FOREST AND STREAM 
51 
are as fat now as they will be in the fall or 
when the hunting season begins. 
“I saw three about a week ago on my meadow. 
I took a picture of them and if it turns out right 
I shall send Forest and Stream one. 
“I did not have time for bird shooting, as I 
was very busy in the store. I have only been 
fishing once. I was at Lake Pharaoh and caught 
Live 
thirty speckled trout that weighed 25 lbs. That is 
a pretty fair catch for one 'day, don’t you think? 
They were those red-meated fellows that we al¬ 
ways get up there. I trolled with a bunch of 
worms on a leader, and caught some few with 
minnows trolling.” 
This, Mr. Editor, lets you into a little knowl¬ 
edge about a locality once famous for deer and 
now again becoming so fine a still hunting sec¬ 
tion that local hunters no longer have to “go 
away out to the Boreas country” for deer, as they 
formerly were compelled to do, owing to exces¬ 
sive hounding at Paradox which drove the deer 
away, although this latter region is almost within 
sound of the iron horses on the D. & H. railroad 
at Ticonderoga. PETER FLINT. 
Notes From The Field 
Being Weekly Reports From Our Local Correspondents 
THE GREAT CATERPILLAR YEAR. 
By John Preston True. 
Probably it was in the early 70s; memory fails 
to set the exact date. But in that year in western 
Maine the forest caterpillar came out of the 
woods in myriads and attacked our orchards. 
Evidently in some way their parasites had failed 
to keep the balance between them, and like jumbo 
tent-caterpillars they lay in masses on the fence 
rails, the trunks and limbs of the trees; and one 
lot of them stopped a freight train on the heavy 
up-grade, near West Paris, making the rails so 
greasy that the locomotive wheels simply spun 
round vainly and refused to grip. 
That was a bad year for orchards. Many own¬ 
ers gave up in despair, and it was years before 
they had a normal yield of apples again. But 
we saved ours. 
Ordinary methods were hopeless. We had no 
sprayers, if indeed they were invented then. 
Modern poisons were unthought of. The kero¬ 
sene torch was the specific, and blackened and 
scorched it left the limb till perhaps it was a 
question whether torch or caterpillar did the 
greater damage. By great, good luck, early in the 
game, I hit upon a plan. 
Very early the next morning, by sunrise, in 
fact, when the ‘pillars still were in masses for 
warmth against the chill of the mountain night, 
I was out on the warpath, armed with a flask of 
powder, a box of “G. D.” caps, and a $3.00 muzzle¬ 
loading shotgun, the pride of my young heart. 
Pouring into its barrel a charge of powder, and 
capping, I leveled it at a mass of caterpillars 
some two or three feet distant and blazed away. 
Instantly the grass was sprayed beyond with a 
shower of shattered insects, while the tree limb 
was unharmed. The plan worked ! Right through 
our orchard I went systematically, from row to 
row, clearing their limbs with the besom of de¬ 
struction; and, if in my path I found a “tent” 
colony out on some lofty limb, I climbed up as 
near it as safety allowed and sent the contents 
bodily to join their bulkier cousins. 
Some few out of the many were survivors of 
the blast, and by the next morning had regained 
and massed on the trees again; but I also was 
cut betimes and began the war anew. Those 
left were not worth considering, after that. A 
fresh army came from the woods, of course, but 
the moment they gained foothold a 12-year-old 
was on the watch for them, and never did they 
succeed in doing noticeable damage, in that or 
in any subsequent year; neither they nor their 
cousins, the tent caterpillar. And the trees them¬ 
selves were unscorched withal. 
Altogether I probably expended in that season 
a pound and a half of powder and two boxes of 
caps. A dollar bill would have covered the cost. 
That year we had apples. Our neighbors didn’t. 
I commend the plan to you, friends, who have 
pet trees but no sprayers, nor time to lay in such 
supplies. Rare is the farm boy who can’t at 
least borrow a gun. 
N. B.—Don’t use wadding. 
NEW HAMPSHIRE NEWS. 
Concord, N. H., June 4, 1914. 
Editor Forest and Stream' 
New Hampshire air is vibrant with promise of 
a record fish and game season. From lakes, 
ponds and brooks, in all sections of the state, 
come authentic reports of unprecedented large 
trout and salmon catches, one fisherman having 
secured five large white trout at Sunapee, the 
quest for which affords a new species of gentle 
excitement for sportsmen. The salmon yield con¬ 
tinues increasingly good, furnishing adequate 
grounds for a belief that the 1914 season will 
outstrip all others of the past. The attendance of 
anglers, professional and otherwise, is larger than 
ever and it may not be an idle boast of Granite 
State residents’ that the waters of their common¬ 
wealth will, in the not far away future, dispute 
titles of popularity with the neighboring state of 
'Maine. 
Game birds have withstood the rigorous spring 
weather conditions and are now in sufficient evi¬ 
dence to warrant the freely vouchsafed prediction 
of fine fall shooting. 
The legal protection thrown over gray squir¬ 
rels and deer has had the effect to increase both 
species somewhat extraordinarily. Seven different 
families of squirrels have pre-empted homes in the 
small state house park at Concord, and in other 
localities they have as numerously domesticated 
themselves and all are nearly as tame and socia¬ 
ble as house cats. This condition in Concord is 
the story of most of the cities and towns of the 
state. Farmers complain of the depredations of 
both squirrels and deer; but these tales of suffer¬ 
ing have failed so far to prevail against the senti¬ 
mental friendship manifested by the lawmakers, 
when the latter have been called to sit in judg¬ 
ment on the question of protecting or extermi¬ 
nation. 
The statues which protect deer have worked 
out admirably with a result that the country is 
stocked as never before with the timid animals, 
which annually lure scores of sportsmen 
from “all over” to the state’s woodlands. 
For their own safety the deer are getting 
too free and fearless in their search for 
food and an inspiration of irresistible curios¬ 
ity to learn what of interest lies within hu¬ 
man habitation limits. Hardly a city or large 
town has been without the favor of deer visits, 
when the animals have repeatedly traveled 
through the main streets, regardless of noisy 
traffic or other activities. 
A large doe met death recently by being im¬ 
paled on a fence in the business part of Concord 
and early this week a doe and fawn vaulted a 
fence and entered upon the lawn of the residence 
of Mr. Henry W. Stevens, where they fed leisure¬ 
ly and unafraid. The locality is in the fashion¬ 
able residential district, a quarter of a mile from 
the state capital. 
The protection laws are generally respected, but 
some sportsman is occasionally found who is un¬ 
able to resist an impulse to kill deer, either in or 
out of season. Rather a striking instance of this 
punctuated the experience this week of Peter 
Smith, of the state fish and game commission, 
whose duties call him into all parts of the state. 
This very efficient and faithful official caused the 
arrest of a man named Cloutman, in Alexandria, 
for violation of the law. The arrest, conviction 
and payment of a fine of $108.28 was accom¬ 
plished in the space of two hours. On the day 
following, Cloutman was again arrested and fined 
for a like offense. 
Mr. Smith reports that never before have deer 
been so abundant. “The woods,” he declared, 
“are literally full of the young animals,” and the 
logical conclusion is forced that when there are so 
many young there must be older ones. 
By rousing public interest in the care of birds 
in Meriden, N. H., a village of 150 population, 
Ernest Harold Baynes thinks that he has begun 
a movement that will spread through the country, 
with the natural result of wise protective legisla¬ 
tion which the people will gladly obey. This 
small beginning has led already to the formation 
of bird clubs in six other New Hampshire towns, 
six in Massachusetts, one in Montpelier, Vt., and 
one in Glens Falls, N. Y., all of which have 
proved successful. 
Mr. Baynes says that in order to induce the 
birds to consider Meriden home and rear their 
young there, the people have built houses for 
them of flour barrels and other things. Martins, 
not previously seen in Meriden for twenty-five 
years, made a call and tore out the nests of tree 
swallows, but did not remain. Humming birds, 
which usually went with the lilacs, were per¬ 
suaded to stay through last summer by the 
