45G 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[March 19, i 9 ! 0 - 
Flooding the Adirondack Park. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Ever since the new constitution of the State 
came into force, that provision in it which was 
designed to save for the people an Adirondack 
park has been an annoyance to the majority at 
Albany and to the forest commissioners. It is 
not in accord with their plans, and it interferes 
with business. Apparently the only people who 
believe in it are those who have nothing to do 
with the management of the forest preserve. 
The men at Albany try at regular intervals to 
change this section. It is too plain and simple. 
Common people can understand it and observe 
its violation, and they often have. 
A resolution is about to go through the Legis¬ 
lature preliminary to an amendment of every 
specific provision in this objectionable section. • 
After this amendment is adopted the constitu¬ 
tion will virtually read that the “lands constitut¬ 
ing the forest preserve shall not be kept as wild 
forest lands. They shall be leased, sold or ex¬ 
changed and taken by any corporation, public 01 
private, and the timber thereon shall be removed 
and destroyed.” Of the original section nothing 
will be left. 
No sooner was this constitution adopted than 
an amendment was devised to take from the 
people all that was of any value in the Adiron¬ 
dack Park—the trees and water and best camp¬ 
ing sites—and was quietly submitted at the next 
election, 1896. Forest and Stream informed us 
just in time, other papers spread the news and 
by a vote of three to one the people refused to 
throw away their heritage. 
The year 1900 was too soon after this vote 
for another amendment, but among other things 
a dam was raised that year for the flooding and 
destruction of State forest land which occurred 
two years afterward. (See Forest and Stream 
for Aug. 4, 1906.) No amendment reached the 
popular vote for another four years, but about 
$100,000 or more was secured for the Beaver 
River dam which floods State land, although it 
supplies no water to anything else that the State 
owns. 
In 1906 a resolution for the same old amend¬ 
ment, this time as preliminary to the bjg water 
power grab, quietly and easily went through the 
Legislature. The program it would permit was 
modest for men who had always had free rule 
in the North Woods, for it only contemplated the 
flooding of 450,000 acres or so of State forest, 
the flooding of private land for which the State 
would pay the damage, the building of many 
costly dams at State expense and the use and 
control of the stored water without cost by pri¬ 
vate companies. Estimates and plans were al¬ 
ready made by engineers. The excuse for ask¬ 
ing the State to do all this was that the farmers 
should be protected from flood damage, not be¬ 
fore prevalent, but now imminent, because of 
the denudation of what was to be an Adiron¬ 
dack Park. The men who had cut the timber 
were to have the water power. The second year 
this resolution failed only because Mr. Hughes 
became governor. It could have been carried 
then, but with the Governor in active opposition 
to the amendment, the chances at election were 
not bright, and it was allowed to die. It did not 
die without hopes of resurrection in another 
form, however, and now we are to have for 
ratification soon a modified proposal to legalize 
the flooding of forest lands. 
The square Governor will be out of the way 
next year, but he is still on the job and the 
wood pile is rearranged so that in his busy days 
he may not look for the “nigger” who no longer 
sits on top, though none of his tracks leads away 
from the pile. The State water supply commis¬ 
sion, whose remedy for everything is of course 
the dam, does not seem to feel as powerful as 
some of its older cousins, and unlike them hesi¬ 
tates to flood the forest preserve until the con¬ 
stitution is amended. Its engineers will make 
the surveys and plans while protection is being 
removed from the park, and after election will 
flood the Adirondack valleys, for this can be 
done without delay, while the big projects on the 
Genesee and Sacandaga are holding the public 
eye. These latter will require time, owing to 
the necessary adjustment for damage to private 
property. It would be interesting to know how 
much of this latest program results from the 
“campaign of education” that one of the richest 
companies was advised to undertake a few years 
ago to secure plenty of water to float out its 
logs from the best remaining timber land in the 
heart of the woods. David Carl. 
Bobwhite in New Jersey. 
Salem, N. J., Feb. 22 .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: The members of the Salem County 
Rod and Gun Club were highly pleased in being 
able to secure a consignment of northern bob- 
white for propagation purposes. The State 
Game Commission has about given up the idea 
of liberating quail, owing to their scarcity in the 
market and the risk of transporting them through 
the States. The members of the club, however, 
still think that bobwhite is the king of the game 
birds, and through persistent efforts of some of 
the members they were able to secure some birds 
from the Clifton Game and Forest Society of 
New York. They were nice large strong birds 
and were liberated on a large tract of ground 
leased by the club, where they will be carefully 
protected during the mating and breeding sea¬ 
son. 
For years the sportsmen in this section talked 
about the streams in Salem county being good 
streams for trout. One asked the other, Why 
wouldn't trout live and thrive in the streams?” 
It remained for the Salem County Rod and Gun 
Club to try the experiment, and last year Sev¬ 
eral of the streams were stocked with fry from 
the Government hatcheries. They did live and 
thrive, and this year several thousand more 
yearlings, five and six inches long, were liber¬ 
ated from the State hatcheries. The members 
are looking forward to some good sport with 
rod and reel in the future. V. P. 
Speak for the Glacier National Park. 
Write to the Hon. C. N. Pray, House of Rep¬ 
resentatives, Washington, D. C., and ask him to 
do everything in his power to push forward the 
bill to establish the Glacier National Park which 
has passed the Senate and is now before the 
House of Representatives. Write also to the 
Congressman from your district and try to en¬ 
list his interest in this bill and to secure his vote 
for it. 
The Game Situation in New England. 
All authorities on matters of sportsmanship- 
agree that there should be no spring shooting. 
Prof. W. W. Cooke, of the U. S. Biological Sur¬ 
vey, the Government expert on the distribution 
and migration of birds, says that fall shooting 
of wildfowl should cease at the end of the fall 
migration. No true sportsman would think of 
shooting a grouse or a quail after the severe 
weather of winter has set in. It is now gen¬ 
erally recognized that these birds have enough 
to do at that season to withstand the inclement 
weather and their natural enemies, and that 
shooting during the colder winter months is too- 
destructive to be allowed. Nevertheless, many 
people who would not kill an upland game bird 
in January or February will continue the shoot¬ 
ing of wildfowl at that season. It is a true say¬ 
ing that “when the days begin to lengthen, the 
cold begins to strengthen.” In ordinary seasons 
in New England the ponds and rivers begin to 
freeze in December, and practically all the wild¬ 
fowl that remain in New England have been 
driven to the sea by the first of January. After 
this date all shooting should stop. 
Wild ducks are in the best condition as food 
when they are feeding in fresh water. When 
they are driven to the salt water flats and to 
the mouths of tidal rivers to feed, they deterio¬ 
rate rapidiv. If the flats are iced up they not 
only grow fishy in flavor, but very poor in flesh 
and are unfit for market. When the ponds, 
rivers and flats are covered with ice, most of 
the fresh waterfowl have difficulty in getting 
water enough to drink, and they must resort to 
open spring holes in the ponds or suffer from 
thirst. If they are driven to the salt water by 
gunners during daylight they can come in to 
drink only at night. In cold weather it is cus¬ 
tomary for gunners to lie concealed near open 
holes where ducks come in to drink or to feed. 
Alexander Wilson, author of the “American 
Ornithology,” tells of great numbers of ducks 
that were killed at an open spot in the ice. Even 
the diving ducks like the old squaws are some¬ 
times greatly reduced by starvation and cold dur¬ 
ing unusually cold seasons. At such times starv¬ 
ing birds become reckless. George H. Mackay 
states in the Auk that during the winter of 1888, 
when the sea about Nantucket was covered with 
ice, two men covered themselves with sheets and 
lay down on the ice beside a crack near a jetty 
on the north shore and there killed with fishing 
poles about sixty old squaws in a little over an 
hour. They found on examining the ducks that 
they were valueless, except for their feathers, 
owing to their emaciated condition. Wildfowl 
were obliged to go to the hills of Nantucket 
during that winter and feed on dry grass. 
During this and other severe winters many wild - 
ducks have been found dead on the ice. One 
gunner near Boston fired both barrels into a 
flock of 200 black ducks, killing eleven and found 
them to be only skin and bone. Oftentimes wild- 
• fowl are so pursued during the fall that' they go 
into the water in poor condition and they should 
have the later months of the winter and the 
spring in which to rest and recuperate for the 
time of reproduction. 
The editor of Forest and Stream, a New 
England duck hunter of many years’ experi¬ 
ence, says that ducks should not be shot after 
Jan. 1, because many of them mate in January 
