2g6 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Feb. 23, 1907. 
The Forest Reservoirs. 
Aitkin, Minn., Feb. 9. —Editor Forest and 
Stream: Reading the article in a late number 
of your appreciated journal on the preservation 
of the forests in the Adirondacks and the very 
familiar claim of those who would destroy for 
private gain, while using public money and prop¬ 
erty to that end, impels me to draw a compari¬ 
son. I quote': “A circular recently put forth by 
the advocates of the amendment claims, among 
other things, that ‘the building of storage reser¬ 
voirs on State lands in the Adirondacks is neces¬ 
sary for the control of destructive floods, for 
the promotion of public health, for the supply 
of the enlarged Erie canal, and for the indus¬ 
trial development of the State.’ ” These claims 
are identical with claims made by lumbermen 
in this country many vears ago when they wanted 
to use public money and property for the build¬ 
ing of reservoirs for private logging operations. 
The Association for the Protection for Forests 
in the Adirondacks claims that the building of 
such reservoirs will result in the destruction of 
the forest in the Adirondacks. 
The statement has been proven true here. The 
reservoirs once built went into the exclusive 
control of the lumbermen. The lumbermen, that 
is the real beneficiaries of the lumbering opera¬ 
tions, could be found in the United States Senate, 
in the lower house of Congress, in the State 
legislatures, among State officials, in prominent 
offices of the War Department, with a few prac¬ 
tical lumbermen carrying on the actual work of 
devastation, with the Government footing a 
goodly part of the bills. Now that the result 
has been proved it can be summed up as fol¬ 
lows : 
Timber mostly gone except a few choice pieces 
held in reserve by the lumbermen and some that 
belonged to the Indians until recent acts to set 
aside a forest reserve at the headwaters of the 
Mississippi turned it all over to the lumbermen, 
but which has not been entirely stripped as yet. 
In place of the once grand forest a desolate 
waste with blackened stumps dotting the barren 
hillsides. In a land where nature lavished 
wealth with a more generous hand than almost 
anywhere else on earth, we find poverty and 
ignorance that would make the rocky moun¬ 
tain sides of Italy look like thirty cents. Go 
to any spot on earth where nature has been 
extra lavish with her wealth and see the 
wretchedness and poverty that prevails there. 
Look at the country and people impover¬ 
ished by the conquest of the South African dia¬ 
mond fields; the iron mines; the coal fields. 
Are the highest types of civilization pictured 
there, or the reverse? Yet when the complete 
history of the world is written that page that 
tells of the loot of the forest will be found 
blackest of all. 
No schools follow in the footsteps of the lum¬ 
bermen. No church spires pierce the dome of 
heaven there. He builds no roads, pays no 
local taxes; his mission is to loot, to destroy and 
departing to leave a desolate waste behind. Nor 
are his depredations confined to the forest and 
the public treasure’. His pathway is strewn with 
more wrecks of human lives than the pathway 
of an invading army. In no' other place does 
humanity sink to so low a level as in the lum¬ 
bering district. The galley slaves of old were 
given no more grievous tasks than those im¬ 
posed on the laborer in the lumbering districts, 
and when his task is done he is turned out to 
walk a hundred miles through the spring freshet 
to the towns where he is again met by the sand- 
bagger and tossed about until the last dollar is 
shaken out of him, when he is again kicked out, 
broken in mind, body and pocket, a ready made 
hobo to prey upon the public. For this the Gov¬ 
ernment is appropriating more public money to 
build more reservoirs, to loot still more forest 
lands, and wreck a still greater number of human 
lives and leave a still wider reach of desolation 
behind. 
Not one cent can be used to make any per¬ 
manent improvement of the great waterway 
looking to relieving the ruin which the reservoirs 
have wrought, but millions for more ruin and 
greater loot. The original claim for the reser¬ 
voirs was that they were to prevent floods and 
assist navigation. Anyone knows that such 
reservoirs can do this without conflict. But the 
lumbermen require a double flow of water in 
spring and summer, the natural flood season. To 
get logs easily over certain portions of the river 
requires flood conditions at other points, and 
occupying, and cant-rolling, the seats of the 
mighty at Washington, they get what they want. 
In their last report on the situation here the 
army engineers in control drop the mask and 
say that prevention of floods is no part of the 
mission of the reservoirs; that they are solely 
to assist navigation. To assist legitimate navi¬ 
gation would also prevent floods, for legitimate 
navigation never requires a flood, but rather an 
equalized flow. But the only legitimate naviga¬ 
tion there is benefitted is one small steamboat 
that plies between railroad points on an upper 
reach of the river. The only benefit this boat re¬ 
ceives is that for two or three months while the 
lumbering flood is on, about one thousand peo¬ 
ple are dependent on it for supplies. For the 
balance of the year they do their freighting. 
But this would hardly keep them afloat if it 
were not for the liquor traffic, which they carry 
on under a federal license of twenty-five dollars 
per year, while other people in the same line 
pay five hundred to one thousand. Indeed, the 
Association for the Protection of the Forest in 
the Adirondacks has foretold the results of 
building reservoirs there. The idea, or the graft 
behind it, are not new. The plan and the re¬ 
sults are here written in barren hillsides and 
deserted valleys—in the deserted and rotting 
farm buildings where the floods have swept, and 
in the blackened waste of the once forest-crowned 
hills. May this society live long and grow an 
arm that is strong in justice. For, indeed, when 
the landscape is dotted with bad men banded to¬ 
gether for evil purpose, it is necessary for good 
men to band together not only to defend the 
forest reserve, but also to defend the rights sup¬ 
posed to be reserved to all citizens of the LTnited 
States. E. P. Jaques. 
Quail Abundant in North Carolina. 
Hendersonville, N. C., Feb. 11 .—Editor Forest 
and Stream: There is now on foot a plan to 
form a hunting and shooting club in Clay county, 
145 miles from this point by rail, and then (from 
Murphy to Hayesville) 16 miles by conveyance. 
Partridges as we call them (Bob Whites) abound 
in that part of, western North Carolina. To 
give you an idea I will say that I was one of 
a party of three who went out there early in 
December. We arrived in Hayesville on the 
afternoon of the first Monday of the month and 
left Saturday morning early. We did not shoot 
all the time, and in fact one of our party did 
no shooting, yet we bagged 201 birds. We had 
all we-—and those with whom we stopped—could 
eat and brought home about 100 birds. Before 
lunch I got to my own gun one day twenty 
quail. I do' not believe in shooting an unlimited 
number of birds and advocate limiting the bag. 
A day in Transylvania county a short time 
back with a couple of friends we spent grouse 
shooting, bagging five grouse and one wild tur¬ 
key. 
Deer are rapidly increasing on the estate of 
Geo. W. Vanderbilt and the Toxaway estate near 
by. The fishing and shooting in connection with 
the Toxaway resort hotels is getting better each 
year. 
Any one wishing to get information regard¬ 
ing the proposed club above mentioned can ad¬ 
dress J. B. S. McIntosh, Waynesville, N. C. He 
will give all required answers and refer to right 
parties. Ernest L. Ewbank. 
To Hunt in South America. 
Recently a party of sportsmen and women 
left Philadelphia by rail en route for Jackson¬ 
ville, Fla., where they will embark on the chart¬ 
ered steam yacht Margaret for a cruise in the 
West Indies and up the Orinoco River. In the 
party were Charles N. Welsh and Mr. and Mrs. 
A. J. D. Biddle, of Philadelphia; Mrs. Gallatin, 
of New York city, and Alfred Riggs, of Balti¬ 
more. Big game hunting will be one of the ob¬ 
jects of the cruise up the big river. 
New York State Fish, Game and 
Forest League. 
Albany, N. Y., Feb. 15. —Editor Forest and 
Stream: By order of President Considine, of 
the State League, I send you the attached appeal 
to sportsmen, with the request that yau publish 
it. 
It seems to me that no publication devoted to 
the interests of honest sportsmen can afford 
not to heed such an appeal. 
John D. Whish, Sec’y. 
Elmira, N. Y., Feb. 13. —For some years 
there has been in existence in this State an 
organization known as the Fish, Game and 
Forest League. It is an incorporated body and 
was formed for the purpose of bringing to¬ 
gether the clubs interested in the preservation 
of the fish, the game and the forests. It is 
the only organization that represents the in¬ 
terests of the sportsmen of the State in a con¬ 
crete way, and is absolutely the only representa¬ 
tive of their interests before the Legislature 
annually. 
Many of the clubs incorporated for the pro¬ 
tection of fish and game, and a large number of 
individual sportsmen, have become members 
of the League, but there are many others who 
have not done so. The situation was thorough¬ 
ly considered at the annual meeting last Decem¬ 
ber at Syracuse, and it was determined to make 
a supreme effort to so interest the honest sports¬ 
men of the State in the matter that all might in 
time be enrolled. The officers elected at that 
meeting are pledged to use their utmost efforts 
to reach every fish and game club in the State, 
and every association formed for the protec¬ 
tion of the forests, as well as the great army of 
those who favor the objects for which the 
League is formed but are not as yet affiliated 
with any organized body for this purpose. 
To carry out this pledge, the officers of the 
League now call upon all clubs organized for 
protective purposes to join and take an active 
interest in its welfare. The same invitation is 
extended to all unaffiliated sportsmen. It is 
proposed to make the League the leading ex¬ 
ponent of all that is best in the advocacy of 
honest hunting and fishing especially. There 
can be no doubt as to the advantage to be de¬ 
rived from such a union of representative 
sportsmen and organizations as is advocated. 
A better condition would of necessity result 
from united effort. The enactment of proper 
game laws would follow and the enforcement 
of the law would be made certain. It would be 
possible also to put a stop to the incessant tinker¬ 
ing with the law affecting sportsmen, and to secure 
a statute based on natural requirements, so that 
real protection would result to the fish and 
game of the State, instead of the jumble of laws 
now existing. In fact, there is no limit to the 
value of such an organization as is proposed. 
Believing that it will be necessary only to 
present the matter practically to the sportsmen 
of the State, this “call to arms” is issued. The 
cost of belonging to the League has been placed 
at a minimum—one dollar annually for indi¬ 
vidual members, and five dollars annually for 
clubs. This ‘gives the right to sit in the an¬ 
nual meeting of the League, to have a voice in 
the proceedings and to secure the united 
strength of the organization for any legitimate 
purpose. Every year shows the great import¬ 
ance of getting together the honest sportsmen 
of the State for mutual benefit and protection. 
The officers of the League believe that such 
benefits can best be procured by uniting under 
its banner. 
Application blanks for membership may be 
had from the Secretary, Mr. John D. Whish, 
Box 39, Capitol Post Office, Albany, N. Y., 
either by writing directly to him, or by applying 
to a member, who will send in the request. 
The next annual meeting of the League does 
not take place until December, by which time 
it is earnestly hoped that the sportsmen of the 
State will have made up their minds to get to¬ 
gether. J. H. Considine, President. 
