568 
FOREST AND STREAM 
May 4, 1912 
Published Weekly by the 
Forest and Stream Publishing Company, 
127 Franklin Street, New York. 
Charles Otis, President, 
C. Ji. Reynolds, Secretary, 
S. J. Gibson, Treasurer. 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
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, but are not 
responsible for the views of correspondents. Anonymous 
communications will not be regarded. 
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ADVERTISEMENTS. 
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Special rates for back cover in two or more colors. 
A discount of 5 per cent, is allowed on an advertise¬ 
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Advertisements should be in our hands by the Mon¬ 
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to be inserted. 
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. 
THE RETURNING BIRDS. 
The enthusiastic angler, pushing his way 
through meadow and swamp and woodland, ram¬ 
bles in these early May days through scenes of 
beauty. 
By the calendar, spring is already two months 
old, yet it has taken all these two months to 
bring into being those visible signs, wh'ch make 
us realize that mother earth has at last awakened 
from her long winter sleep. 
For the most part the fields are yet sere and 
brown, but little patches of green here and there 
foretell the coming of universal verdure. Here 
and there the white bluets are spread so thick 
as almost to suggest a little skiff of snow. The 
purple violets scarcely show yet among the brown 
herbage, but in the moist woods at the borders 
of swamps their fragrant white cousins already 
bloom in abundance. Along the borders of the 
full brooks the golden caltha shines against a 
background of dark waters, while in the wet 
swamps bright green skunk cabbages hide the 
ground, and the yellow blossoms of the spice 
bush shine above them. 
Though it is not yet time for the full beauty of 
flowers, it is the season of returning birds, and 
he who knows birds sees them now in wonderful 
numbers and variety. Barn swallows have re¬ 
turned and are building their homes beneath the 
eaves; bluebirds are investigating holes in the 
old apple trees to choose a nesting place; and as 
one casts his fly into a dark pool under some old 
bridge, a phoebe flits out almost in his face, and 
a brief search will find her mud house firmly 
fastened to one of the beams. The hedge rows 
are alive with sparrows of many sorts, and of 
these the chewink. striking in his livery of black, 
white and chestnut, is especially conspicuous. 
Most notable of all, beautiful for brilliancy and 
variet}! of coloring and for quick fairy-like move¬ 
ments, are the warblers, now just making their 
appearance, and for two weeks longer to be 
among the most interesting of our birds. Soon 
—after the summer residents begin to arrive, 
thrushes tuneful of voice, orioles, tanagers and 
grosbeaks gorgeous of plumage—the warblers will 
pass on still further to the north, and will not 
again be seen in all their beauty of breeding 
plumage for another year. 
That angler will he wise who includes in his 
fishing kit a pair of opera glasses. To him— 
if he has the interest and the patience to watch 
them—will be revealed a series of moving pic¬ 
tures which will well repay inspection. 
BEAVER DOMESTICATION. 
A CORRESPONDENT, wlio owiis forest land for 
a mile and a half on both sides of a good-sized 
brook suitable for a chain of small ponds, has an 
idea of stocking this brook with beaver colonies. 
He asks whether experiments of this character 
have been made, and by whom, and where and 
with what success. 
Such experiments have been made and made 
successfully in the Adirondacks, but on lands 
wholly unoccupied, the beaver being protected 
from molestation by State law. A good many 
years ago the late Rutherfurd Stuyvesant intro¬ 
duced on his large preserve in New Jersey a 
number of beaver which did well, and spread 
themselves over a large extent of territory in 
New Jersey, and even over into Pennsylvania. 
If the land intended to be stocked produces 
abundant suitable food, there is no reason why 
the beaver should not do well there; but unless 
the landowner is prepared to fence his land in 
such fashion as to hold the beaver, he cannot 
be sure that they will not disappear. If for any 
reason the beaver did not happen to like con¬ 
ditions on this brook, they might start off and 
travel considerable distances to find a location 
which pleased them, or, after they had increased 
in numbers, the young animals might migrate 
for the purpose of founding colonies of their 
own. This we conceive is precisely what was 
done by the New Jersey beaver from ]\Ir. Stuyve- 
sant’s preserve. 
In some places much complaint has been made 
against introduced beavers, because they destroy 
many young trees. 
A territory as large as the one in question 
should hold many beaver, and the experiment 
would be one of great interest. 
It is conceivable that after a time the animals 
might be handled to commercial advantage, 
though up to the present day, so far as we have 
been able to learn, the commercial breeding of 
fur remains wholly in the experimental stage. 
The Norristown Fish and Game Association, 
a strong factor in the field of fish and game pro¬ 
tection in Pennsylvania, will urge the State 
Sportsmen’s Association, at its convention in 
June, to endorse the movement to secure a resi¬ 
dent license system and to bring about a change 
in the State constitution to the end that the pro¬ 
ceeds from the sale of licenses may be devoted 
exclusively to game and fish propagation and 
protection. 
OUTDOOR STORIES. 
Old readers of Forest and Stream will doubt¬ 
less be pleased to learn that one of the old-time 
contributors to these columns will be heard from 
shortly. This is J. A. L. Waddell, who took a 
few weeks’ time from his busy life to seek rest 
last winter, and who has written his experiences 
in “Sport in Florida.” 
Ihe lure of the North Woods has proved too 
strong to be resisted by Robert E. Pinkerton, 
who entertained our readers with “Mulligan” and 
“Two Ways,” and he is returning to the woods, 
accompanied, as always, by Mrs. Pinkerton. 
W bile in town, however, he prepared for us an 
article on canoe trips in the smaller Northern 
waters, and this will appear in due time under 
the title, “The Land of Pierre de la Verendrye.” 
L. Lodian, who has poked about many curious 
and interesting corners of the world, arctic and 
tropic, has prepared a paper on “Some Camping- 
out Foods” in which outdoor people will find 
many useful suggestions. 
“Trapping in the Santa Ritas,” by Minnie R. 
Stevens, relates to the higher parts of New 
Mexico. 
“From Eastern City to Western Forest” is a 
series of short articles by S. Edward Paschall 
that are filled with human interest. 
John Ehrens will write of an Adirondack 
canoe cruise—the sort of little journey that is 
available to New Yorkers who cannot go far 
away on their vacations—and one which several of 
Mr. Ehrens’ friends have taken at different times. 
Other papers that will appear from time to 
time have been written for us by J. Lippincott 
Foster, Walter B. Sheppard, Frank C. Pellett, 
William Perry Brown, Robert S. Lemmon, Dr. 
Moody, W. R. Gilbert, George A. Irwin, Horace 
W. Stokes, H. G. Schaupp, O. W. Smith, Mark 
Robinson, and many others. 
And although our good friends tell us that the 
two special numbers that we have already issued 
this year have pleased them, we have still an¬ 
other one to add to the series. It will take the 
place of one of the regular June issues. 
Forestry is a subject in which the Chinese 
evince no interest, as there are no forests in 
that country. The Great Plain, on which Tien¬ 
tsin is located, never had forests, being entirely 
of delta formation, and the mountainous regions 
to the north and west were denuded of their 
forests centuries ago. The surface of .these 
mountains has been washed away, and to re¬ 
forest them would be a matter of great difficulty. 
Consul-General Samuel S. Knabenshue, of 
Tientsin, says that a British corporation engaged 
in mining and shipping has a concession for coal 
mining in the Kaiping district, about eighty miles 
northwest of Tientsin. The surface of the re¬ 
gion is broken by hills 50 to 200 feet high, wh'ch 
are absolutely bare of trees, and the company 
has begun the work of afforestation. It already 
has 1,000.000 young trees growing, chiefly acacia, 
and is preparing to establish a nursery for them 
on an extensive scale. There are no government 
forestry officials, schools of forestry or horti¬ 
culture, magazines devoted to these subjects, or 
associations of foresters, nurserymen, seedmen, 
etc.,- in China. 
