432 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Oct. 5, 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. 
CORRESPONDENCE — Forest and Stream is the 
recognized 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 cts. a copy. Canadian, $1 a year; foreign, $4.50 a year. 
This paper may be obtained of newsdealers throughout 
the United States. Canada and Great Britain. Foreign 
Subscription and Sales Agents—London: Davies & Co., 
1 Finch 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 
the inch. Covers 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. 
A NATIONAL PARK CONFERENCE. 
It is most gratifying to know that the pres¬ 
ent Secretary of the Interior is not only deeply 
interested in the country's national parks, but is 
effectively working to increase the public s in¬ 
terest in them. 
In September, 1911, at the Yellowstone Park 
there was held a conference of park superin¬ 
tendents, Federal officials, concessioners in the 
parks and representatives of railways interested 
in the transportation of tourists to the parks. 
The object of this conference was to exchange 
ideas for the betterment of these parks and for 
making them more accessible to the public 
No one visits any of these parks without feeling 
an interest in the subject, and most visitors wish 
to repeat their visit. 
On Oct. 14 a second conference of this 
nature will be held, this time in the Y osemite 
National Park, in California. This meeting 
should be largely attended not only by those 
Government officials actively interested in the 
work of preserving the parks and persons repre¬ 
senting corporations interested in caring for the 
public who visit them, but also by all nature 
lovers and those devoted to the protection of 
the parks as great national playgrounds. The 
hotel and transportation companies have made 
a special rate for this conference, and informa¬ 
tion on this point can no doubt be had from the 
Southern Pacific and Santa Fe railroads, or from 
the chief clerk of the Department of the Interior. 
During the past generation secretaries of the 
Interior have often expressed great interest in 
the national parks, but Mr. Fisher is, we believe, 
the first to take active steps to make the way 
into these parks easy for the average man. The 
representatives of the transportation companies 
are heartily co-operating with him, and the re¬ 
sult of this united action will be of great bene¬ 
fit to the average citizen. 
Forest and Stream especially rejoices in 
the movement. Its files back for thirty years 
show a steady fight for the protection of such 
parks as we had and for the establishment of 
new ones. Its fight against the first attempt to 
exploit the Yellowstone Park began in 1881 or 
thereabouts, and it exercised an important in¬ 
fluence in the setting apart of the Glacier Na¬ 
tional Park. 
These great pleasure grounds belong to the 
people. They should be preserved first of all, 
and then the way into them should be made so 
easy and so inexpensive that most people may 
visit them. 
THE COUNTY FAIR. 
With how much pleasure we anticipate the 
county fair. Young and old alike have come to 
regard the “day at the fair” as they do Christ¬ 
mas, New Y’ears and other after summer vaca¬ 
tion days indicated in red upon the calendar. 
In most towns schools close one day during the 
fair to allow the children to attend. Business 
men find a day open on which to take the family 
to the county seat where county fairs always are 
held. Months before the first day of the big 
event children are “making something” to ex¬ 
hibit or are getting their ponies, chickens, ducks 
or rabbits “groomed” for the blue ribbon. 
Housewives plan cakes, pies, breadstuffs or fancy 
work, while the head of the house looks over 
his garden truck or has the groom take his 
“black beauty” up and down for inspection, see¬ 
ing in his mind's eye a blue ribbon hanging from 
the bridle rosette. 
It seems to us county fairs have been of 
unusual interest this year—more instructive. We 
have noted the results of up-to-date, intensive 
farming, where aid is given to nature in proper 
application of chemicals, fertilizers, soil prepara¬ 
tion, spraying, cultivation and care of fruit trees 
—making the soil produce not only greater quan¬ 
tity, but higher quality. Farming has become a 
science; old-time methods no longer affording 
a livelihood to the farmer. Obsolete methods 
have been banished to the scrap heap, having 
been superseded by modern machinery and 
theory scientifically applied. The county fair has 
come to be an institution supported and fur¬ 
thered by both State and individual, and in its 
homely way is one of the greatest instructors of 
young and old. 
CONDITIONS IN SUMTER COUNTY, ALA. 
The increase in game and song birds has 
been marvelous in Sumter county, Ala. Condi¬ 
tions, before Alabama’s game law went into ef¬ 
fect, had become such that a man would have to 
cover miles and miles of territory to find enough 
quail for a mess. These birds were trapped, 
shot at out of season and killed in any manner 
whatsoever that negroes could think of. Now 
a fair shot can leave town after dinner and kill 
the limit prescribed by law before dark, and not 
ride a step. 
Doves were like hawks—seen frequently, but 
never close enough to get a shot at. Now 
in the fields where cat-tail millet grows wild, the 
finest sport in the world can be had shooting 
doves. 
There are still some deer in Sumter county, 
but owing to the continual cutting of timber it 
is believed that whatever increase there has been, 
has moved into Mississippi. 
Squirrels and wild turkey have increased 
wonderfully. For several years practically no¬ 
body cared to hunt either squirrels or turkeys, 
because they had become so scarce, but now it 
is a favorite pastime in season. 
Birds of all kinds are more plentiful than 
formerly. Sentiment has been so far developed 
in their favor that even boys no longer hunt 
their nests and destroy their young. People re¬ 
alize how beneficial they are in destroying in¬ 
sects. Now every man is a game warden, so to 
speak. Quite a number of private individuals 
have stocked their ponds with fish secured from 
the United States Government, but there has 
been no concerted effort toward stocking the 
streams. 
To the present game law system and Com¬ 
missioner Wallace is due entirely the credit for 
the increase of game, the increased manliness of 
the sportsmen and the knowledge that has been 
disseminated in regard to the benefits derived 
from birds. 
CRAWLING TO AID DIGESTION. 
It is becoming clear to us how it is that a 
snake can digest easily a rabbit, frog or bird 
that he has eaten at a gulp, while some of us 
suffer indescribable fullness from a dish of lob¬ 
ster salad or a rabbit of Welch extraction. His 
snakeship crawls on his belly, thereby eliminat¬ 
ing the “gastric pocket” observable in the human 
in an upright posture. Dr. Leon Meunier, a 
French food specialist, is responsible for the 
“crawl to digestion” theory. He says: 
“The stooping position eliminates the ‘gas¬ 
tric pocket,’ observable under the X-rays in the 
human being in an upright posture, and thus pre¬ 
vents the stagnation of food in this pocket. 
“Exercise of the abdominal muscles by walk¬ 
ing on all fours is also an excellent means of 
stimulating digestion.” 
Dr. Meunier has obtained highly satisfac¬ 
tory results from a test made with his treatment. 
On three consecutive days he made one of his 
patients have the same menu and made him 
walk upright after the first meal, rest in a hori¬ 
zontal position after the second, and crawl on 
all fours after the third. On each day it was 
found that digestion was most active after the 
third meal when the patient had indulged in a 
promenade on his hands and feet. 
We hope the good French doctor’s theory 
may be correct, but just make a mental picture, 
if you can, of Tremont, Market, Broad streets, 
Broadway or Michigan avenue each day after 
lunch if the theory were practiced in this coun¬ 
try. It wouldn’t be an elevating sight. 
Watertown, Mass. 
Forest and Stream Pub. Co., 
127 Franklin St., New York. 
Dear Sirs—I nclosed is check for $3.00, re¬ 
newal for my subscription to Forest and Stream. 
Congratulations on the birthday of Forest 
and Stream ; also its improved condition in 
every way. My only regret is that of my in¬ 
ability to contribute anything worthy of its pages 
after so many years of enjoyment I have re¬ 
ceived from it. R- T. Greene. 
