Aug. 12. ign.l 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
257 
A Popular Choice. 
Of the new Commissioner of Fish and Game 
of Massachusetts the Springfield Republican 
says: 
George H. Graham takes the place on the fish 
and game commission of John W. Delano, of 
Marion, whose term expired long ago, but who 
has held the office awaiting the efforts of the 
Legislature to substitute a single-headed com¬ 
mission for the present triple body. But that 
effort failed and now the Governor replaces 
Delano, who is a Republican, by Graham, Inde¬ 
pendent. 
He is said to have done his first fishing in 
Vermont before he was able to walk, as his 
father, Almon E. Graham, was and is still an 
inveterate fisherman than whom no one is better 
known in the north country. Since then George 
H. Graham has fished at every opportunity when 
his business cares would allow. 
He was born in Brooklyn, N. Y., in 1865, but 
his parents moved to Springfield, Vt., when he 
was still an infant and he remained there until 
he was nineteen years old, attending the public 
schools and learning the tailoring business. He 
came to Springfield in 1886 and had charge of 
the merchant tailoring department of Haynes 
& Co. for ten years. In 1895 he started in busi¬ 
ness for himself as Graham & Brown. Later 
the firm was Graham & Law, and in 1904 the 
business was incorporated under the firm name 
of the Graham Company. He has always been 
a loyal son of Vermont and was one of those 
mainly instrumental in organizing the local so¬ 
ciety of the Sons and Daughters of Vermont. 
He was secretary of the organization for five 
years at a time when the membership was close 
to 600 members. 
Mr. Graham feels that much more positive re¬ 
sults can be attained by the State fisheries and 
game commission than have materialized in the 
past, and expresses every confidence in Dr. Field, 
the chairman of the commission. He says that 
what the people want, however, is more fish and 
game and less theory. He believes firmly in the 
advisability of the game farms which have been 
projected. He said that the State hatchery at 
Sutton, which is the only State hatchery in Mass¬ 
achusetts able to grow fingerling trout, is pro¬ 
ducing about 65,000 a year, while the State needs 
I, 000,000 annually. He says that as a matter of 
fact any farmer with running water through his 
land can raise trout at slight expense. He says 
that he thinks pheasants can be grown in suf¬ 
ficient quantities to stock the covers and make 
good shooting. The Springfield association, of 
which he has been secretary during its most ac¬ 
tive period, has succeeded in getting thousands 
of fish fry for neighboring waters, and has 
stocked places in Westfield and Becket. It has 
induced Congressman Gillett to introduce a bill 
in Congress to provide a $25,000 federal hatchery 
in this vicinity. 
Mr. Graham was the guest of honor at a din¬ 
ner held in Springfield the night of Aug. 2 by 
the Springfield Fish and Game Association. In¬ 
tense enthusiasm prevailed from the moment 
when the new commissioner was brought in on 
the shoulders of his friends to the late hour 
when the 250 diners rose to return to their 
homes. 
Mayor Lathrop, president of the association, 
presided. He said Mr. Graham’s appointment, 
the first of its kind for Western Massachusetts 
in twenty years, was largely due to the efforts 
put forth by members of the association. 
Among the speakers were Samuel D. Sher¬ 
wood, Ralph Earnshaw, of Burma; William C. 
Adams, of Boston, Secretary of the Massachu¬ 
setts Gunners’ Association; George W. Field, 
Chairman of the State Fish and Game Com¬ 
mission ; Senator Malley, Charles W. Bosworth, 
Ernst Howard, Clinton W. Gowdy and Mr. 
Graham. In a rising vote Governor Foss was 
thanked for the appointment of George H. 
Graham. 
Quail Abundant. 
Raleigh, N. C., Aug. 1 .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: Since spring I have been in about half 
the counties in the State and find the crop of 
partridges almost a record breaker for recent 
years. There are double broods this year and 
farmers say there are three times as many birds 
as there were last year. It is the dryest sum¬ 
mer on record in this State. The weather or 
something else has brought about great gentle¬ 
ness of birds. Robins are found everywhere in 
the up-country and are plentiful around Raleigh. 
Usually they do not remain here during the 
summer. They are extremely gentle. Hawks 
are troublesome and some are taken in pole 
traps. 
At Beaufort, a quaint old town on the sea 
coast, I found a marked absence of gulls, which 
used to be so very numerous in those waters. 
A few curlews, willets and beach snipe were 
seen. Along the coast the weather has been ex¬ 
ceptionally dry, streams in many cases have 
ceased to flow, lakes have shrunk, while in 
streams usually entirely fresh the water is very 
salt and black bass in these have retreated to 
the head springs. A man caught forty of these 
in a small piece of water, the fish biting greed¬ 
ily. In June two men fished for bass in one of 
the streams thus affected by the dry weather 
and caught 258 pounds. One fish, he stated, 
weighed ten and one-half pounds. The dry 
weather has caused some queer minglings of 
salt and fresh water fish. 
1 made a trip through the canal near Beau¬ 
fort, finished last winter, which is an important 
link in the inland waterway. The water is nor¬ 
mally salt at the south end and fresh at the 
north end, but at high water in the south end 
the level is about a foot and a half above nor¬ 
mal at the north end, and the flow is toward 
the northward, but when the tide is low the 
fresh water or north end is a foot and a half 
higher, so that there is a rush of water one way 
or another, and both sorts of fish are found in 
that stretch. The sand pumped by the dredges 
from the canal to the banks is a mass of shells, 
and fragments of bones of mastodons are seen 
here and there. The flow of salt water from 
the sand thus pumped out has killed the once 
splendid forest on each side of the canal and 
there is eight miles of dead timber, some of 
the trees being ten feet in diameter. Swamps 
are dry in that region which were never known 
to be in that condition before, and alligators 
and snakes have migrated to waterholes. 
Black bears, which some people in eastern 
North Carolina call the hog bear, are numerous, 
and last week near Beaufort one did a queer 
thing. Two men and five dogs were going 
through the woods when the dogs jumped a bear. 
The men had guns, but only No. 8 shot. The 
bear instead of making off, rushed at the men 
and dogs. They shot at him and that made him 
angrier, and there was a combat which lasted 
two hours, but finally they killed him. As they 
were going along through the woods, carrying 
the skin and meat, they came upon another bear 
in the act of mounting a rail fence, but he did not 
show fight and the first shot luckily finished him. 
Beaufort is noted for its great sport in the 
way of Spanish mackerel and bluefish, fishermen 
using rather large hooks and a white bone squid, 
and going out in the flat-bottomed boats and 
sharpies. Both these fish are taken, however, 
with hand lines under the drawbridges of the 
railway at Beaufort, where there are deep water 
and strong tides, and they are also taken from 
the doorways of the railway freight station. In 
the main they are caught between the bar and 
Cape Lookout, about ten miles distant, where 
there is one of the finest fishing grounds on the 
Atlantic coast, where the fish of northern and 
southern waters are found together. In the 
hook of Cape Lookout is a bay, on one side of 
which the bank of sand and shingle slopes very 
sharply so that the water is deep close to the 
shore, and this is a resort for fish of many 
kinds. Fred A. Olds. 
Colorado Kennel Club Show. 
Denver, Colo., Aug. 4. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: The Colorado Kennel Club will hold 
its seventh annual bench show Sept. 27, 28, 29 
and 30. As we are in the circuit with San 
Antonio and Dallas, Texas, also the Kansas City 
show following the week after, it insures a very 
large entry. 
Our last show was a four point show, and we 
have every reason to believe that this one will 
be equally as large, and we are working hard to 
make it a five point show. Denver is the only 
place west of Chicago, excepting San Francisco, 
that has ever had a four point show. This alone 
is sufficient to insure a very heavy entry. 
The officers of the club are as follows: Presi¬ 
dent, Archie S. Austin; Vice-President, H. 
Moulton Smith; Secretary - Treasurer, F. R. 
Dutton; Chairman Bench Show Committee, T. 
F. Walsh; Superintendent and General Manager, 
Geo. A. Cramfield, of Oakland, Cal.; Veteri¬ 
narian, Dr. M. J. Dunleavy. 
We have not decided definitely regarding the 
judges, but I will advise you within a few days 
and give the judges’ list. F. R. Dutton, Sec’y. 
Biltmore Notes. 
Cadillac, Mich., Aug. 1 .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: We studied the operations of lumber¬ 
men at Sunburst, in the mountains of North 
Carolina near our camp. Leaving for our 
Michigan camp on July 12, and passing through 
Ohio, we had an excellent chance to follow up 
the fiber products of Western North Carolina 
through the paper mills at Hamilton. 
Our camp is situated in Colfax township ten 
miles from Cadillac. On Aug. 5 the school will 
leave for the West, stopping en route at Duluth, 
then at the Minnesota National Forest, next at 
the Glacier National Park and arriving at Port¬ 
land on Aug. 10. From Aug. 15 on for a num¬ 
ber of weeks we will be at Marshfield, Ore. 
F. L. Haynes, Class President. 
