FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Dec. 5, 190S. 
896 
much like shooting poultry in a chicken yard. 
The laws about game preserves wherever they 
may be situated should be strict and strictly ob¬ 
served. Mr. Roosevelt has always stood in the 
front rank among game preservers in this coun¬ 
try and he may be relied on to carry his well 
settled convictions on the subject to Africa. 
Mr. Roosevelt hopes to secure a small series 
of each animal met with in Africa for exhibition 
in the National Museum, and also a series of 
African birds and smaller mammals to be added 
to the study collection of the Museum. With 
the efficient force which he has chosen there is 
no reason why the purposes of the expedition 
should not be carried to a successful end. 
Grouse, Quail and Crows. 
Grouse and quail are largely vegetarian, says 
H. W. Henshaw, in the Yearbook of the De¬ 
partment of Agriculture, though the several 
species have enviable records as successful hun¬ 
ters of insects. The habit of eating the buds 
of fruit trees in spring is sometimes cited against 
our ruffed grouse as a serious fault, but usually 
trees are not harmed by the process. 
The value of all the members of the grouse 
family, as of waterfowl and waders, for food 
is great and is constantly increasing as the birds 
diminish in numbers. Quail have always been 
favorite objects of pursuit by sportsmen, and 
by preserving the quail on a large farm, or on 
a number of adjoining farms, and asking a fair 
fee from sportsmen for the privilege of shoot¬ 
ing, a considerable revenue may be derived, and 
it is not unlikely that the game on a large tract 
of, say, several hundred acres may be made to 
yield a revenue as large as that from a good 
sized poultry yard, or even larger. However, 
perhaps the most valuable service to the farmer 
rendered by Bob White is the destruction of 
the seeds of weeds, although the total number 
of insects eaten in a year by a covey on the 
farm is enormous, and it is questionable if the 
value of game birds to the farmer, especially 
the quail, as weed and insect destroyers be not 
greater than their value as a source of revenue 
from sportsmen or as food. It is pretty safe 
to assort that, except where grouse and quail 
are so numerous that a certain percentage of 
the increase can be spared, the farmer cannot 
afford to sacrifice them to sport or to the mar¬ 
ket. 
Crows are as widely as they are unfavorably 
known for their depredations on corn, especially 
when it is just sprouting, and their record is 
further blackened by their appetite for the eggs 
and nestlings of all small birds and of game 
birds. Bad as crows are, they yet have redeem¬ 
ing traits, for they devour great numbers of in¬ 
sects, especially grasshoppers and cutworms, and 
they kill also many meadow mice and other small 
rodents. The economic status of the crow is, 
of all birds, one of the most difficult to deter¬ 
mine, but the balance is undoubtedly in the bird’s 
favor. The offering of bounties to insure the 
destruction of crows is mistaken policy, for, as 
stated above, the crow performs important ser¬ 
vices to agriculture, and his extermination would 
be a loss to the country. 
The Forest and Stream may he obtained front 
any newsdealer on order. Ask your dealer to 
supply you regularly. 
How Canada Treats her Forests. 
Brooklyn, N. Y., Nov. 21. —Editor Forest and 
Stream: At least one vacationist in Canada has 
been struck by the fact that even in its third 
edition (1907) ‘‘Baedeker” has a considerable 
section on the geology, but none on the forests, 
of the Dominion. A good bit more than one- 
third of the total land area of Canada, as esti¬ 
mated in 1907, is wooded. The very symbol of 
the country is arborical—a maple leaf. But 
further—in recent years Canada has shown in 
its forest legislation and administration a spirit 
for which the mere outer may fairly feel grate¬ 
ful. Take the Province of Ontario as an ex¬ 
ample. Ontario has four larger forest reserves 
—Metagami, Mississaga, Nepigon and Tema- 
gami; and two smaller. This is exclusive of 
the Algonquin Park, which, though well 
wooded, is reckoned as a fish and game pre¬ 
serve. 
The Temagami Forest Reserve alone is half 
as large again as the combined State forest 
area of New York and Pennsylvania. Accord¬ 
ing to the official report for 1906, there were 506 
fire rangers on duty in Ontario under the direc¬ 
tion of the Department of Lands, Forests and 
Mines. Of these 345 were employed on terri¬ 
tory held under timber license, half of their 
wages and expenses being paid by the licensees. 
Rangers were put on duty along the lines of 
construction of the Temiskaming and Northern 
Ontario, the Canadian Northern and the Grand 
Trunk Pacific railways. ‘‘No serious fire oc¬ 
curred,” says the report, ‘‘the supervision, es¬ 
pecially along the railway lines, being very 
close.” When the Temiskaming and Northern 
Ontario was run through the Temagami Reserve 
in 1905 the right of way was extended to 400 
feet in order to reduce the danger of fires from 
ignition by locomotive sparks. 
The Temagami Reserve may be selected as 
representative of general conditions. The forest 
there is composed of spruce, tamarack, white 
birch, poplar and the pines. Perhaps the most 
distinctive feature is the red pine and its tinted 
bark and tasseled foliage. Its appearance there 
justifies Michaux in writing that ‘‘its growth is 
nothing short of magnificent,” and confirms Sar¬ 
gent’s opinion that it is “the most desirable as 
an ornamental tree” of the northern pitch pines 
(“Manual of the Trees of North America,” 
1905). 
S. C. MacDonald, the chief ranger, was trained 
in the service of lumber companies operating in 
country south and southeast of the Temagami 
region. After years of experience as a “boss” 
he was placed in charge of the reserve in 1905. 
It is generally admitted that he has directed it 
with skill and success. His headquarters, for¬ 
merly at Bear Island in Lake Temagami, are 
now at Temagami Station, at which point he 
can be constantly in touch by wire with the pro¬ 
vincial officials at Toronto. Deputies have more 
immediate supervision of the rangers who, how¬ 
ever, when required, report directly in writing 
to Mr. MacDonald. During the early part of 
September a number of forest fires sprang up 
closely adjacent to the reserve, and a few small 
ones within it. So effective is the system that 
within two or three days Mr. MacDonald had 
received letters from more than 90 per cent, as 
to conditions on their beats. 
During a recent trip to Temagami the writer 
had the privilege of a long conversation with 
Mr. MacDonald, an alert, kindly-spoken man of 
about forty-five, who, with easy unpretentious¬ 
ness, holds authority over a domain of between 
three and four million acres, the standing pine 
on which has been valued at $50,000,000. Per¬ 
haps no man in eastern Canada is more familiar 
with forest matters in an intimate and practi¬ 
cal way. He stated that Canadian lumber opera¬ 
tors have for at least half a century been work¬ 
ing along the lines of judicious conservation. 
With their methods he compared those of 
American operators on the northern shore of 
Lake Superior, where great tracts have been 
utterly deforested in the crude fashion so gen¬ 
erally followed in the United States. He in¬ 
stanced one claim in the township of Mattawa, 
at the junction of the Mattawa River with the 
Ottawa. This claim was being lumbered in 
1863-64. To-day it is still being lumbered, and 
its value has steadily increased. He also men¬ 
tioned another claim in this same general sec¬ 
tion that was being worked about an equal 
number of years ago, and was recently sold for 
approximately $500,000. 
Mr. MacDonald believes that the Temagami 
Forest Reserve could be profitably lumbered by 
the Canadian system without injury or inter¬ 
ference with the interests of the camper. The 
shore line about the more important lakes would, 
of course, be kept intact. Certain designated 
portions' would be offered at auction, and all 
operating on them would be subject to pro¬ 
vincial officers. It is unlikely that the reserve 
will to any considerable extent be disturbed by 
mining operations. Thus far finds have been 
made almost wholly without the reserve in the 
country northward and eastward. Only neces¬ 
sary removal of timber is made, and all felled 
is measured by reserve officers and paid for by 
the operator. As to experimental work in con¬ 
nection with forestation from seedlings, Mr. 
MacDonald thinks that it could best be under¬ 
taken in certain tracts once cleared for agricul¬ 
tural uses but since found unprofitable and 
abandoned. Such tracts, he said, are exactly 
suited to that purpose and fully adequate for 
the demand. As a general thing, he continued, 
the older forests in this part of North America 
abound in undergrowth; and, personally, he dep¬ 
recated the removal of such undergrowth, es¬ 
teeming it highly valuable as a shield for the 
young pines during their earlier stages. In 
other words, he is not inclined to favor for the 
present any essential interference with those 
natural conditions under which the native forest 
has here so splendidly flourished. 
Asked to account for the difference in method 
between Canada and the United States, he 
thought it probably due to the rapid expansion 
of America, owing to which the Government was 
unable to safeguard unsettled and well-forested 
country. Settlers and lumber operators thus 
came to own the land and so to control com¬ 
pletely the disposal of the forest thereon. 
Canada’s development, on the other hand, had 
until very recent years been much more grad¬ 
ual, and it had been possible to set aside un¬ 
settled territory as crown lands, which could 
be officially safeguarded. Although naturally 
familiar with the treatment forestry measures 
have persistently received in this country, Mr. 
MacDonald made no reference to any influence 
it may possibly have had. 
