Forest and Stream 
Terms, $3 a Year, 10 Cts. a Copy. 
Six Months, $1.50. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JANUARY 2, 1909. 
I VOL. LXXII.—No. 1. 
1 No. 127 Franklin St., New York. 
A WEEKLY JOURNAL. 
Copyright, 1908, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
George Bird Grinnell, President, 
Charles B. Reynolds, Secretary. 
Louis Dean Speir^ Treasurer. 
127 Franklm Street, New York. 
THE OBJECT OF THIS JOURNAL 
will be to studiously promote a healthful interest 
in outdoor recreation, and to cultivate a refined 
taste for natural objects. 
—Forest and Stream, Aug. 14, 1873. 
NINETEEN HUNDRED AND NINE. 
The past year, more than others, has been 
marked by the general acceptance of the doctrine 
of outdoor recreation. It is no longer con¬ 
sidered folly to take a vacation, to hunt or fish. 
The busy man and woman now recognize the 
necessity of relaxation and rest. Men who, 
awhile ago, regarded the diminution in the supply 
of game and fish with consternation, because they 
would be compelled to cease hunting and fish¬ 
ing, are now content with other pleasures never 
considered in their younger days. That they 
take full measure of satisfaction from their rec¬ 
reation is everywhere evident. 
To those who are fond of the brown barrels, 
the rifle, the rod and the paddle, there are abund¬ 
ant opportunities to practice, experiment and 
compete in friendly rivalry involving knowledge 
and skill. All occupy the mind and the body, 
furnishing the relaxation busy persons need. 
As a nation we are coming to a fuller re¬ 
alization of the beauty and grandeur of the vast 
country round about us, and we are taking more 
pride in making it habitable than our axe-wield¬ 
ing forefathers. Conservation of our natural 
resources is not to be jeered at in the future. 
The time has come to cease destroying and as¬ 
sist nature to rebuild. 
The New Year will be a better one for the 
sportsman and the woodsloafer than those that 
are gone. But each must assist, for the benefits 
will be for all. 
THE BIOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
The general public is as yet quite ignorant 
of the great economic value of the work of the 
Biological Survey. This work is carried on 
steadily, quietly, with no flourish of trumpets; 
its results are published in Government docu¬ 
ments, which reach few readers. Little is said 
of them in the public prints, and unfortunately 
for the public—which so needs the information— 
these results are not advertised. Yet the dis¬ 
coveries made and the conclusions reached are 
of very high money value and tend to make the 
work of the farmer constantly easier and his 
profits larger. When the true purpose and 
meaning of this work shall be generally com¬ 
prehended its value will be recognized. 
The work of the Survey as originally planned 
by Dr. C. H. Merriam, its eminent chief, and 
subsequently laid down by Congress, deals with 
the relations of birds and mammals to agricul¬ 
ture, with the investigation into the geographic 
distribution of animals and plants in order to 
determine the life and crop belts of the country, 
and with the supervision of game preservation 
and protection, including the importation of for¬ 
eign birds and animals. Every farmer knows 
that certain birds and certain animals do injury 
to his crops. The Survey strives to learn how 
best to lessen these ravages. Every farmer 
knows that—in order to yield returns—a given 
crop requires a certain temperature and a cer¬ 
tain amount of moisture. The Survey by its 
study of life and crop belts tells what crops may 
be successfully grown in certain areas. Every 
sportsman understands the necessity for game 
protection and the high importance of keeping 
out of the country noxious species like the Eng¬ 
lish sparrow and the mongoose. This the Sur¬ 
vey has charge of. 
Here then are three important fields in which 
successful work is being done and with interest¬ 
ing results—above all to the so-called practical 
man, who cares nothing for science as science, 
but much for the dollar saved or earned. Ex¬ 
periments carried out as to the best means of 
destroying wolves and coyotes, which annually 
kill millions of dollars’ worth of horses, cattle 
and sheep on the Western ranges, have resulted 
in an estimated saving of $2,000,000 worth of 
live stock. An extraordinary increase of field 
mice in Lovelocks, Nevada, which destroyed 
alfalfa fields to the value of $250,000, was met 
and overcome by an assistant on the Survey. 
The destruction of property in large cities by 
house rats is estimated to be $20,000,000, and 
this takes no account of the damage in towns, 
villages and farms. Besides this the rat is the 
principal agent in spreading the plague, and so 
is an ever present danger to life as well as to 
property. The Survey is carrying on experi¬ 
ments, looking toward the wholesale reduction 
of these pests. Inquiry has been made as to 
the practicability of adding deer and foxes to 
the animals that may be profitably reared on the. 
farm. The study of the food of birds has con¬ 
tinued and it has been learned that birds destroy 
the boll weevil, insects injurious to California 
fruit, those destructive to the forests, and the 
disease-spreading mosquito. The work of game 
protection in the United States and Alaska has 
been looked after, and with good results, one 
of which was the capture of Wyoming elk 
poachers in Los Angeles. 
The most useful work of the Survey will go 
on and will constantly grow and become of 
greater value to the country. This work ought 
to be better understood and so more highly ap¬ 
preciated. Were its importance recognized, 
larger appropriations would be given it by Con¬ 
gress, its work might be extended, and in addi¬ 
tion to the great results now being attained, the 
coming of others still more important would 
be hastened. 
One of the newspapers in announcing the visit 
of William Jennings Bryan to Galveston, said 
it was his intention to spend a day on “Lake 
Surprise, the canvas duck preserve.’’ It is not 
likely, however, that Mr. Bryan wasted his am¬ 
munition on decoys, or that the preserve club 
now uses canvas ducks when the cedar imita¬ 
tion is made so life-like. This only shows the 
shortcomings and the subtle intricacies of the 
English language. There is a vast difference 
between a “canvas duck’’ and a canvasback duck, 
although the average newspaper reader may or 
may not notice this. But one who has stalked 
a group of decoys, to find the owner in his path, 
alert but mirthful, never fails to distinguish the 
difference in the meaning of the two terms. 
There was a time when settling with the owner 
of a dozen mutilated canvas decoy ducks was an 
occasional incident of the day’s hunt, but few if 
any sportsmen of to-day run that risk, as cedar 
decoys that fly have not as yet been invented, 
and potting ducks on the water is not a part of 
the day’s sport. 
•e 
Gifford Pinchot, Chief of the Forest Service, 
has gone to Ottawa, as the personal representa¬ 
tive of the President, to invite the Governor- 
General of Canada to send representatives to 
attend the North American conference on the 
conservation of natural resources, to be held in 
Washington on Feb. 18 next. After conferring 
with Earl Grey, Mr. Pinchot will journey to 
Mexico City, where he will deliver a similar 
invitation to President Diaz. The need for con¬ 
certed action on the part of the three North 
American nations has long been evident, and it 
is anticipated that Canada and Mexico will send 
to Washington a number of their most influential 
citizens. These will meet with delegates from 
the various States and members of the National 
Conservation Commission. 
•c 
The newspapers which have had so much to 
say concerning the President’s African trip limped 
painfully through a description of the rifles 
ordered for his use. Among other things it was 
stated that the .45-70 rifle he is to take has an 
“effective range of fifty yards!’’ Rifles of this 
caliber have often been used effectively at fifty 
yards, and there are a few veteran big-game 
hunters left who willingly hazard a shot now 
and then at even longer distances with their 
trusty old .45-70’s, which played no small part 
in history-making in America. 
