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. 
_ 
THE MASSACHUSETTS ASSOCIATION’S 
WORK. 
I # 
A report of the work done in 1906 by the 
Massachusetts Fish and Game Protective Asso¬ 
ciation just issued shows gratifying results. This 
volunteer work must not be confounded with 
that done by the Fish and Game Commission of 
the Commonwealth. 
As is natural and wise the chief work among 
game birds was done with the quail, of which 
more than 4,400 were liberated between January 
and April of last year. Most of these were set 
4 free; though a number were given to the Fish 
and Game Commission. These last bred in con¬ 
finement, about 80 young quail being hatched, of 
which 24 reached maturity. Most of the re¬ 
ports- of the liberated birds are encouraging, and 
in a majority of cases where birds had been 
turned out, bevies of quail were found in the fall 
where for several years there had been none be¬ 
fore. The general tenor of the report is that a 
goodly number were left over at the close of the 
last shooting season and the interest felt by 
sportsmen in these birds has, it is believed, led to 
► their being regularly fed in many cases during 
' the winter just ended. 
The report contains suggestions on liberating 
and feeding quail, the feeding box devised and 
used by Mr. C. A. Taft, and described and 
figured in these columns, being recommended. 
It is believed that if the birds each year can be 
brought back to their feeding boxes at the be¬ 
ginning of the winter and so can be well fed, 
j there is no reason why they should not endure 
any amount of cold and snow. The importance 
of providing for the birds bare ground, or 
something that is equivalent to bare ground, and 
of furnishing them with gravel during the win¬ 
ter are properly emphasized. Food alone is not 
enough to preserve the birds. 
The Association has done a good work in 
watching legislation. Every year its legislative 
committee examines all bills presented to the 
Legislature, and recommends their passage or 
their defeat. During the past year bills prohibit¬ 
ing the sale of prairie chickens, reducing the sale 
season for quail to two months instead of six, 
reducing the sale for black ducks and teal from 
twelve months to six, protecting woodducks for 
five years, and one taking from land owners and 
members of their families the right to set snares 
on their own premises were enacted, and received 
the Governor’s signature. The Association has 
worked hand in hand with the Biological Survey 
represented by Dr. T. S. Palmer, whose excellent 
work is well known. 
Within the year the Association has brought into 
its membership many of the sportsmen’s clubs of 
Massachusetts, and this concentration of effort 
cannot fail to result in great good. It has also 
urged the formation of new clubs which it en¬ 
courages in all possible ways. 
Successful efforts were made during the year 
to supply trout for the fall planting, and over 
40,000 fingerlings were distributed. 
The work of the Association is constantly ex¬ 
panding and public appreciation of the impor¬ 
tance of this work increasing. It believes that 
quail may be restored to Massachusetts covers 
in fair abundance by occasional restocking and 
systematic feeding, and that trout streams may 
be greatly helped by restocking. 
While there is no doubt that the time is com¬ 
ing when quail and other game birds will be bred 
in captivity, the day when this can be success¬ 
fully done is in the future. Meantime the work 
of the Massachusetts Fish and Game Protective 
Association is of the highest importance and 
value. 
THE NEW YORK DOG TAX. 
The American Society for the Prevention of 
Cruelty to Animals, as it relates to the home 
office in New York city, has had many serious 
troubles in recent months. The public at large 
viewed it as a body which became more and 
more inefficient, in its special mission, as it 
prospered financially from the receipts of mag¬ 
nificent donations, of the bequests of humanitar¬ 
ians, and of the taxation of dogs. 
This revenue, in the aggregate, amounted to 
an enormous sum. Other than from those 
sources, the society had no income. 
In the city of New York, there is a great, con¬ 
stant field for the exercise of the society’s func¬ 
tions. Yet, considering what the society ac¬ 
tually accomplished in its mission, as a preventor 
of cruelty, in comparison with what it might 
have done but did not do, there was an out¬ 
spoken, unfriendly public belief that the society 
was inoperative as a public benefactor, though 
active and successful in matters pertaining to 
the acquisition of real estate. The society’s mag¬ 
nificent costly office building, Twenty-eighth 
street and Madison avenue, was cited as the real 
estate case in point. 
It was boldly maintained that the society should 
apply the funds derived from the State and from 
individuals, to the true mission of the society; 
that is, the prevention of cruelty. In no way 
could their diversion to real estate investment 
be justified, in the view of many vehement critics. 
This was more particularly maintained in re¬ 
spect to the moneys derived from the taxation 
of dogs, the money of the people. 
First of all it was contended that such tax, so 
diverted, was unconstitutional, inasmuch as the 
Legislature could not legally, in whole or in 
part, so turn over the State moneys for the bene¬ 
fit of an individual or a corporation. This con¬ 
tention, in indecisive forms, came before the 
courts a number of times, prior to 1906, without 
disturbing the interests of the society. 
The most recent and most serious case, how¬ 
ever, was that tried recently, in which the so¬ 
ciety prosecuted a resident of Rosebank, Staten 
Island, for harboring a dog without having a 
license therefor. The defence in the main was 
that the act which made it a misdemeanor to 
harbor a dog without taking out a license and 
paying the fee therefor to the S. P. C. A. had 
been declared unconstitutional, in 1901, by the 
Court of Appeals which held that the State Con¬ 
stitution, Article 7, forbids the payment of any 
public money to a private corporation. Later, 
an amendment, with a purpose to nullify this 
article, was passed, but it missed its purpose, and 
that therefore Article 7 still stands. This case 
was tried in the county court of Richmond, 
Staten Island, before Judge Stephen D. Stephens. 
The plaintiff has the right of appeal, and presum¬ 
ably will so avail itself; for the thousands of 
dollars of dog tax are too important as revenue 
to lose without a struggle which will end only 
in the court of last resort. 
If it is finally decided that the society cannot 
legally collect the dog taxes, then the question 
arises: Will it refund the taxes illegally col¬ 
lected since 1901 ? Whether it does so or not, 
will it conduct the society’s affairs in the spirit 
which gave it birth, the spirit of Henry Bergh? 
or will it rest content to gather vast revenues 
and seek for more? 
Although the ground may be covered here 
and there with snow, and the river choked with 
ice drifting with the tidal currents, while the 
wind is raw and chill and the sun obscured by 
leaden clouds, the owners of small boats know 
that only a few short weeks separate them from 
their loved element, hence their feverish haste 
to be prepared for a short cruise when the first 
warm day arrives. 1 he robin and the king¬ 
fisher, on arriving from the south, may con¬ 
vince us that spring is following them with 
swift strides, but the small boat owner is 
even earlier with his first preparations for the 
Warm season. 
Frequenters of his summer s haunts may not 
have seen him for months, but on a holiday in 
March he appears, equipped with sandpaper 
and paint, and donning old clothes, starts in 
with vigorous efforts to put his little craft in 
shape for its season’s use. • And having begun 
his work, he follows it up on every occasion 
when he has a few hours’ leisure until it is com¬ 
plete and his boat and outfit are ready for use. 
Scraping, sandpapering, calking, painting or 
varnishing, overhauling engine or sails, oars or 
paddles, he finds plenty of work to do, and 
when the warm days of early April come, he 
sails away to old familiar camp grounds and 
from that time becomes a happy man once 
more. 
