Jan. 27, 1912.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
113 
Animals in the Cold Snap. 
Fountain City, Ind., Jan. 17.—Editor Forest 
and Stream: The inclosed clippings relating to 
the presence of robins in this section at this 
time of year and in the midst of a record- 
breaking cold spell of weather is news for the 
oldest inhabitant. 
We are wondering whether the incessant per¬ 
secutions of these birds in the South has driven 
them back here to take their chances in our mer¬ 
ciless cold. O. H. Hampton. 
Lawrenceburg, Ind.—Trappers and hunters are 
well pleased with the deep snow, as it assists 
them in capturing wild animals for food and for 
their pelts. More than 3,000 rabbits have been 
trapped and caught with ferrets during the last 
week and hundreds of frozen quail have been 
picked up by hunters and are used as food. A 
number of farmers have been scattering grain 
in their fields for the quail to feed on during 
the snow. 
Crawfordsville, Ind.—W. F. Swan, who lives 
near here, says: “A flock of robins, estimated 
at more than one hundred, is feeding on cedar 
seeds in my grove. The birds arrived recently 
while the mercury was 2 degrees below zero, and 
appeared to be as lively as they are in the 
summer. I am seventy-five years old and had 
never seen the like before.” 
Nashville, Ind.—Otto Kelley and Charles 
Harden, living about five miles south of here, 
came to town one morning with thirty-eight rab¬ 
bits, which they had caught with their hands. 
The rabbits could not run and were nearly 
starved, the snow being seven inches deep. 
Newcastle, Ind.—John Hunt, living on the Ben 
Allen farm, west of the city, reports that six 
robins have taken up their abode in his orchard, 
despite the zero weather. The birds, Mr. Hunt 
says, are building nests and evidently preparing 
to stay until spring. 
Hagerstown, Ind.—Fifty or more robins are 
eating frozen apples in the orchard of J. T. 
Hunt. They do not seem to mind the below 
zero temperature. 
Jacksonville, Ill., Jan. 20. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: I have just read the article in your 
current number on belated migrants. Mr. Ew- 
bank reports that he saw a robin on the 13th at 
Hendersonville, N. C., with snow on the ground. 
That robin was having an easy time. On the 
morning of Jan. 15, with snow on the ground 
some six inches deep, and the mercury in the 
region of 15 degrees below zero, a robin was in 
my back yard, “jes’ as sassy as a jaybird.” And 
we have had zero weather since Jan. i and once 
as low as 24 degrees below. All winter I have 
seen and heard of robins being seen. I do not 
remember a winter when they have been so 
plentiful, and yet this is the coldest winter for 
many years. A friend reported a robin a few 
days ago in one of our parks which she tried 
to catch, it being hardly able to fly, but the one 
I saw last Monday was bright and chipper. 
Yesterday I saw in my garden a yellowham- 
mer or flicker, the first one I remember to have 
seen at this time of year. During the night a 
rain had fallen, which had turned to sleet, cover¬ 
ing trees, ground and everything outside with 
a good coat of ice. The flicker was in the gar¬ 
den busily getting his breakfast from an ear of 
sweet corn left on the stalk. When disturbed 
he flew to a nearby peach tree, but returned to 
his ear of corn as soon as I withdrew a short 
distance. He evidently knew a good thing when 
he had found it. 
But the mockingbirds we must “pass up”; that 
is, the regular Southern gray mockingbird. Yet 
for two or three years a pair—I have often won¬ 
dered if it was the same pair—spent the summer 
on a farm I have some twenty miles north of 
here. I have not seen them for two or three 
years. They probably nested, being about all 
summer. They were the first of these birds 
which I have seen, either in Illinois or Indiana, 
though they may be common in the southern 
part of these States. L. O. Vaught. 
Game Preserves. 
ScHUYLERViLLE, N. Y., Jan. 19.— Editor Forest 
and Stream: I have read the article on game 
preserves by Mr. Chase. Evidently something 
has happened near him. But the game pre¬ 
serves have come to stay, and there will be 
more of them every year. And the object of 
most of them will not be to protect the game 
but to protect themselves from general damage 
and larceny. I have a couple of tracts of farm¬ 
ing land of about 1,000 acres each on which 
probably 100 bushels of berries, nuts, etc., go 
to waste; but I have had such disagreeable ex¬ 
perience with trespassers that I exclude every¬ 
one but the neighbors. 
Within fifteen miles of here the following has 
happened: One two-year-old colt shot and 
killed by deer hunters; result, twenty to thirty 
farms posted. One buck shot and killed by 
berry pickers because he was ugly; two farms 
posted. A farm dog killed because he interfered 
with a squirrel hunter by barking at hunter, 
which scared the squirrels; ten farms posted. 
Hunters killed two deer on a farm and the 
owner asked them to give him some of the meat 
for dinner. He was told to go to a warm place. 
Two more farms posted. 
In my experience I had two hundred sheep 
let on to a railroad track by mushroom gatherers 
leaving the gate open. Damage $60; could not 
collect one cent—signs went up on my places. 
One farm was posted because a hunter was 
filling his coat with walnuts and swore at the 
farmer’s wife who told him to get out. As 
against this, some of the farmers have posted 
their farms so their sons could get the skunks, 
and one farm is posted on account of a thirty- 
acre marsh which has lots of wild ducks for 
this part of the country. But this is the only 
place that might be possibly called a game pre¬ 
serve. We have the trespassers pretty well off 
of .our land, a long term for some chicken 
thieves we helped run down and some straight 
talk to some other people has helped keep us 
clear, .but in spite of all our efforts some one 
got away with the wheels in a back barn from 
a heavy wagon. They must have needed them 
badly as they were heavy and they carried them 
quite a ways. I have a 400-acre orchard and 
had some little fruit stolen, but we did very 
well, considering there are ten mills within three 
miles of our farm. 
What Mr. Chase says is pretty much so. 
Private preserves are selfish and they foster 
class prejudice. Strife of conflicting interests 
has arrived here, but the bloodshed so far has 
been dog, sheep and horse blood. We are get¬ 
ting the best of the lawless element here, but 
the signs are going up on farms all over the 
country and will continue to, as the general 
public has not a high sense of decency and 
looks upon a farmer as something to be preyed 
on. B. E. C. 
State Game Farms. 
Syracuse, N. Y., Jan. 20 .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: A bill has been introduced into the 
Senate of the State of New York by Hon. J. 
Walters, Senator of Onondaga county, asking 
for appropriation of $75,000 for six game farms. 
All true sportsmen should write to the Governor 
and their senator and assemblyman urging the 
passage of this bill, and they should also get 
their friends to do the same. 
Sportsmen should work hard. Do not rest 
with one letter or no letter at all, relying upon 
others to do the work. Every man’s assistance 
is needed. Gun clubs should call a meeting to 
urge the passage of this bill. If we can get 
these six game farms, there will be more game 
in the State of New York than ever before. 
I trust that every man will do his duty. We 
would thank your paper to urge upon every 
sportsmen to give assistance to this measure, 
and may your paper from time to time assist in 
getting this appropriation for game farms by 
keeping the interest of the sportsmen awakened 
to the necessity of urging the passage of this 
bill. 
W. E. Hookway, Chairman. 
Biltmore Forest School. 
Darmstadt, Germany, Jan. 10. — Editor Forest 
and Stream: We are still in Darmstadt, deeply 
engrossed in the studies of the German forests. 
During December we made a ten days’ excursion 
to Wiirzburg and Kronach in Bavaria, and to 
Dresden, Tharandt and Schwarzenberg in 
Saxony. Near Wurzburg we visited the forest 
of Grammschatz, well known for its huge oaks 
which have towered for centuries as so-called 
“standards,” over an underwood of beech, horn¬ 
beam and basswood, coppiced in rotations of 
twenty-four years. In Northern Bavaria we 
were located in the Erankenwald, a spruce and 
fir region. Erom Dresden we visited the suburb 
of Tharandt, which has the honor of being the 
first technical forest school in the world. At 
Schwarzenberg we became acquainted with the 
problems of Saxon forestry. 
The work of the school is progressing most 
satisfactorily. 
James W. Egnor, Jr., Class President. 
Practical Forestry. 
The New York Conservation Commission, hav¬ 
ing made an examination of the forest conditions 
on lands of State institutions at the request of 
the fiscal supervisor of State Charities, reports 
that of the total acreage of 8,908, about 40 per 
cent., or 3,568 acres, badly need the application 
of practical forestry. It is pointed out that this 
would not only effect increased efficiency of the 
several State institutions and reduce their cost 
{Continued on page 130.) 
