Forest and Stream 
Teems, $3 a Year, 10 Cts. a Copy. 
Six Months, $1.50. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, OCTOBER io, 1908. 
j VOL. LXXL—No. 15. 
( No. 127 Franklin St., New York* 
A WEEKLY JOURNAL. 
Copyright, 1908, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
George Bird Grinnell, President, 
Charles B. Reynolds, Secretary. 
Louis Dean Speir. Treasurer. 
127 Franklin Street, New York. 
THE OBJECT OF THIS JOURNAL 
will be to studiously promote a healthful interest 
in outdoor recreation, and to cultivate a refined 
taste for natural objects. 
—Forest and Stream, Aug. 14, 1873. 
HOME BREEDING DUCKS. 
Forest and Stream has often insisted that 
putting an end to the shooting of wildfowl in 
the spring would result in better autumn shoot¬ 
ing, for the reason that in many States ducks 
would again breed where they used to breed 
before the settling up of the country, and that 
these home-reared birds would give early and 
good shooting in the autumn and would be likely 
to attract and hold migrating fowl which other¬ 
wise might not stop. Persons urging the con¬ 
tinuation of spring shooting have from time to 
time denied that wildfowl would breed in the 
thickly settled States, declaring that they all 
passed on to the far north to breed. 
Within the last year or two We have printed 
considerable evidence to show that birds will 
breed with us when unmolested in the spring, 
and during the past summer we have accumu¬ 
lated additional facts. 
In May last a member of a New Jersey orni¬ 
thological society, who possessed a license to 
collect birds and their eggs for scientific pur¬ 
poses, found a blackduck’s nest with twelve eggs 
in Griscom Swamp, N. J., and collected the bird 
and its eggs. Of course the killing of the duck 
and the taking of these eggs is very regrettable 
from the sportsman’s standpoint, but is of con¬ 
siderable scientific interest. It demonstrates 
positively that the blackducks still breed in New 
Jersey. 
Not very long ago we printed a contribution 
from Essex, Conn?, and another from Mil¬ 
ford, showing the breeding this year—spring 
shooting having been abolished—of blackducks 
and woodducks in that State. Within a few 
days we have had a letter from Wilbur F. Smith, 
fish and game warden of Fairfield county, that 
State, which says: 
There was a flock of about thirty blackducks on the 
big marsh between Stratford and Milford. Two nests 
were found and two young broods seen, and it seems 
safe to say that the flock mentioned consisted of native 
birds, since when shot at when the season opened they 
did not fly out to the Sound, but circled high and 
alighted in another part of the marsh. 
It is to the advantage of every man who car¬ 
ries a gun to do his best to see that the laws on 
wildfowl are enforced. If each one of us does 
that it means better shooting for each. 
DEER IN GAME PARKS. 
With the increasing scarcity of wild game, 
the game preserve, public and private, has grown 
up, and is constantly becoming more important. 
This will lead ultimately to the rearing of game 
for market in the same way that domestic ani¬ 
mals and birds are reared, and this industry has 
already been recognized in legislation in various 
States, which exempt deer raised in confine¬ 
ment from the operation of the game law. The 
production and marketing of domesticated game 
will demand more and more recognition in 
future legislation, and existing laws have already 
worked injustice to owners of deer parks in 
two States—Missouri and New York—where the 
courts have decided that the game* laws apply 
to all deer, tame as well as wild. 
One of these cases was that of Mr. Chas. F. 
Dieterich, of Millbrook, N. Y., against the 
American Express Company. Mr. Dieterich 
owns a large estate well stocked with deer which 
have increased so fast that he has been obliged 
to reduce their numbers and wishes to market 
them in New York city. The express company 
declined to accept deer for shipment except 
under the terms of the law, which require that 
the carcass of the deer shall be accompanied by 
its owner, and was upheld in this refusal as 
stated. 
It is reported that during this present open 
season Mr. Dieterich is greatly reducing his herd 
and that recently he killed twenty-five deer and 
engaged persons to accompany the carcasses to 
New York, paying all the expenses of the osten¬ 
sible owners, whose names were written on the 
express receipts covering the shipment. 
The time is clearly at hand when the game 
laws must be modified so as to recognize the 
rights of the owner of the game preserve. 
ANGLERS’ COMPETITIONS. 
Fly- and bait-casting competitions, as our 
readers know, have become very popular in the 
United States. Anglers who take part in them 
soon realize that practice of this sort is of 
immense benefit to novice and veteran. The 
former acquires skill rapidly and loses that 
clumsiness which is so fatal to success in 
manipulating lures for shy game fishes. He also 
ascertains what is and what is not adapted to 
fishing—something acquired but slowly in actual 
fishing—and his deductions are passed upon by 
more skilled anglers who assist him materially. 
Meanwhile the veteran is benefited by his prac¬ 
tice. Although he may be a past master in ang¬ 
ling, the frequent exercise of his wrist and arm 
muscles render his manipulation of the rod on 
the stream a thing agreeable for others to watch 
and a source of pride to himself. 
A pliant rod, a long line and a leader carry¬ 
ing one or two flies form a combination no 
bungler can negotiate. Even the most skilled 
stream fisherman will catch his flies in bushes 
now and then, but occasional practice at floating 
marks will prevent many annoyances of the sort, 
for it gives the angler that confidence in every 
part of his equipment which comes only from 
perfect familiarity with it. Only those who 
have never tried practice casting are so hasty 
as to* say that “tournament casting is not fish¬ 
ing.” This is true, but it is a splendid educator, 
and the scoffer needs only to try to become con¬ 
vinced that he can learn much in a brief time 
that he never thought of in actual fishing. 
There is this to be said of club contests and 
large tournaments: They are far more com¬ 
mendable than the fishing competitions which 
are so popular abroad, and which were at one 
time in vogue in the United States, and are, 
even now, a feature at a few resorts. We 
refer, not to the prize competitions that are 
arranged for an entire season, but to the or¬ 
ganized fishing contests lasting one day, in which 
everything that swims is counted at nightfall 
when the weighing-in takes place. The side- 
hunt has been ridiculed out of existence nearly 
everywhere, and its companion evil, the fishing 
contest, is passing. 
At several seaside resorts fishing contests are 
held throughout the season, and it is true that 
the prizes offered attract anglers who would not 
fish there otherwise. But these men are not in 
the majority, and so far as edible fishes are con¬ 
cerned, they would be fished for anyway if no 
prizes were offered for those of unusual size. 
Only the largest and finest fish are sought, and 
there is no attempt to reward wholesale catches. 
The practice of photographing the fishermen 
with a rack full of non-edible fish is, happily, 
being ridiculed out of existence, and the ten¬ 
dency to liberate small fish is gaining ground. 
The timely arrival of storms last week saved 
the forests in the States of the East and along 
the international boundary line. It is not cer¬ 
tain, however, that the California fires have been 
quenched by rains. In the Adirondacks a light 
snow has fallen and this, following the rains, put 
out many of the fires and may stop others that 
are smoldering in the leaves and roots. It would 
be a satisfaction to know, as has been asserted, 
that the game collected in damp places and thus 
escaped the forest fires. This is undoubtedly 
true of some sections that were burned over, 
but in others the fires spread so rapidly that 
there was scant time for animals and birds to 
seek shelter, even if they were free from the 
panic that attacks the lower orders of animals 
at such times, and from which human beings are 
not always immune. 
A woman is credited with bagging the first 
black bear of the season in the Maine wivds. 
