18 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Jan. 6, 1912. 
Published Weekly by the 
Forest and Stream Publishing Company, 
127 Franklin Street, New York. 
Edward C. Locke, President, 
Charles B.- Reynolds, Secretary, 
S. J. Gibson, Treasurer. 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
The Forest and Stream is the recognized medium of 
entertainment, instruction and information between Amer¬ 
ican sportsmen. The editors invite communications on 
the subjects to which its pages are devoted. Anonymous 
communications will not be regarded. The editors are 
not responsible for the views of correspondents. 
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THE OBJECT OF THIS JOURNAL 
will be to studiously promote a healthful in¬ 
terest in outdoor recreation, and to cultivate 
a refined taste for natural objects. 
—Forest and Stream, Aug. 14 , 1873 . 
NINETEEN ELEVEN. 
The year which has just closed was an aver¬ 
age one, from the sportsman’s viewpoint, that is. 
The winter weather was severe at times, but not 
for long, and the game did not suffer for want 
of food as in other years; an exception was 
found in Wyoming, where a good many elk, 
hemmed in by the advance of civilization, starved 
before hay was provided by the authorities. 
In the northern tier of States where deer are 
most abundant in the wooded districts, and 
where deep snows often prove fatal to them in 
the late winter, conditions were about normal, 
with exceptions here and there. Further south 
the grouse and quail wintered fairly well. 
The spring opened abnormally di-y, with a low 
average rainfall for April. Early fishing was 
unsatisfactory in the main, and it was not until 
after the long delayed but heavy rains that trout 
fishing was even fair for a time. The summer 
throughout was extremely dry, the streams low, 
hence the fishing season was more or less of a 
disappointment. On the other hand, that great 
army of men and women that went into the 
woods on vacation journeys was greatly favored, 
one fair day following another in a delightful 
fashion seldom experienced. It is probable that 
more people enjoyed outdoor life last season than 
in any other year, and it is certain that they 
went further afield than ever before. 
Whi'e iQii was “an off year’’ for fishing, game 
birds were favored, especially in the more south¬ 
erly sections, where big strong birds were found 
later on. 
The autumn was very wet, and in place of 
drouth and disastrous forest fires, early hunters 
found full streams and moist skies; ideal condi¬ 
tions for deer hunting, but the bag was small, 
due largely, in some States at least, to the new 
laws against the sale of game. And this had 
marked effect on the wildfowl shooting along 
the coast, which was delayed beyond the usual 
time by the mildness of late autumn. 
December was marked by flurries of snow and 
short periods of cold here and there, but in the 
main it was not wintry. Migrating ducks con¬ 
tinued to fly over at times, southward bound, 
weeks later than usual. Robins were seen on 
fair days, and bluebirds were in evidence on the 
last day of the year. 
Taken by and large, as seamen say, it was a 
year noteworthy for the vast number of people 
who spread over the known and half-wild re¬ 
gions in search of recreation. They went by way 
of the usual channels; they sought new routes. 
In motor cars and motor boats and canoes they 
went wherever it was possible to go—camping, 
idling, hurrying, as suited their individual tastes 
or the time at their disposal. But they returned 
healthier and happier than the stay-at-homes, and 
present indications are that they will go again 
this year, but in increased numbers. 
THE WELCH CASE. 
The Supreme Court of California has written 
the final chapter in the now famous case of 
Welch vs. Ware. The record has been given 
from time to time in these columns, but a brief 
review of the case will explain the long fight 
made by a game warden who knew his claim 
was fair. 
In June, 1909, Walter R. Welch was fish, game 
and fire warden of Santa Cruz county. While 
he was absent on duty the county supervisors 
removed him and appointed another man in his 
stead. Mr. Welch brought suit in the superior 
court against the county auditor and won. 
'I'he supervisors got a reversal of the decision 
in the appellate court, and Mr. Welch has finally 
secured a favorable decision in the Supreme 
Court. During the litigation the supervisors who 
removed the warden were themselves removed 
by the people in the 1910 election, and the new 
board reinstated him as warden. Under the re¬ 
cent decision he will receive his salary for the 
full time he was out of office, but must recover 
the costs himself. 
That Warden Welch is popular in Santa Cruz 
county is proved by the activities of sportsmen 
in his behalf. At different times the papers 
printed columns of matter on the subject, and 
the fight now and then was bitter. Mr. Welch 
was formerly deputy game and fish commissioner 
of the State, and was summarily discharged be¬ 
cause, it is alleged, he would not wink at petty 
but not wholly honest practices favorable to vio¬ 
lators. Following his dismissal he was employed 
by his home county, and in the long fight it was 
alleged that official pressure was brought to bear 
on the county commissioners, and his removal 
followed. 
We congratu’ate Warden Welch and the 
sportsmen of Santa Cruz county on their victory. 
In our issue of Dec. 16, Charles C. Worth¬ 
ington mentioned the killing, by a weasel, of a 
number of English pheasants in one night “last 
summer.’’ In the picture the weasel appears in 
winter pelage. We asked Mr. Worthington if 
his use of the word “summer” was not made 
hurriedly or as referring to the warm season 
in the general way often employed. He now 
informs us that this was not the case, but that 
he had in mind at the moment of writing a 
killing similar to the one reported, and which 
also took place at his pheasantries. At that time 
seventy-two birds were killed in one night. The 
weasel, and the pheasants it killed, shown in our 
issue of Dec. 23, were photographed in Decem¬ 
ber. The birds were killed one night and the 
weasel was trapped the following night. 
K 
There is an active and increasing demand for 
wire fences in New Zealand. Timber is grow¬ 
ing so scarce that it cannot be used economically 
in fence building. Scotch gorse hedges were 
tried, and while these are conceded to be very 
attractive and picturesque because of their bright 
yellow flowers, the p’ants spread rapidly and 
both the low scrub formed in this way in waste 
places and the hedges themselves harbor too 
many rabbits, hence the call for wire instead. 
So abundant are rabbits that on one branch of 
the Government railway which is maintained at 
a loss, the chief revenue is the freight paid on 
bundles of rabbit skins for export. 
•t 
Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker died recently 
at his home in London, aged ninety-four years. 
He was surgeon and naturalist on the British 
ship Erebus in the Antarctic expedition under 
Sir James Ross in 1839-43. He visited as a 
naturalist the Himalaya Mountains, Syria and 
Palestine, Morocco and the Greater Atlas. He 
was in the Rocky Mountains and California in 
1877 and was president of the Royal Society, 
1872-77. He wrote many books. 
n 
On the following page we print an article 
of great importance to sportsmen who are 
seeking all available data related to the propa¬ 
gation of our native game birds. This is Herbert 
K. Job’s paper on the experiments conducted 
during the past year with bobwhite at the Con¬ 
necticut Agricultural College. The work w'll be 
continued thi.s year. 
In Memphis arrangements are being made to 
drain a large portion of the sunken lands in 
Northeastern Arkansas and utilize them for 
agricultural purposes. The contract calls for 
about 200 miles of drainage ditches. A wide area 
will eventually be’ affected, and the shooting and 
fishing, now equalled in few other sections, will 
become a thing of the past. 
Smith’s Island, off the mouth of the Potomac 
River in Chesapeake Bay, has been sold by the 
Lee family to Oliver Campbell, of New York 
city, who, it is said, will make a wildfowl pre¬ 
serve of it. The island, which is about seven 
miles long and half as wide, lies largely in 
Maryland, the southern end being in Virginia. 
t? 
The past autumn was the most successful one 
in the history of the Newfoundland cod fisheries, 
as the salmon fishing inland was the best of its 
kind in recent years. Perhaps the outside as 
Veil as the fresh water fishing was influenced 
by the improved methods laid down and enforced 
by the new fisheries board of the island. 
