Jan. i6, 1909.] 
FOREST AND STREAM 
97 
where as by magic, the timber growth on forest 
land was destroyed in spite of the most strenu¬ 
ous efforts to protect it, and millions of dollars 
of woodland property was devastated. Hardly 
a State or county in any State escaped without 
some loss. In the Catskill and Adirondack re¬ 
gions more than $600,000 worth of damage was 
done, with a large resulting injury to reforesta¬ 
tion that cannot be well figured. An expendi¬ 
ture of more than $138,000 in fighting fires was 
entailed. The State and private property will 
not recover from the loss in tree growth in fifty 
years. 
“The following comparative statement of 
forest fires during 1908 with those of 1903, when 
the forest fire loss reached its maximum, is in¬ 
teresting and instructive. The results attest the 
efficiency of this department 
administration. 
under its 
present 
Number of fires . 
1903 . 
. 377 
1908 . 
700 
Acres of timberland burned. 
Acres of wasteland burned. 
. 312,590 
. 187,928 
, 30,400 
147,000 
500,518 
177,400 
Fire loss: 
Standing timber . 
Pulpwood and logs. 
Buildings .... 
.$ 695,282 
. 153,391 
. 34,443 
$ 497,046 
136,920 
10,020 
$ 883,116 
$ 643,986 
Cost of fighting fires. 
.$ 153,000 
$ 138,000 
“An important factor was that for the first 
time we had established a thorough patrol on 
the railroads, whereby over 500 incipient fires 
were extinguished before serious damage was 
done. These fires are not included in the above 
tabulation. But, as already said, there were 
eighty-three fires along railroad lines which re¬ 
sulted seriously. There seems to be no good 
reason for the provision of law, that requires 
the State to pay one-half of the cost of patrol¬ 
ling railroads. The condition is created by rail¬ 
road companies and should be cared for by rail¬ 
road companies. In order to get them patrolled, 
the State should have the right to put them on 
as necessity requires, and the railroad companies 
to pay for the work necessary to protect the 
forests from fire from this cause. 
“If the fuel question was eliminated the prob¬ 
lem would be much simplified. As in Vermont 
a law should be enacted giving the Governor 
authority to suspend the hunting season in time 
of drouth, prohibiting hunters and campers from 
going into the forests. Ninety-five fires were 
set by hunters, twenty-seven by campers, eigh¬ 
teen by fishermen; 140 in all from these causes. 
All of this danger should be controllable, and 
severe penalties imposed on those who care¬ 
lessly or negligently set or cause fires to start. 
In fact, every instrumentality should be given 
and applied to prevent forest fires. 
“The rapidly increasing business of the de¬ 
partment will require a larger office force, more 
foresters, and larger appropriations with which 
to hire power boats. It seems to the depart¬ 
ment that the time has come when the State, 
with the department’s greatly increased revenue, 
can well afford to establish a modern game bird 
farm from which our depleted covers can be 
stocked.’’ E. K. P. 
All the game laws of the United States and 
Canada, revised to date and now in foree, are 
given in the Game Laws in Brief. See adv. 
Small Bore Guns and Loads. 
Los Angeles, Cal., Jan. 7. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: Since my last letter I have been 
doing considerable experimenting with a 20- 
bore in the matter of loads. 
Being a believer in plenty of powder and 
enough shot, but not in overloading the powder 
with lead just to develop—and exhaust—its 
energy, I tried cutting the charge to ^oz. 
chilled 6, 8 and 7 J 4 shot. With these I got 
better penetration than with a proportionate 
load in even the sixteen, and on paper, a good 
working pattern. I counted some of these, and 
found that with a charge running from 180 to 
186 No. 6 chilled shot, the gun would deliver 
from 125 to 130 of them in a 30-inch circle, and 
shoot a good center, while with No. 7^, the 
pattern was around 180 or better, which is about 
YOUNG GROSBEAKS. 
From a photograph by F. T. Webber. 
the best I ever could depend upon with my 
sixteen and a charge of No. 6 chilled running 
about 212 pellets. As for penetration, my ex¬ 
periments tended to show that the 20, with 2j4 
drams of powder, excelled the sixteen with 3}^. 
using Empire, and an Ideal Universal powder 
measure. I should explain that these Ideal 
measures throw a little light; the 3]S4-dram load 
only weighs 36^4 grains, which is a stiff 3 drams 
Dixon standard, but as the measure seems to be 
very consistent, this is a small matter. If the 
loads are uniform, one very soon can learn 
where to set the gauge scale to get the powder 
desired. 
In a late number, I notice J. J. Meyrick, who 
evidently has done a great deal of experiment¬ 
ing, discusses the small bore question, and as 
I recall his arguments, he advocates a full 
charge of shot, an ounce. For game shooting, I 
do not believe in this principle at all, but most 
of Mr. Meyrick’s conclusions jibe with mine. 
In Nov. 21 issue, “W.”, a New York corre¬ 
spondent, makes some statements, however, that 
are at variance with my experience, and all 
that I have learned from the makers of small 
bore guns, particularly as regards penetration. 
If he loads a gun as he recommends, I do not 
wonder that it is found deficient in penetration. 
He recommends 2 J 4 to 214 drams of powder; 
less than the minimum quantity I load for dove 
shooting, v,'hich is the easiest work on a gun 
that we do here, and then proceeds to kill this 
weak charge of powder by loading it down with 
% to I ounce of shot. When I load %, I do 
not want less than 3 drams of Empire behind 
it, and prefer a little more. It is the heavy shot 
that makes recoil, and not the big powder 
charge. For the 20, I use 2^4 drams and ^- 
ounce of shot, and must say, that with these 
loads, the guns not only equal a twelve in pene¬ 
tration with the standard load, but excel it. A 
proportionate load in a twelve would be about 
3^ drams of powder and 1% ounces of shot, 
and few men would care to stand behind it all 
day on a duck flight without a heavier gun 
than 7% pounds. It is this use of a heavier 
proportionate load without greatly increasing 
the weight of the gun, but rather lightening it 
and facilitating its handling, that, in my judg- 
nrent, makes the small bores so deadly in 
capable hands. My sixteen weighs 6 pounds 5 
ounces; the twenties I have been shooting are 
about three ounces lighter, and have 28-inch 
barrels, bored full choke. 
The trouble is, the average man is afraid to 
tax his skill with the small bore’s smaller killing 
circle, and wants to rely on the twelve’s slop- 
over margin, which, like charity, covers a mul¬ 
titude of sins. 
Now a word as regards openness of pattern. 
No one of experience would expect a sixteen 
to put as many shot in a given circle as a 
twelve, or a twenty as a sixteen; that is, at forty 
yards. There are, however, two things that the 
average man, targeting guns, is apt to overlook. 
One is the fact that wildfowl shooting is done 
frequently at ranges well over forty yards, and 
that pattern at sixty, and at forty, are different 
things. Another is the fact that shot string 
out, and do not all strike the target at the same 
instant. It is for this reason that large shot 
loads do not give the expected working pattern 
in the field, in part at least. They overload the 
powder, cut down the velocity, and cause the 
charge to string out worse than if a proper 
balance be maintained between the two. To a 
certain extent, ballistics are the same whether 
considered from the rifleman’s point of view, 
or the gunner’s. To get high velocity, we build 
up the powder and decrease the bullet in a rifle; 
in a shotgun, there is an end to the degree to 
which this principle can be carried, as it seems 
impossible to get more than a certain velocity 
with each size of shot without causing them to 
fly wild, but so far as it goes, the principle holds 
good. Small guns hold patterns surprisingly at 
sixty yards. 
Every test conducted in this or any other 
country has shown that with proportioned 
loads the small-bores excel the large in velocity. 
Velocity is penetration; penetration is shock. 
Shock is clean killing power. Now, if this is 
true of proportioned loads, how much truer is 
it of increases in power that are possible with 
the smaller bores? These hold the shot to¬ 
gether better than the larger, else the killing 
circles would not be smaller. 
This increase in velocity is a big advantage 
to the e.xpert. On long shots, a duck often 
makes some unexpected turn or dodge after 
