Jan. 20, 1912.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
81 
Insect Pests. 
Camden, N. J., Jan. 1$.—Editor Forest and 
Stream: In your last issue there was a request 
made for information in regard to insect or 
vermin pests in Florida, and from the wording, 
I would think the party was inquiring in refer¬ 
ence to camping. I have spent portions of 
six winters in Florida, from November to June, 
and covering the East Coast from St. Augustine 
to Cape Florida, the St. Johns River from Jack¬ 
sonville to Lake Pointsett, portions of the West 
Coast, Pensacola, Cedar Keys and the Tampa 
Bay section; five trips down the East Coast 
and the St. Johns River country, one trip on the 
West Coast and dating from my first trip of 
November to June in 1885 and 1886. 
The last trip, two years ago, down the East 
Coast, when my wife was with me, in a canoe 
trip, St. Augustine to Miami and back. Dur¬ 
ing the entire trip of nearly eight hundred miles 
and eight weeks’ duration we camped and 
cooked our meals at a camp-fire; we had a small 
tent and slept on the ground with a bed of pal¬ 
metto or cocoanut leaves and our blankets, and 
during the whole trip never were bitten or an¬ 
noyed. Only on three nights of the entire trip 
did we sleep in a house. 
To anyone who enjoys boating, variety of 
vegetation, camping or cruising, the conditions 
on the East Coast are ideal. There is the 
wilderness, when you want it, nothing but trees 
and water, then maybe in a few hours a town, 
and the environment so beautiful it is beyond 
me to properly picture. If you wish to fish, 
there is plenty of water and fish, too; oysters 
and clams are in plenty. A breeze that will 
drive your boat six or eight miles an hour, or 
put you on.your mettle to make any headway 
against it with paddle or oar; and yet so soft 
you feel no bad effect from resting in it when 
overheated. 
Now a word for the people. You are made to 
feel a hospitality you do not know in the North. 
You are a bother to no one; every one you 
meet has a pleasant word. It is a pleasure to 
show you over their garden or through the 
grove or packing house, and when you leave 
you carry instructions as to the best route, the 
fishing grounds, a few vegetables or your boat 
is loaded with oranges. You are to be sure to 
stop on your way back. If you leave your boat 
and tent in town, settlement or wilds, you need 
have no fear of it being disturbed. There 
seem to be no thieves and “young America” 
seems to be educated to an entirely different de¬ 
gree from in the North. We returned from our 
trip full of pleasant memories and—renewed 
health and hopes to repeat the trip. 
Harry Mansfield. 
New York Legiislature. 
Albany, N. Y., Jan. 15. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: Senator Argetsinger, of Rochester, 
has introduced into the Legislature two bills re¬ 
lating to auxiliary forest preserves, as follows: 
Providing for the taxation of auxiliary forest 
preserves. The board of supervisors of each 
county is required to furnish each year to the 
Board of Assessors of each town in the county 
a statement of the names of the owners, and a 
sufficient description of the tracts classified as 
auxiliary forest preserves. These reserves are 
to be taxed at not more than one dollar per 
acre, unless they are underlaid with valuable 
minerals, in which case the minerals may be 
assessed separately. When timber on these 
auxiliary reserves is cut and marketed, the own¬ 
er must pay to the supervisors for the use of 
the county and township, ten per cent, of the 
selling value of the marketed stumpage of both 
coniferous timber and broadleaf timber. 
Defining and establishing auxiliary forest pre¬ 
serves. It provides for setting aside surface 
lands by private owners, with the approval of 
the Conservation Commission, for the purpose 
of reforestation. 
These two bills have be^n introduced by Sen¬ 
ator Walters, of Syracuse: 
Appropriating $75,000 for the purchase of 
sites for the six game farms, the sites to be 
selected by the Forest, Fish and Game Com¬ 
missioner. 
Amending the Act of 1911 (Chap. 851), es¬ 
tablishing a State college of forestry at Syra¬ 
cuse University, substituting the chairman of 
the State Conservation Commission for the 
State Forest, Fish and Game Commissioner 
upon the Board of Trustees of the institution. 
The Senate committee on forest, fish and game 
will be constituted the same as last session, viz.: 
Senators Roosevelt, of Dutchess; Frawley, of 
New York; Cronin, of Brooklyn; Long, of Nas¬ 
sau; O’Brien, of Brooklyn; Fiero, of Greene; 
Bayne, of New York; Hamilton, of Chautau¬ 
qua; Sage, of Albany. 
The Assembly committee on forest, fish and 
game, just appointed by Speaker Merritt, com¬ 
prises the following: Messrs. Macdonald, of 
Franklin; Waring, Ulster; Waters, Orleans; 
Yeomans, Wayne; Hart, Fulton - Hamilton; 
Brong, Niagara; Prime, Essex; Duntz, Seneca; 
Milford, Onondaga; Crawford, New York; 
Blauvelt, Rockland; McDaniels, Tompkins; 
Schwarz, Rensselaer. E. C. C. 
Adirondack Notes. 
North Creek, N. Y., Jan. i.— Editor Forest 
and Stream: I am spending the winter at a 
farmhouse about seven miles from North Creek, 
Warren county, in the Adirondacks. The 
woods, especially where there are large tracts 
of evergreens, are most beautiful and interesting 
to a nature lover, when in their winter garb. 
The forests would certainly be a dreary and un¬ 
inviting place in winter, were it not for their 
cheerful and majestic presence. 
Black bears are quite numerous around here, 
and a few years ago created quite a good deal 
of havoc with the farmer’s sheep-folds. Fresh 
tracks were reported recently and we took the 
trail in the afternoon. After a mile of very bad 
going, we came on a deer’s carcass, upon which 
bruin had that afternoon been feeding. Just as 
the trail was getting warm, we had to give up 
the chase, as the days are so very short. If 
bear-hounds could be used, it would afford good 
sport, but the law says nay, and the surest way 
to take them is in steel traps. 
Rabbits and partridges are numerous and 
have afforded good sport. A short time ago 
we took a beautiful specimen of an albino fly¬ 
ing squirrel. 
That blood-thirsty little savage, the red 
squirrel, is very common here. 
Last summer I spent seventeen straight weeks 
at a leading sporting camp in Northern Maine, 
and, while there, became quite intimate with 
an old, experienced and very capable guide. 
He informed me that to become a guide in 
Maine, one has to procure a license and at the 
end of the deer and moose season to send in a 
detailed report of his work for the year to the 
fish and game commissioner at Augusta. They 
have their guides under most admirable super¬ 
vision, and if this great and good (?) Empire 
State, with its far-famed Adirondacks teeming 
with deer, were to pass a law requiring all 
guides to be licensed, it would be a step in the 
right direction and would prevent, as I will at¬ 
tempt to show, the many senseless and un¬ 
necessary shooting fatalities. I have talked 
with experienced and veracious native hunters 
in this section, and their unanimous opinion is 
that at least eighty per cent, of hunting 
tragedies can be directly or indirectly traced to 
strong drink in self-appointed and incompetent 
“guides.” Intemperate country youths and 
middle-aged men, because brought up in the 
neighborhood, believe themselves qualified to 
guide a sportsman after deer, though their 
knowledge of woodcraft and experience in hunt¬ 
ing may be very limited, to say the least. Their 
rum-besotted advice is in many instances about 
as follows: 
“Anything you see moving or rather any 
commotion in the brush must be a deer, so 
blaze away!” 
There are many sober (at least, during work¬ 
ing hours), experienced, careful and lion-heart¬ 
ed guides, for whom I have the most unbounded 
admiration and respect, and I think a careful 
perusal of the records will disclose the unde¬ 
niable fact that very few accidents have occurred 
while the sportsman has been under the care 
of that master of woodcraft, the high-class 
guide. L. T. Carter. 
Walnut for Gunstocks. 
Consul Albert Halstead, of Birmingham, 
says that a number of attempts have been made 
by prominent local gun manufacturers to obtain 
walnut from the United States for gun stocks, 
but the wood has invariably been found unsuit¬ 
able for the high-class guns, and it has not here¬ 
tofore been used for guns of poor quality. The 
difficulty is not in the strength of the wood, but 
in the color, which is dark brown with none of 
the yellow and light brown streaks that are 
found so attractive for gun stocks. 
The walnut that has been used for British 
gun stocks has come from Italy, Switzerland 
and Erance. It is said, however, that the last 
tree suitable for gun stocks in Italy has appar¬ 
ently been cut, so that the supply is now French, 
but the prices for the French walnut are going 
up so high that they may within a few years 
become prohibitive. The French walnut is now 
particularly in demand for veneering purposes, 
it being found more profitable as a rule to cut 
it for veneer than to sell it for gun stocks. 
Thus it is quite likely that a situation will de¬ 
velop where American walnut gun stocks will 
be in demand. 
It is highly desirable that prices be quoted in 
English money and the walnut delivered in Bir¬ 
mingham, or at least delivered at a British sea¬ 
port. 
