Jan. 22, 1910.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
137 
board feet per acre. The annual yield of our 
best forest lands is about 20,000 board feet per 
acre. The commission thinks that the differ¬ 
ence between these two figures should induce 
individuals to plant more trees for commercial 
purposes. He recommends larger appropria¬ 
tions for the establishment of tree gardens and 
says the State should be able to supply the 
demand for trees made upon the department by 
citizens of the State, which /this year will 
amount to approximately 5,000,000 and ought to 
be 30,000,000. The commissioner recommends 
the giving of free trees to the people as well as 
free fish. 
The commissioner expects to distribute from 
the State game bird farm 12,000 birds and eggs 
during the summer of 1910. 
Public attention is called to the practice of 
holding in, cold storage fruits, vegetables, meats, 
birds and fowls. This matter was brought to 
the attention of the department where viola¬ 
tions of the game law have been detected in re¬ 
lation to game and game birds; and the com¬ 
missioner thinks that fish or game kept for 
long periods of time and then sold to the public 
is unwholesome and that the public is being 
unwittingly victimized. 
The report contains a very deserved eulogy 
of the late Colonel William F. Fox, who was 
the pioneer in forestry matters in the State of 
New York and was directly connected with the 
commission for more than twenty-five years. 
An amendment to Article VII., Section 7 of 
the State Constitution is advocated by the com¬ 
missioner. As this section now reads any gen¬ 
eral, practical use of the forest is prevented. 
Removal of down timber; construction of fire 
lanes, or handling State timberlands in such 
manner that would secure the greatest benefit 
to the public is unconstitutional. He thinks the 
State should have the right to build good roads 
through the forests; and to be able to use the 
great water power annually lost; that the 
Forest, Fish and Game Commission should 
have the right to lease camp sites, thus afford¬ 
ing an opportunity for many, who cannot at 
present go to the woods and live cheaply, to 
avail themselves of that pleasure; that the com¬ 
mission should have the right to remove down 
timber, thus bettering conditions as to fire pro¬ 
tection. 1 here is enough timber lying on the 
ground and going to waste in the Adirondacks 
to supply New York State with wood for years; 
besides, this condition constitutes a serious fire 
menace to the forest. 
Another cause of fires from which great de¬ 
struction has followed comes from the careless¬ 
ness of campers, hunters and berry-pickers. 
What legislation can be had other than that 
which we now have fixing severe penalties for 
carelessly or wilfully setting or causing forest 
fires is a question. General public education 
along this line may be of greatest good. This 
year the department used every medium it could 
devise to call the attention of the public to the 
dangers, and to be careful. We stationed men 
at principal points of entrance to the forests to 
warn all going into the woods, to instruct them 
how, where and when to build fires and when 
not to build them at all; warning notices were 
distributed by the thousands through trains and 
to individuals. Newspapers gladly gave public 
notice and warnings. The most wanton of all 
fires were caused wilfully by berry-pickers. 
Unless such people are more careful it may be 
necessary to exclude them from State land. 
Fire, the greatest danger to forests, must in 
some way be prevented, even though the method 
to prevent be made exceedingly drastic and 
arbitrary. 
Mr. Whipple thinks that the right should be 
given to dispose of outlying, detached parcels 
of land and with the proceeds, or the equiva¬ 
lent, acquire land within the park lines. These 
changes would provide revenue for the expenses 
of the commission and would permit the hand¬ 
ling of the State’s property for its best in¬ 
terests, in a scientific, wholesome way, and at 
the same time improve it as a private indi¬ 
vidual would improve his own property. 
Commissioner Whipple feels that a uniform 
law should apply to all fish and game through¬ 
out the State. He refers particularly to the 
brant shooting season on Long Island and the 
LOUISE, 
The little daughter of L. J. Bryant, of Newark, 
N. Y. She is fond of guns and shooting. 
anomaly of a half mile limit from the shore 
in Lake Ontario and a mile limit in Lake Erie, 
for the catching of lake trout and whitefish. 
For several years an effort was made to con¬ 
tract the open season for deer, which finally re¬ 
sulted in an open season from Sept. 16 to Oct. 
31, inclusive. In 1909 the statute was amended 
extending the season permitting the killing of 
bucks from Nov. 1 to the 15th, inclusive, which 
in effect extended the open season for all deer 
fifteen days. That was not the intention of the 
author of the amendment, but has been the re¬ 
sult, as evidenced by the prosecutions for vio¬ 
lations under the amended law for illegally 
killing does during the fifteen days and by the 
taking of many does by hunters, campers and 
especially residents of the woods country for 
which the department has been unable to fix 
the responsibility and punish the violators. 
Any one familiar with hunting and who 
understands human nature and human frailty 
must know that many does under such a law 
will be shot by mistake, many purposely, and 
used in the camps and in the homes within the 
deer country. There is only one way; that is 
to close the season for all deer at one and the 
same time. It would have been much better to 
ciose the season entirely on does, allowing only 
bucks to be taken, than to have extended the 
season. I his year at Long Lake West, in one 
day, there were twenty-eight deer shipped, only 
one of which weighed over eighty pounds. 
The taking of so many small deer is fast ex¬ 
terminating the species. A law for bucks only 
would help save our deer and in the end be 
much better. Forty-six days is long enough 
for an open season in a State with nine millions 
population and no more deer country than we 
have. Between those who hunt (and they are 
legion), and the lumbermen who are rapidly 
destroying winter cover and winter food for 
deer, these beautiful, valuable animals are hav¬ 
ing & hard time of it. If we look to the preser¬ 
vation of this noble game for future use (and 
we most assuredly should) thirty days is ample 
for the open season. The amendment of last 
winter should be stricken out, or an open sea¬ 
son for bucks only should be made. 
1 he Long Island duck law relating to brant 
and the possession of duck after the shooting 
season should be changed. There may be other 
and much desired amendments, but unless the 
necessity for amendment is very plain and con¬ 
clusive we believe the law should remain as it 
is. We might better suffer a little from cer¬ 
tain ills now experienced under the law, than to 
be constantly tinkering with it. 
The commissioner asks for $ioo.coo to be ap¬ 
plied annually to the propagation and distribu¬ 
tion of seedling trees below' cost. The State 
is now growing only one-twenty-fifth as many 
as it should. It is also recommended that land 
dedicated to tree growing and planted with 
trees be relieved from increased taxation for 
thirty years; that money be appropriated for 
the immediate purchase of a million acres of 
land in the Adirondack preserve and 400,000 
acres in the Catskill preserve. 
Louisiana Game Preserves. 
New Orleans, La., Jan. 10 .— Editor Forest 
and Stream: Reports have reached here of an 
exciting encounter between John Roberts, a pro¬ 
fessional hunter, and a wildcat near Covington, 
La., some thirty miles from New Orleans. The 
contest is described as being very fierce, and 
Roberts only narrowly saved his life by the 
timely use of his hunting knife. Mr. Roberts 
says as he was going through the woods in quest 
of wild turkeys a large wildcat without any 
warning leaped from the branches of a small 
ti ee on his head and encircled his neck with her 
forepaws and at the same time biting him 
severely. He says he was so stunned and 
startled by the unexpected attack that he did 
not know what to do, .but he grasped the cat 
by the hack and pulled it as hard as he could, 
and finally succeeded in drawing the animal from 
his head, then drew his knife and thrust it into 
the cat s body, killing it. Mr. Roberts states 
that the reason he was attacked was on account 
of the ’coon skin cap he wore, the wildcat prob¬ 
ably thinking the skin was a live ’coon. Roberts 
was badly injured and will probably wear scars 
the rest of his life on his neck, head and face. 
The encounter took place near the banks of 
Pearl River, and it was barely daylight at the 
