June s, 1909.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
895 
trip and with plenty of trout at the tent doors. 
I am told the club thinks of introducing the 
wild boar of Europe into this preserve. To 
me this would be like introducing the devil into 
paradise. Why? For over fortj' years I have 
been a close observer of the life of our wild 
woods, and I have noted that wherever the 
hog goes into the woods the wild turkeys and 
grouse at once begin to become scarce. They 
destroy the nests and eat the eggs. They care 
not if fresh or about to hatch. All is grist that 
goes to their mill, and they leave nothing. 
Where the.bears and other predatory animals 
are, no hogs can live, yet there the ruffed 
grouse and the turkeys are to be found after 
all these hundreds of years. Where the hog is 
you can find precious few’ turkeys or grouse. 
After all, this is only my idea of the matter, 
but I hate to see the exit of the turkey and my 
favorite bird, the ruffed grouse. 
Ernest L. Ewb.\nk. 
Niedieck’s Views. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I have just been reading ‘'With Rifle in Five 
Continents,” by Paul Niedieck. It is a perfectly 
charming book from the hunter’s point of view, 
presenting, as it does, the panorama of the 
world-wide ranging of the hardy and disin¬ 
genuous German gone head hunting. Perhaps 
the . most admirable part of the book is the 
portrayal of the author’s matchless persistency. 
If he blundered and failed the first time, as he 
States, having become as bad as its neighbor. 
Nevertheless, even if one is a native of this 
benighted land, it is but to laugh when reading 
W'hat he says. For instance, after landing on 
us about his helpers in Alaska he na’ively con¬ 
cludes by saying that the worst of the lot w^as 
a German. One suspects this to have been so 
in other instances. Fie was given special 
shooting privileges in Alaska by the Agricul¬ 
tural Department of this country on his 
representation that he w'as collecting for the 
Rerlin Museum; it is a pity that he could not 
have been decently courteous in his book when 
speaking of us. One would think that there was 
a place for the exercise of the minimum degree 
of vituperation of which he w’as capable. His 
complaint that everybody in America and 
THE HOME RANCH. 
From a photograph by Frank F. Frisbie. 
No bird that lays on the ground may escape 
the razorback hog. After seeing what this en¬ 
ergetic pig can do in these last forty years, I 
do not like to see any experiments tried with 
any of the genus pig. 
We tried the English sparrow experiment, 
and the German carp experiment, and no doubt 
from the standpoints of the carp and the 
sparrow, both are great successes. In North 
Carolina and South Carolina, before the stock 
law was passed, the pigs had full sway; but 
sinee they were fenced in. all the birds have 
begun to increase in the areas covered by the 
law. Now it is thought to control the boar by 
keeping him inside a boundary of, sa3T 7,000 
acres. This is all but impossible. Enemies of 
the club can cut down a fence; a tree or many 
trees may fall and break down fences; heavy 
rains in these mountains collect water in the 
ravines and sweep all before them. 
Conditions in Europe are possibly quite dif¬ 
ferent from those here, a^^d what is there a suc¬ 
cess may prove very different here. 
often did, or was driven out of the country by 
illness or the setting in of winter before his 
list of trophies was complete, he went back to 
that place, even if it was on the other side of 
the world, until he got what he wanted. Its 
most instructive feature lies in its lesson on 
tact. He seems to be almost destitute of that 
quality, for his tale is a ceaseless one of trouble 
with his changing retinue of helpers. This is 
in strong contrast to the experiences of men 
like Selous and Hornaday, who covered practi¬ 
cally the same ground with the minimum of 
friction and the maximum of success. 
And the sad part of it all is that the fault is 
lodged in the American government and 
people. He fairly flays us alive. We have 
spoiled the Alaska Indians, and nobody in this 
benighted country would call him “INIister” if 
he could find a way around doing so. Also we 
are corrupt and the greatest nation of grafters 
on earth. Dewey won by a fluke. The Can¬ 
adian guides got drunk the first day, that coun¬ 
try, by reason of its proximity to the United 
Alaska, Indians included, seemed to think him¬ 
self as good as he, is doubtless founded upon 
fact. A few of them may have been mistaken. 
I have often wondered why the vulgar rich in 
-America who buy foreigners for their daughters 
confine themselves so almost exclusively to 
England and the Latin countries, but it may be 
because they have better manners. 
Now if an American went to Germany to 
hunt, he would have a hard time of it, as, in¬ 
deed he would have in any European country. 
When the European sportsman comes here he 
is given a hearty welcome and a free hand; but 
if they are to requite our feeble effort to be 
friendly with vituperation, it might be well to 
put a stop to big killings on this side by 
foreigners of this stripe, at least. We can 
easily kill all that is left of the big game our¬ 
selves. George Kennedy. 
AH the game lazes of the United States and 
Canada, revised to date and nozv in foree, are 
given in the Game Lazvs in Brief. See adv. 
