844 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Dec. 9, 1911. 
Published Weekly by the 
Forest and Stream Publishing Company, 
127 Franklin Street, New York. 
Edward C. Locke, President, 
Charles B. Reynolds, Secretary, 
S. J. Gibson, Treasurer. 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
The Forest and Stream is the recognized medium of 
entertainment, instruction and information between Amer¬ 
ican sportsmen. The editors invite communications on 
the subjects to which its pages are devoted. Anonymous 
communications will not be regarded. The editors are 
not responsible for the views of correspondents. 
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ADVERTISEMENTS. 
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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. 
HANDS OFF THE ADIRONDACKS. 
Gifford Pinchot's report on the Adirondacks 
will be read with disappointment by the sports¬ 
men of New York State. Scientific forestry is 
admirable, in a way, and some of its principles 
may well be applied to any forest, but the main 
question is, Do the people of the State want 
the Adirondacks to remain as they are, or do 
they want to make of this great and beautiful 
tract a Central Park on a large scale, with auto¬ 
mobile roads and flower beds and tame deer; 
with power dams and flooded valleys, and sum¬ 
mer cottages surrounding every lake? 
Governor Dix has said a great deal about the 
Adirondacks and of the State’s great opportuni¬ 
ties to reap profit from the “conservation of its 
natural resources,’’ as if the people look upon 
the preserve they have acquired at great cost as 
a commercial institution and not as a place for 
recreation. In a certain sense Mr. Pinchot en¬ 
dorses the Governor’s policy, and many of the 
statements he makes cannot be controverted, but 
we believe the history of the fight that has been 
waged over Section 7 of Article 7 of the State 
constitution offers sufficient encouragement for 
the conviction that the peop’e will bitterly oppose 
any and all efforts to place the Adirondack Park 
on a commercial basis, and leave its manage¬ 
ment in the hands of a small group of men, 
changing from time to time as elections come 
and go. 
Automobile roads are, as suggested, splendid 
fire breaks, but they are not the only alterna¬ 
tive. Curb the lumbermen in their reckless prac¬ 
tices and the danger of fires will diminish. Too 
much heed is given to the demands of the tree 
cutters, and too little to the known wishes of 
the people, who want the preserve to remain as 
wild as possible. If one change more than an¬ 
other be needed, it is. a prohibition of all per¬ 
manent structures on State land. This would 
place rich and poor on a fairly equal footing, 
so that all may camp where and when they see 
fit. The old rule of campsite selection—the first 
comer to have first choice-—is the only fair one 
in a State park. 
The people, and the sportsmen especially, have 
frequently raised the cry, “Hands off the Adi¬ 
rondacks.’’ They are content to leave well 
enough alone rather than to experiment with 
new schemes evolved by legislators of the 
future. It is easier to keep vandals out of a 
preserve than to regulate their activities, once 
they are let in. There are abundant water power 
sites outside the blue line, and any plan to enter 
that area for business purposes should be re¬ 
garded with distrust. Finally, the State can af¬ 
ford to keep the great park in its natural state 
for the people, let the cost be what it may. It 
is not a luxury. 
THE GOOSE SHAMBLES. 
In another column is printed a letter from 
Charles C. Clapp, who does not hesitate to ex¬ 
press his candid opinion of the practices of cer¬ 
tain Eastern Massachusetts gunners during the 
recent heavy flight of wildfowl. And he does 
not say half that should be said of the whole¬ 
sale shooting of geese on the water with big- 
bore guns. 
For fifteen or twenty years we have commented, 
from time to time, on the practices of these flock 
shooters, and have printed protests from sports¬ 
men that were couched in vigorous English, as 
such protests should be, but still the unsports¬ 
manlike slaughter is carried on by a few men 
to whom the word moderation means nothing. 
The infinite care with which these wholesalers 
prepare their shambles is worthy of a better 
cause. In some places the goose traps—for they 
are nothing else—are extensive in area, every de¬ 
vice that human ingenuity can suggest is em¬ 
ployed to conceal the presence and movements 
of the gunners and helpers, the guns are of 
large bore, intended for flock -shooting, and the 
men who fire them are merely parts of the 
machine, for skill or sport does not enter into 
the shooting at all. 
What is the Massachusetts Fish and Game 
Protective Association doing toward discourag¬ 
ing practices of this sort? It has a long list 
of members with records of achievements on the 
field of battle, in the Congressional and Legisla¬ 
tive halls, and at many banquet tables. Their 
names and influence should bear weight in the 
efforts which should be made without waste of 
time to put wildfowl shooting on a sporting 
basis, and keep it there. 
Cannot the Massachusetts Gunners’ Associa¬ 
tion take some action calculated to stop this 
shameful practice, which is on a par with the 
punt shooting practiced a’ong the British coast 
and in parts of Europe? This organization has 
• shown its strength in other directions before the 
Legislature, and we are confident that it can 
bring about the reforms that are needed. 
When the proposition to place migratory wild¬ 
fowl under Federal protection comes up in Con¬ 
gress, it is likely that there will be opposition 
to it in Massachusetts: But that State is fur¬ 
nishing a splendid argument in favor of the pro¬ 
posed change, for it is not protecting wildfowl 
when, under its laws, men are permitted to wipe 
out whole flocks of geese, and to call this sport. 
APPALACHIAN FOREST WORK. 
The act of March 1, 1911, known as the Weeks 
Act, made available for examining and purchas¬ 
ing forest lands in the White Mountains and 
Southern Appalachians before the close of the 
fiscal year 1911 the sum of $2,000,000. By the 
provisions of this act, Secretary Wilson, of the 
Department of Agriculture, was authorized and 
directed to examine, locate and recommend for 
purchase lands in his judgment necessary to the 
regulation of navigable streams. Approval of 
all purchases was vested in a commission of 
seven, created by the act, but purchases were to 
be made only after field examinations by the 
Geological Survey had established that control 
of the lands would promote or protect the 
navigation of streams. It was provided that the 
secretary should serve upon the commission, and 
should purchase, in the name of the United 
States, lands which the commission had passed 
upon favorably. 
Immediately upon the passage of the act Mr. 
Wilson instructed the forester to organize and 
press forward the work of land examination. 
Field information previously gathered made it 
possible to select at once a number of specific 
areas within which the purchase of lands was 
desirable. Proposals for the sale of lands with¬ 
in these areas were invited on March 27. At 
the close of the fiscal year, on June 30, pro¬ 
posals covering over 1,250,000 acres had been 
received, over 170,000 acres had been examined, 
and the purchase of 31,377 acres had been au¬ 
thorized. The fiscal year 1912 opened with 
thirty-five examiners at work, and with every 
indication that during the year land enough will 
have been covered to afford a basis for recom¬ 
mendations of purchase up to the limit of the 
$2,000000 appropriation made available by the 
law. 
I he attention of the game authorities of the 
Province of Ontario is called to the statements 
made in another column by our old and respected 
correspondent, “Dixmont,” regarding the killing 
of cow moose by the Indians. “Dixmont’s” 
party, hunting in the Temagami district, saw 
twenty-three moose in October. Of these only 
seven were bul’s, which is not remarkable under 
normal conditions; but our correspondent con¬ 
siders this a strange proportion of cows and 
bulls “in a country where the Indians are kill¬ 
ing the cows at all seasons of the year.” Moose 
cow meat is tender, and the hide of the right 
thickness for moccasins. But these are not good 
reasons for permitting the Indians to continue 
in this practice. 
Stephen T. Buckman, a Brooklyn sportsman, 
died from heart failure while hunting near 
Cold Spring, N. Y., recently. He was missed 
by his companions, who started out to search 
for him at nightfall, and they found his body 
along the roadside. 
