872 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Dec. 16, 1911. 
coming season. One great mistake is to shoot 
through the center of the covey. This only 
means that you cripple more than you kill clean, 
and these cripples go off and die and no one 
gets the benefit of the shooting. We believe the 
sooner the sale of game—quail especially—is 
stopped, the more quail we are going to have. 
Leased lands by clubs have been a great saver 
in North Carolina. At the present time the quail 
are not half so plentiful on lands not leased, as 
the market hunter, owing to high prices paid in 
restaurants over the State, are making a busi¬ 
ness of killing every quail they can regardless 
of where they find them. We believe the time 
is not far off when the sale of game in North 
Carolina will ,be stopped entirely, as the farmers 
see they get no protection from the market 
hunter; all he does is to clean up the birds. 
Quail have been the means of bringing a lot 
of Northern sportsmen to the State who have 
left lots of money that would not have come 
otherwise. Geo. Gould, Clarence Mackey, 0 . W. 
Bright, Pierre Lorillard, Harry Page and a 
number of other wealthy sportsmen have large 
holdings in North Carolina, all of which goes 
to show that the quail is a great advertiser and 
will bring wealth and good sportsmen to any 
section where he is found. 
Pay more attention to the work of your high 
class setters and pointers and less to the bag 
and we will not have to import birds at large 
expense to take his place. No one will say 
there is a bird which can take bobwhite’s place 
as a game bird. G. Dan Morgan. 
The Late W. Clark Russell. 
London, England, Nov. 30.— Editor Forest and 
St> earn: As a very old friend and executor of 
the late W. Clark Russell, I hope you will allow 
me to refer to your statement: ‘•His lack of 
accuracy in details largely technical was at times 
harshly criticised by seamen.” 
W. Clark Russell in his delightful stories of 
the sea drew his inspiration direct from nature 
and from his own experience of nearly eight 
years as a sailor in our merchant service. I 
have seen many hundreds of press cricitisms of 
his works and I cannot remember even one in 
which the technical details were harshly criti¬ 
cised. On the other hand, praise of his accu¬ 
racy was universal. What he loved to receive 
and often did receive was testimony from sailors 
as to the truth and charm of his works, and I 
remember well his telling me he got such letters 
from sea captains in your and our merchant 
fleets. 
More than once I tried to get Russell to write 
a sea story bringing the British and American 
war navies into it as a change from the mer¬ 
chant service. His reply was: “My dear 
Marston—I understand the merchant ship and 
service; I do not know life in the Royal Navy 
from experience, and my desire has always been 
to write only about what I know.” 
Forest and Stream goes into so many thou¬ 
sands of hands and homes in America and Can¬ 
ada that I felt I must send you this note. Of 
course in such a great series of sea novels as 
Russell gave us, it would be wonderful indeed 
if there were no errors, but my contention is 
that no man who wrote so much was so free 
from error; in fact, it would really be interest¬ 
ing to have particulars of his descriptions which 
were harshly criticised. R. B. Marston. 
Woodcock. 
Halifax, N. S., Dec. 1. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: How soon will it be before this, our 
best game bird, will be a rara avis? From my 
own experience this autumn and from the re¬ 
ports of all those hunting this bird, I venture 
to make the following statement: 
If the number of these birds is diminished 
each year following in the same proportion as 
they were between 1910 and this year, it would 
only take, say, three years before they became 
extinct. 
This may not be pleasant reading for a good 
many to the southward of us, and I sincerely 
trust they will find I am very far out in my 
estimates, but let me say this: I almost think, 
and numbers of sportsmen have boldly stated, 
there were not 50 per cent, of the number of 
birds this year compared with even last year. 
Last spring, after the arrival of the woodcock, 
we had very severe frosts and considerable 
snow, and on the whole a poor nesting season. 
Hundreds of dead birds were found being killed 
by the severe weather. It is to be hoped this 
was the cause of the reduced numbers, as a few 
mild and dry springs might recuperate the num¬ 
ber. 
As it is generally understood and believed the 
telephone and telegraph wires kill more birds 
than the guns, it is a wonder there are any 
left at all. The domestic cat must be mentioned 
in this list of slayers, and it is just a question 
if they should not be mentioned first, as they 
recognize no close season and the birds in this 
country frequent the cultivated districts. 
1 he game law in this Province governing the 
shooting of these birds is on the whole good, 
the unfortunate part being the almost impossi¬ 
bility of making separate laws for different por¬ 
tions of it, for instance during the latter part 
of October the birds go south and stop to feed 
and rest at the jumping off point—Yarmouth 
county, where they naturally congregate in large 
numbers, and with all the leaves off the trees 
make magnificent shooting not only for the local 
sportsmen, but many others from other parts of 
the Province. 
1 he saving of these birds for the future is 
certainly of the greatest importance to us in the 
lower Provinces of Canada, and it seems to me 
that it would be very easy and very beneficial 
if a meeting could be arranged between recog¬ 
nized representatives of each country to discuss 
the matter, and if necessary to advise the dif¬ 
ferent powers to make a close season for a term 
of years. J. w. Willis. 
Rabbits Cost More Now. 
Raleigh, N. C., Dec. 11. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: Siler City, not far from Raleigh, is the 
rabbit market of America. There the Chamber 
of Commerce makes a specialty of keeping up 
with the rabbit and quail movement. The ship¬ 
ments for the week ended on Dec. 2 were 7,234 
rabbits, and 1,212 partridges. Last season the 
shipments of rabbits totaled 26,000, but this year 
will go very far ahead of that figure. Rabbits 
are skinned, half salted and shipped in boxes 
or barrels, or with the skins on, a good many 
dealers preferring them the latter way, saying 
they keep better. Rabbits range in price from 
ten to twelve and a half cents each, partridges 
bringing from twelve and a half to fifteen cents. 
Here in Raleigh they sell for seventeen and a 
half cents. A few years ago ten cents was re¬ 
garded as a good price for them. 
I have been in a number of counties during 
November and December and found game more 
abundant than in perhaps ten years past. This 
seems to be a prolific year for game. Quail are 
in very fine condition, the birds well grown and 
the shooting attractive. It is very good around 
Smithfield, Johnston county, and along the Sea¬ 
board Air Line Railway from Raleigh to Hamlet. 
Fred. A. Olds. 
A Few Practical Hints. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
May I be permitted to suggest to those of 
your readers who may be contemplating the 
planting of wild celery roots, that I have found 
little rivet tongs, with quite long handles, of 
great help in planting this valuable duck food? 
Last spring I had two men stationed in the 
forward end of a light boat, with another man 
in the stern to paddle, and these men, with the 
use of such long-handled tongs, planted about 
all my fresh-water lakes and ponds which had 
not previously been well planted with the celery. 
With the tongs they could readily push the 
root into the soft, muddy bottom and deposit 
it in from four to five feet or more of water, 
where it could not well have been planted by 
wading. By putting up stakes for guides, as a 
farmer usually does in sowing grain, the paddler 
was able to course back and forth across the 
lake, or pond, and thus the planting of the 
bottom was thoroughly done. 
This planting has been abundantly productive, 
so that there are now many thousands of tons 
of these valuable plants. Heretofore we had 
planted only in the shoaler waters, along the 
margins of the lakes and ponds by wading, and 
while the plants would have extended to the 
deeper waters to some extent, sooner or later, 
we expedited this spread of the growth greatly. 
I have also been very successful in propagat¬ 
ing the many pond weeds esteemed as duck 
foods; among which I consider, by far, the best 
species to be the sago pond weed or Potamo- 
geton pectinatus, sometimes called “foxtail 
grass.” This is the only species of pond-weed, 
among quite a number, growing in the lakes 
and ponds of St. Vincent Island which pro¬ 
duces on its roots the luscious bulbs of which 
the diving ducks are so fond. As it produces 
also a great amount of seed on its tops which 
lie on, or close to, the surface of the water, it 
will be seen that it has a two-fold value as a 
food for ducks. 
While I have been told that the Potamogeton 
perfoliatum or redhead grass also produces a 
luscious bulb upon its roots, I have not as yet 
found it growing here in Florida, although it 
grows here to some extent. Of two other 
species—the P. pusillus and the P. lucens —the 
former growing abundantly and the latter some¬ 
what sparingly, I am quite sure that neither of 
them produce any bulbs on their roots in this 
locality. 
While much is said concerning the time or 
season of the year when pond-weed seed should 
be planted, and what the temperature of the 
water should be at the time of sowing it, I have 
never thought it mattered much when I planted 
it or what the temperature of the water might 
