Forest and Stream 
Terms, $3 a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. 
Six Months, $1.50. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, MAY 14, 1910. 
< VOL. LXXIV.—No. 20. 
1 No. 127 Franklin St., New York 
A WEEKLY JOURNAL. 
Copyright, 1910, 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 in¬ 
terest in outdoor recreation, and to cultivate 
a refined taste for natural objects. 
—Forest and Stream, Aug. 14, 1873. 
GOOD AND BAD. 
The latest news from Albany is pleasing in 
one respect, but displeasing in another. Gover¬ 
nor Hughes has signed the Audubon bill, but 
the Assembly has passed the Whitney bill and 
a decision by that body on the camp site bill will 
probably be reached ere this issue of Forest and 
Stream comes to its readers. 
The Audubon bill was introduced by Assem¬ 
blyman Shea. It amends Section 98 of the game 
laws so that after July 1, 1911, it will be unlaw¬ 
ful to sell or have in possession for sale any 
part of any wild bird protected by this section. 
It will apply to birds from without as well as 
within this State. 
The Whitney bill was strongly supported by the 
lumbermen, the waterpower interests and some 
preserve owners. If it becomes law the State 
and county authorities will build highways 
through the forest preserve for the benefit of 
these men. Each of these roads may be four 
rods wide, all timber to be removed from a strip 
of that width. It is conceded that these roads 
will be durable enough for the hauling of logs 
and heavy machinery, but smooth enough for 
joy riding. The bill is dependent upon the pas¬ 
sage of the Merritt amendment to the constitu¬ 
tion, paving the way for the general invasion of 
the forest preserve. It is high time for friends 
of the Adirondack^ to protest vigorously. 
DEATH OF KING EDWARD. 
The death of Edward VII., King of England, 
has shocked and grieved the people of the Em¬ 
pire on which the sun never sets, and is a mis¬ 
fortune to the world. 
The general impression held in this country 
that the King of England is a mere figurehead 
was in no sense true of Edward VII. When he 
reached the throne he was old enough to feel 
how weighty were his responsibilities, while his 
experience in the world had been sufficient to 
give him a tact and skill in dealing with men 
that made him the foremost royal statesman in 
Europe. This statesmanship was always exer¬ 
cised in behalf of peace. He was a strong friend 
of America. His death comes at a time when 
the political situation in Great Britain is strained, 
and the loss of the man who has been called the 
cleverest living diplomat among the crowned 
heads of the world and one of the best beloved 
persons in the British Empire is universally re¬ 
gretted. 
King Edward was a keen sportsman and a man 
of wide range of interests. He was but seven 
years old when his father took him deer stalking, 
and almost from that time on—that is, for more 
than sixty years—he had given much time to the 
sports of the field. He was called the best shot 
in England, and the records kept at Sandring¬ 
ham and elsewhere show that he usually did bet¬ 
ter than his shooting companions. In India he 
shot elephants, and in a single morning killed no 
less than six tigers. 
The King was an enthusiastic yachtsman, and 
his best known vessel, the cutter Britannia, was 
thought by many to be the fastest boat of her 
size ever built. Although once sold, she was 
bought back by the King and was owned by him 
at the time of his death. He was also deeply 
interested in horse racing, and his stables three 
times won the historic Derby. 
No one as yet realizes how widely his loss will 
be felt. 
TO SAVE WILD PLANTS. 
\ 
A good work is being done by the Society for 
the Protection of Native Plants, whose head¬ 
quarters is in Boston. It is trying to prevent the 
extirpation of wild flowers and other plants, and 
the good influences which it exerts are not con¬ 
fined to any one locality. It should have a field 
as wide as the continent. 
Quite apart from the beauty of plants and their 
usefulness—and yet a part of their beauty and 
usefulness—is their employment in training chil¬ 
dren to observe. Moreover, he who knows the 
botany of a region, knows much of its animal 
life. It is the key to a multitude of mysteries. 
It is a charming story that Miss M. P. Ander¬ 
son tells of an excursion of the children of a 
city school taken to see the flowers on the flood 
plain of the Des Plaines River, thirty miles from 
Chicago. They had agreed to take home as a 
souvenir only a single flower, although all ob¬ 
served and admired all the lovely blossoms that 
they met with. Each child returned to the city 
with its one blossom and its charming memories 
of a delightful excursion. 
What a contrast this wise training presents to 
the thoughtless waste that goes oh in many 
places; where, as in New England, the arbutus 
and some other plants have been wholly exter¬ 
minated from certain regions, or where, as in 
the mountains of Colorado, special trains are 
run for the benefit of tourists who wish to go 
flower gathering. They pull up and destroy vast 
quantities of blossoms and of plants in a way 
wholly unintelligent and wholly destructive. 
Surely, the flowers and the plants are worth 
preserving. 
A WATER CONGRESS. 
Although water is the foundation of life— 
more necessary to it than air—yet we take it as 
much for granted as we do the air—and think 
as little about it. If the public realized how 
absolutely dependent the individual and the 
nation is on the water supply and water purity, 
the reckless and wasteful manner of treating the 
sources of our water supply and the channels 
by which they reach the sea would have long ago 
been corrected. 
Last January, when the Congress of Gover¬ 
nors got together in Washington to discuss con¬ 
servation questions, it was acknowledged that the 
water question is the most important one with 
which the country has to deal. This is beyond 
all question true, and it is high time that the 
campaign of education began. 
The General Committee on Water Supply of 
New York city, of which Thomas A. Fulton is 
chairman, conceived not long ago the idea of 
holding in this city a water congress and ex¬ 
hibition in which such questions as water supply, 
water purity, storage, leakage and waste should 
be discussed by experts and explained to the 
people. This is a wise step, for after all there 
is not much hope of securing adequate legisla¬ 
tion on any subject unless such legislation is 
demanded by the public, and the public is slow 
to grasp new ideas. 
A bill, providing for the holding of such 
water congress and making an appropriation of 
$10,000 therefor, has been introduced into the 
New York Legislature. It has passed the As¬ 
sembly, but Mr. Brough’s bill in the Senate is 
still held in the finance committee. It ought to 
be favorably reported and to pass, and. this 
water congress should be held. No more im¬ 
portant subject is before nation, State or city to¬ 
day, and every hour’s delay is unfortunate. 
The Rev. Z. T. Sweeney, who has resigned his 
position as Commissioner of Fish and Game of 
Indiana, to engage in other work, has held the 
position for thirteen years. During that time the 
enforcement of the fish and game laws and the 
propagation of game and fish have been brought 
to a higher plane than ever before, and to-day 
Indiana methods are studied and adopted by the 
progressive men of various State commissions. 
His department is self-supporting, its expendi¬ 
tures being covered by the fees received. Mr. 
Sweeney was one of the first commissioners to 
realize the necessity of popular support. The 
press of the State was induced to assist him, 
and through it the co-operation of the farmers 
and sportsmen was secured, so that the distribu¬ 
tion of game birds or their eggs and of fish, and 
their protection afterward, were supported by 
the public. Mr. Sweeney’s retirement is a severe 
loss to Indiana and to the work of game and 
fish protection generally. 
