Forest and Stream 
Terms, $3 a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. | 
Six Months, $1.50. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1909. 
VOL. LXXIII,—No. 10. 
No. 127 Franklin St., New York. 
A WEEKLY JOURNAL. 
Copyright, 1909, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
George Bird Grinnell, President, 
Charles B. Reynolds, Secretary, 
Louis Dean Speir, Treasurer, 
127 Franklin Street, New York. 
FOREST AND STREAM PRIZE STORIES. 
Within a short time the announcement will 
be made in these columns of a list of prizes 
which we intend to offer for articles and stories 
relating to life out of doors. 
The conditions governing the prize competi¬ 
tion are similar to those observed in the compe¬ 
tition of last year, and the time wiil be about 
four months. The prizes will all be cash, and 
the total will exceed five hundred dollars. 
Sportsmen tourists will have covered more 
territory in 1909 than in any other year. With 
the return of prosperous times and the increased 
facilities for traversing land and water rapidly, 
anglers, shooters, naturalists, canoeists and 
yachtsmen have scattered to the four corners 
of the earth, and each one can relate an interest¬ 
ing story concerning his experiences. Many of 
them will do this, and the prizes which we will 
offer will make our competition attractive, so 
that in time our readers will be amused, enter¬ 
tained and instructed. 
STREAM POLLUTION MUST CEASE. 
In the work of conservation Pennsylvania is 
taking a leading part. Both the State Board of 
Health and the Fish Commission are enforcing 
the law which forbids the pollution of waters 
containing game fish. Towns which discharge 
raw sewage into the streams have been warned 
to establish sewage disposal plants, and those 
that have been dilatory or have failed to heed 
the warning have been summarily ordered to 
abate the nuisance. 
It is to be expected that opposition and un¬ 
favorable comment will at first hamper the au¬ 
thorities, but in time approval will follow, and 
then the public will wonder how it could ever 
have endured the conditions to which it has so 
long been accustomed. 
Within a short time a conference between the 
health boards and fish commissions of Ohio, 
West Virginia and Pennsylvania will be held. 
It is intended at that time to devise ways and 
means to prevent the pollution of the Ohio River 
by sewage, a thing that can be done by con¬ 
certed action on the part of the authorities of 
the States it traverses. 
Stream pollution is attracting widespread at¬ 
tention and its abatement must come ere long. 
Sentiment is strongly against the defiling of our 
fresh waters, but action is needed, and this must 
be backed by all of our people. 
LOOKING FORWARD. 
So far there have been fewer forest fires this 
season than last, but the few have caused con¬ 
siderable loss, especially in parts of Canada 
where the drouth has been severe. A press dis¬ 
patch from Yosemite, Cal., last P'riday said the 
Merced grove of giant sequoias was in danger 
from forest fires then burning in the vicinity, 
and on Monday of this week it was said the 
fires were within two miles of this group. Major 
Forsythe, acting superintendent of the Yosemite 
National Park, and all the regulars available, 
established a line between the big trees and the 
fire, and the major was confident they could pre¬ 
vent its advance into the grove. 
In the Eastern States infrequent but heavy 
showers have saved a number of goodly trout 
streams from drying up, but the relief has been 
of a temporary character only, and the so-called 
equinoctial showers, due within a short time, 
may or may not become an important factor in 
the situation. So far as the streams are con¬ 
cerned, throughout the summer they have been 
very low. Last year and in 1907 the situation 
was similar, and during the winters of those 
years they were affected by unfavorable condi¬ 
tions, but the fishing was not damaged as much 
as had been predicted. However, this is not 
proof that floods and drouths are harmless to 
the trout, for the increase through constant 
stocking probably would have become very 
noticeable ere this had the waters been at nor¬ 
mal. It may be regarded as proof that where 
anglers observe the laws, stocking will prove 
very beneficial, and it would further appear that, 
under these conditions, these fish are able to 
cope successfully with many of the natural dan¬ 
gers through which they pass, and the fishing 
will improve steadily if the anglers will observe 
closely the minimum length limit and be content 
with moderate numbers. 
In this connection it must be said that more 
and more anglers are setting up their own stand¬ 
ards. Where the minimum limit is six inches 
they observe an eight or a nine-inch limit and 
put back trout they are legally entitled to keep. 
But while they are converting others to their 
way of thinking, there are altogether too many 
anglers who keep everything they catch, depend¬ 
ing on successfully smuggling their unopened 
creels to the hotel ice box and to their homes. 
Smuggle they must, for they know the result 
of exhibiting a basket of undersized trout. 
From the Eastern States come reports of an 
anticipated bumper crop of ruffed grouse, based 
on favorable conditions during late spring and 
throughout the summer. Last autumn a great 
many sportsmen abstained from shooting because 
of the great scarcity of grouse in 1907, and this 
may also prove a factor in the coming open sea¬ 
son. Voluntary action of this character is of 
material benefit to our game, for those who are 
parties to the agreement use their influence to 
make it of general application; proof positive 
that enlisting the sympathy of the public is pro¬ 
ductive of results in game protection as elsewhere. 
As to larger game, it is unnecessary to say 
more when our correspondents are pointing out 
localities where deer are so numerous that they 
prefer cabbage patches to the sparser provender 
to be found in the forests. This deer problem 
is becoming serious. The illustration furnished 
by Vermont is similar to that mentioned by Mr. 
Mershon. He tells us that the city of Saginaw 
wanted squirrels for its parks; now it does not 
know how to control them since the little rascals 
have increased and acquired new tricks. Ver¬ 
mont at one time wanted deer, and more deer; 
now it has them in large numbers. To the 
casual reader it would appear that no farmer 
dare turn his back on his garden if he hopes 
to see any of his produce again. It is not quite 
as bad as that, but in Vermont and other States 
rigid protection has brought about conditions 
that have furnished problems difficult to solve. 
That the people are not in accord regarding the 
solution is apparent. 
FRANCIS H. LEGGETT. 
The death of Francis H. Leggett, in Wee- 
hawken, N. J., last Sunday, marks the passing 
away of another one of the few sportsmen who 
formed the Percy Summer Club, famous in the 
annals of preserve club litigation. 
It was in 1882 that the club was incorporated, 
under the laws of New Hampshire, by Mr. Leg¬ 
gett and a few of his New York friends. Some 
350 acres of land and water high up in the hills 
at Percy, N. H., including North or Potter’s 
Pond, were secured, the pond renamed Lake 
Christine, and the club set out to establish a 
preserve for fishing, fish culture and recreation. 
Camps and cottages were built and the public 
was excluded. But the preserve included the 
pond and its inlet and outlet, and the people of 
the vicinity began to make trouble, as they and 
their ancestors had always had free access to 
the trout fishing in pond and stream. 
For a quarter of a century the litigation that 
resulted from trespassing on the club preserve 
cost large sums of money. The club, the State 
and a number of its citizens became involved 
at various times, and finally the State defended 
the trespassers. From State to Federal courts 
the case was carried, and the latest decision, ren¬ 
dered about a year ago by the United States 
Court of Appeals, was adverse to the club. 
Mr. Leggett’s age was fifty-nine years, and 
he was a native of New York city. He was the 
head of the great wholesale grocery house which 
bears his name, and with which he and his 
brothers have been identified for about forty 
years. His death was due to heart failure. He 
was stricken while on his way home from a 
railway journey, and died in an ambulance while 
being hurried to the North Pludson Hospital. 
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U. W 1. 
