Forest and Stream 
A Weekly Journal. Copyright, 1907, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
Terms, $3 a Year, 10 Cts. a Copy. ( 
Six Months, $1.50. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1907. 
VOL. LXVIII.—No. 8- 
No. 346 Broadway, New York 
The object of this journal will be to studiously 
promote a healthful interest in outdoor recre¬ 
ation, and to cultivate a refined taste for natural 
Objects. Announcement in first number of 
Forest and Stream, Aug. 14, 1873. 
PROTECTING YELLOWSTONE PARK ELK. 
On various occasions in the past we have 
pointed out to the Interior Department the im¬ 
portance of furnishing the Superintendent of the 
I Yellowstone National Park with funds sufficient 
to put under water several additional tracts of 
land for the growing of alfalfa near the town of 
Gardiner, in order that on the occasion of a 
hard winter sufficient hay might be accessible to 
feed the starving elk which winter in the valley 
of the Yellowstone. Several years ago Major 
Pitcher, on his own initiative, turned water on 
to a flat near Gardiner and sowed the land to 
alfalfa. The seed took well and generous crops 
of hay have been harvested which in winter time 
was fed to the antelope, which were thus not 
obliged to leave the park in winter. The wis¬ 
dom. of this course speedily became evident, for 
the herd of antelope increased very rapidly, and 
last year from 1,200 to 1,500 animals were found 
on and near the pasture. 
In January, 1904, we pointed out that “the very 
large band of elk, which winter in the valleys of 
the Yellowstone and on its tributaries, still re¬ 
main unimproved for, and in exceptional winters 
, these animals must be fed if we would not see 
them die of hunger,” and added further that 
1 “once in a while, at intervals of ten or fifteen 
■, or twenty years there comes a winter with heavy 
deep snows and early spring crustings, and at 
such a time the elk must be fed or they will 
be swept away almost to the last hoof.” Again 
- in January, 1905, we spoke of the necessity of 
* feeding the game and said “this must be done, 
for as the wild animals increase the food supply 
for each individual must decrease, and although 
in ordinary seasons when the grass is good and 
the snow is light there is still ample grazing for 
all these animals, a winter may soon come of 
snows, of crusts and of hard spring storms, which 
will sweep away thousands on thousands of elk, 
deer and antelope, and will destroy in a month 
the results of all the thought, time and money 
jj that has been devoted to the preservation of 
game here. Major Pitcher should be given funds 
sufficient to enable him to irrigate certain extensive 
flats on the Yellowstone River and its tributaries 
on which could be grown crops of hay to be 
harvested and held against some season of deep 
snows and bitter cold when food will be greatly 
needed.” 
The success of the small alfalfa field near Gar¬ 
diner was pointed out and Congress and the In¬ 
terior Department were urged to furnish funds 
requisite to provide the needed food. 
All the reports received from the West seem 
to show that a winter such as we referred to has 
now come. Over much of the northern plains 
range-cattle are starving to death, and reports 
from the Yellowstone Park indicate that many 
elk must perish. The wise forethought of Major 
Pitcher, whose long experience in the West emi¬ 
nently qualifies him for the successful adminis¬ 
tration that he has made of the Yellowstone 
Park, is likely to save the antelope, the moun¬ 
tain sheep and the deer, but unless conditions 
speedily change, great numbers of the elk must 
be swept away. There are elk enough in the. 
northern part of the park and the loss of a few 
hundred or a few thousand may be regarded 
by some people as a matter of no great impor¬ 
tance, but it seems a pity that such suffering 
and death should take place when it might be 
so easily prevented. 
The reports of the Superintendent of the Yel¬ 
lowstone National Park for two or three years 
back show requests for authority to make more 
hay land, but this authority has unfortunately 
never been given him. It is to be hoped that 
next year he will be furnished with the means to 
insure the elk, as well as the smaller animals, 
against the danger of the sometimes terrible 
Montana winters. 
THE LOVE OF HOME. 
In another column one of our correspondents 
queries why the inhabitants of Labrador remain 
in a region so inhospitable when warmer climes 
are not far distant. 
The answer is obvious to all, and yet the sub¬ 
ject is ever a strange one. One illustration of 
the tenacity with which people cling to their 
native land, even when it is unkind to them, 
will suffice. 
We have watched the flood waters rise in the 
Missouri, the Mississippi and the Ohio rivers 
and noted the number of persons who retired 
at night with the water creeping up and up at 
the rate of an inch or more an hour. Often 
in the night they were compelled to seek the 
second floors or even the roofs, and yet they 
clung doggedly to their homes and only deserted 
them when total inundation was certain. 
Always the receding waters find them return¬ 
ing, and through the unhealthful period of damp¬ 
ness and the drying up of pools, with the at¬ 
tendant hordes of mosquitoes and the malaria 
and intermittent fever that follow—they shake 
and shiver, and recite their hardships to all who 
will listen—but they stay. 
Is there any memory stronger than that of 
the old fishing hole, and does a man ever grow 
so old and feeble that he is incapacitated from 
thinking that some day he will go back, and 
once more with a willow pole, a bit of string 
and a rusty hook, fish for “sunnies” there? He 
may have taken salmon and grayling and trout, 
the bass of rapid streams and the best of the 
sea fishes, but despite the excitements of all 
these encounters, there is no day and no sport 
that equals some certain day when the sunfish 
were biting in the old fishing hole. He thinks 
of the place without granting that part of the 
charm lies in the fact that home and mother 
were near the fishing hole. 
It makes a great deal of difference when home 
is there, for the family ties, the days passed in 
the woods and fields round about, and the favorite 
fishing and shooting places are not easy to break 
away from. If we were always young a differ¬ 
ent story could be told, but as we grow old 
the pleasures and pastimes of our youth loom 
larger and take on more beautiful colors in our 
mind’s eye until they become the one thing which, 
could we do so, we would live over again. 
THE NEW YORK LEAGUE. 
The attention of every sportsman in the State 
of New York is called to the communication of 
President J. H. Considine, of the New York 
State Fish, Game and Forest League, which is 
printed in this issue. 
This League was organized in 1865 and has 
worked steadfastly for the protection and propa¬ 
gation of fish and game. It is the central body 
with which every local sportsmen’s club should 
be affiliated, and unattached sportsmen should not 
wait until they become members of clubs, but 
should join the State body, for it is often the 
case that individuals who have a standing in their 
communities can do a great deal of good for a 
cause of general interest, in an emergency, when 
a club’s action may be too long delayed through 
efforts to call the members together for con¬ 
certed action. 
There is entirely too much tinkering with the 
game and fish laws, as Mr. Considine says. What 
is needed is not more laws, but simpler ones, 
and these should emanate from the protective 
associations, as they know far better than others 
the peculiar needs of this State. 
At least one club in every county should be¬ 
come affiliated with the State League. The ef¬ 
fective work that can be done by them is of the 
widest scope, embracing as it does not only 
game and fish protection and propagation, but 
forest preservation and important questions af¬ 
fecting the health and happiness of the people 
through the flooding of State lands and the pol¬ 
lution of streams. 
County and other local organizations will be 
largely depended on to assist in carrying on the 
game bird and fish propagation measures that 
will be of ever increasing importance in the 
future. 
It is to be sincerely hoped that the New Jer¬ 
sey Legislature will listen to the sportsmen and 
pass the proposed law prohibiting spring shoot¬ 
ing; the sale of game; requiring aliens to take 
out a special license to shoot; and making the 
fine for violation of this provision greater than 
the cost of the license. The sportsmen of the 
State are working for laws of known merit and 
deserve the support of all fair-minded persons. 
V 
