
and for black bass fishing, but before our arrival 
at Jacksonville the whole Florida peninsula had 
received a heavy fall of rain, which made the 
roads very bad, hence we concluded to go first 
to Long Key for the sea fishing and then re¬ 
turn north to Bartow. 
We were well prepared for all kinds of sport, 
having with us four shotguns, one rifle and an 
abundance of all kinds of tackle for both fresh 
and salt water fishing. It has been my experi¬ 
ence in times past that it never pays to go 011 
a long shooting trip with less than two shotguns 
per man, as something nearly always happens to 
one gun, which puts it out of condition; in fact, 
I once returned from a trip in Mexico and Texas 
with only one barrel out of four in shape for 
business. 
As for tackle, one cannot well have too much 
of it or too many kinds, because the big-game 
fishes break roads, reels and lines; different lo¬ 
calities require different kinds of baits, and one 
often has unexpectedly to provide an outfit for 
another sportsman. 
Being an old traveler, I took the precaution, 
when leaving Jacksonville, not only to locate our 
five pieces of baggage and see that the checks 
were properly attached thereto, but also to tip 
liberally the baggageman as an inducement for 
him to see that all the said pieces were shipped 
on our train, but alas! I should have gone still 
further by seeing it put on the car myself, for 
upon our arrival in the morning at Long Key 
the trunk containing all the rods was missing. 
It was necessary either to wait for the trunk or 
to rent tackle at four dollars per day per man. 
The boy who acted as station agent and tele¬ 
graph operator was requested to locate the miss¬ 
ing piece and insure its being forwarded at once, 
but neither persuasion, tips, nor threats pro¬ 
duced any information concerning it. I hinking 
that it might come by the afternoon train, which 
was eight hours late, I gave my check to the 
hotel porter with a liberal tip and instructions 
to look out for it. Sure enough, it arrived at 
midnight, but as the station agent was not there, 
the baggageman on the train refused to put it 
off on the plea that there was nobody to receipt 
for it, consequently it was carried to the end 
of the line and did not get back till next after¬ 
noon. In this way two days of good fishing 
weather were lost. 
Launches were scarce and expensive. Those 
that are safe for going outside where the fishing 
is, rent for $12 to $20 or more per day. After 
waiting some time for more launches to come 
to the camp, we succeeded in securing one be¬ 
longing to a fisherman, but it was really too 
small for comfort, although probably safe 
enough. At any rate we used it four days, then 
after it was laid up for repairs to the machinery, 
we took another and larger one for our last day. 
Although the weather conditions were fairly 
good, the fishing was not. We took with our 
two rods on the average not more than a dozen 
fish a day, but they were small. A few of them 
averaged between thirty and forty pounds, and 
the smallest down to about three pounds, the . 
average certainly not exceeding fifteen pounds 
and possibly as low as twelve. We caught king- 
fish, Spanish mackerel, barracouda, jackfish, 
