May 7, igio.l 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
737 
hunters to kill them, and I am in favor of entire pro¬ 
tection forever; should be no open season, I think, either 
this ■ year or any other jrear. If there is evidence of 
abuse, perhaps the farmers’ law should be modified. 
Prof. Charles F. Batchelder, Cambridge: I consider 
an open season on deer thoroughly undesirable. A 
similar open season in southern New Hampshire, has, 
to my personal knowledge, aroused great disgust among 
the better classes there. As a zoologist, I should say 
anything that tends in the long run to check the in¬ 
crease of deer in Massachusetts will prove to be a mis¬ 
fortune to the Commonwealth. 
Hon. Arthur T. Lyman, Waltham: I do not like to 
shoot deer, but do not think farmers or others should 
be prohibited from shooting them on farms and garden 
lands, whether caught in the act of doing damage or not. 
• George H. Richards, N. A. A. for P. F. and G.: 
Your communication of April 25 opens a subject which 
clearly is not being treated well in this Commonwealth. 
The incident in Franklin is most deplorable. No doubt 
the damage done by deer is greatly exaggerated. One 
farmer has said that a hedgehog would do more damage 
in a garden than several deer, which is also true of the 
woodchuck. But the people who are glad to be paid 
for what they do not work for are on the increase all the 
time. To save the deer and make money for the Com¬ 
monwealth would seem better policy than to ble£d the 
State financially and thereby pay for destroying the deer. 
It may not be possible to repeal the so-called farmers’ 
law until the treasury suffers so severely as to need 
protection. At present perhaps the farmer can make 
more from the damages than from his crops. He likes 
the law and has great influence with our lawmakers. 
Killing in the breeding season is wrong, of course. 
Samuel M. Weld, North Chatham: An open season 
on deer is not desirable in this State at any time until 
they are far more numerous than at present. The law by 
which farmers may collect damages I believe should be 
repealed. 
Dr. E. D. Spear: I believe the efforts now making 
to raise deer for food will be the solution of the deer 
question, and I do not believe in the farmers’ law, pre¬ 
ferring a close season at all times. 
William Minot: I would like to go on record unquali¬ 
fiedly as being earnestly opposed to the present law, 
which allows farmers to shoot deer out of season; also I 
think it ridiculous to pay farmers for damages done 
their crops by deer. The law leads to outrageous abuse, 
and is as silly as it would be for the State to pay farmers 
for loss from lack of rain or any other cause. Whether a 
short open season would be wise I don’t know, as I 
am not familiar with the numbers of deer in the western 
part of the State. 
N. Wentworth and Charles B. Clark, of New Hamp¬ 
shire, say: “It seems to us that this [the Massachusetts 
law] is all wrong. We think our New Hampshire law is 
much better and more effective. Our State has never 
paid for damage done by deer, and previous to 1907 the 
deer was taken by the State and sold, and the pro¬ 
ceeds turned into our detective fund; but since we have 
passed the law allowing a person to kill deer when 
doing damage, and having an open season in the south¬ 
ern part of the State where most of the complaints come 
from, there has been but very little trouble; the farmers, 
as a rule, having been very well satisfied.” 
H. H. Kimball. 
New York Legislature. 
The Senate committee on public health has 
reported favorably the bill of Assemblyman 
Eveleth, amending the navigation law to pro¬ 
hibit the draining or depositing of offensive mat¬ 
ter into any lake of the Fulton Chain or its in¬ 
let or outlet, or the middle branch of the north 
branch of the Moose River, including Big Moose 
Lake and Lake Rondaxe. 
Assemblyman Ward has introduced a bill 
amending the tax law in relation to the assess¬ 
ment of waste or barren lands which have been 
planted with trees at the rate of assessment of 
waste and barren lands. 
The Assembly ways and means committee has 
reported favorably Assemblyman Odell’s bill re¬ 
pealing the law creating a forest reservation in 
the Highlands of the Hudson. 
These bills have been reported favorably to¬ 
day by Assembly committees: Assemblyman 
Vosburgh’s, in relation to the protection of fish 
and game in private parks. Assemblyman Fow¬ 
ler’s, permitting the taking of carp by nets from 
the Hudson at any time. Assemblyman Eve- 
leth’s, amending the navigation law to prohibit 
the draining or depositing of putrid or offensive 
matters into any lakes of the Fulton Chain. 
The Senate forest, fish and game committee 
has reported favorably the following bills: 
Assemblyman Wood’s, relative to the waters 
and territory in the St. Lawrence reservation. 
Senator Schlosser’s, amending the forest, fish 
and game law generally. 
Senator Alt’s, relative to the open season for 
black and gray squirrels. 
Bill of Senate committee, amending the forest, 
fish and game law generally. 
Assemblyman Lupton’s, relative to pheasants 
and woodcock on Robbins and Gardiner islands. 
Senator Rose’s, relative to taking suckers 
through the ice in Sullivan county. 
Assemblyman Greenwood’s, relative to spear¬ 
ing fish in Cayuga, Oswego and Wayne counties. 
New York Game Farm. 
The Forest, Fish and Game Commission has 
issued the following statement: 
One of the most interesting subjects concern¬ 
ing the Forest, Fish and Game Commission and 
a work evidently destined to be very useful and 
very popular is the propagation of game birds 
to restock the covers of the State.. Mr. Whip¬ 
ple has just been making an inspection of the 
farm which is about forty-two miles from Utica, 
at Sherburne, Chenango county. It comprises 
170 acres, has good buildings and is especially 
adapted for the work. Harry Rogers, the ex¬ 
pert in charge of the property, has made remark¬ 
able progress. He is a man of wide experience 
in the rearing of pheasants, having been con¬ 
nected with the establishment of the Illinois 
Bird Farm, and believes the New York State 
Farm is altogether the best for the purpose. 
Ihere are now 300 hen and seventy cock birds 
on the place, including Hungarian, English and 
Chinese pheasants. The Chinese stock is from 
wild birds brought from Oregon and are very 
fine. Ihere are forty Hungarian partridges, two 
grouse and an excellent covey of quail. It is 
demonstrated here that the ruffed grouse and 
Hungarian partridges do not quarrel and that 
the pheasant does not destroy the grouse as has 
been alleged.. The pheasants are now producing 
about 180 eggs per day; 3,000 have already been 
obtained. Shipments, under requests received, 
are being made promptly each day. At the end 
of this season the farm will contain 700 pheas¬ 
ants as breeders and 175 male birds. There are 
on the farm now 200 hens for hatching purposes 
and about yoo will be required next year for 
that purpose. The eggs are worth $3.60 per 
dozen on the market and the young birds $5 per 
pair. Birds should be distributed through the 
month of August. There will not be many for 
that purpose this year, as the stock must be in¬ 
creased to 700 on the farm. 
At the time the farm was bought many sug¬ 
gested using uncultivated land owned by the 
State in the northern section for the purpose. 
That would be impossible. A cultivated and 
productive farm must be used. Farming must 
be well done and on a large scale. There is 
being raised this year eight acres of corn, six 
acres of wheat, six acres of buckwheat, seven 
acres of oats, two acres of barley and four acres 
of Hungarian millet for the birds. The farm 
will also produce thirty-five acres of hay. Ten 
acres of the farm is now used for bird pens. 
There are seventy-five pens 12 by 16 feet and S l / 2 
feet high. I he whole lot is fenced with wire 
the same height. Two hundred and twenty-five 
hatching coops are required, all of which are 
made on the place. Seventy-five acres are being 
fenced with galvanized wire fencing 8^ feet 
high for the young birds. Ten thousand feet of 
first-class dressed lumber has been used in pen 
and coop construction. 
Not one bird perished during the winter. The 
snow was very deep and the pens were more 
than two-thirds full of snow, and at one time 
the birds were covered by snow for two days, 
yet withstood the inclement season excellently, 
which proves their hardiness if that had not 
already been tested in this State. 
From a commercial standpoint the investment 
in this farm will show as great a profit as any 
other investment that the State has or can make. 
It will be equal to the fish production which 
costs approximately $63,000 and produces $500,- 
000 worth of fish each year. 
Recent Publications. 
Hunting in British East Africa, by Percy C. 
Madeira. Decorated cloth, 304 pages, illus¬ 
trated from photographs, $5 net. Philadel¬ 
phia, J. B. Lippincott Co. 
This book is introduced by a foreword by 
Frederick Courteney Selous, the world-renowned 
African hunter, who has hunted also in so many 
other quarters of the globe. 
The volume is interesting as a narrative of 
personal adventure in which a woman took part, 
for Mrs. Madeira was with her husband, shared 
his hardships and adventures and herself had at 
least one adventure which caused herself and 
all the party great anxiety and suffering, and 
which she bore with fine courage. Mrs. Madeira 
and some of the men left the trail to travel 
parallel to it. They lost their way, could not 
regain the trail, suffered much for water and on 
the third day found themselves near a ranch. 
The distance traveled was sixty-five to seventy 
miles and the dangers encountered from wild 
beasts—rhinos, lions and buffalo—were very real 
and very serious. Probably no other woman 
ever had such an experience to look back on. 
From the hunter’s point of view Mr. Madeira 
was extremely successful, as the double plate of 
animal heads which forms the frontispiece of 
the volume shows. Many photographs of dead 
game heads and natives illustrate the very hand¬ 
some book which contains in a pocket two maps 
of British East Africa. 
Natural Salvation, by Chas. Asbury Stephens, 
M.D. Cloth, 157 pages. Norway Lake, Me., 
The Laboratory Company. 
An essay on immortal life on the earth from 
the growth of knowledge and the development 
of the human brain. 
The annual tournament of the National Arch¬ 
ery Association will be held in Chicago, Aug. 
16-19, inclusive. 
