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976 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Dec. 18, 1909. 
is so badly needed and where public sentiment 
is averse to the present laws. 
As to the game throughout the State, he sa d 
the several good seasons in the recent past had 
aided and there is a general increase. He be¬ 
lieved there were more deer at present than for 
several seasons. "Birds, where breeders have not 
been killed, are increasing. He was inclined to 
favor an open season for pheasants throughout 
the State, as he believed this would please 
sportsmen generally and assist the piotectors 
in better enforcement of the game laws gen¬ 
erally. Where one cbunty permits pheasant 
shooting for a stated time, and neighboring 
counties do not, there is dissatisfaction all 
round, and the residents of the open county are 
deprived of shooting they would otherwise have 
in a general open season. He would make it 
easier for the protectors to enforce the fish and 
game laws than is at present possible. He re¬ 
ferred to the work at the State game farm and 
introduced Mr. Rogers, its superintendent, who 
was in the audience and who, he said, was there 
to give any information desired. Birds, he de¬ 
clared, would not be given by the State for 
liberation on posted lands—a statement that was 
heartily approved by the audience. 
In reviewing the work of the protectors Mr. 
Burnham said they had secured 1,272 convictions 
this year, losing only five per cent, of the cases 
brought. This is in line with the policy of the 
department, which believes that, in order to en¬ 
gender respect for the laws, it must win its 
cases. He then told how his men are selected, 
through competitive civil service examinations, 
thus cutting out all ‘‘soft snaps,” and of the 
efforts put forth to bring about thorough or¬ 
ganization. Monthly meetings are held and 
every available means taken to instruct the men 
in the details of their work. Most of the worthy 
suggestions, said Mr. Burnham, come from as¬ 
sistant chiefs. The State is divided into dis¬ 
tricts, each under an assistant chief or a respon¬ 
sible protector. The department keeps in con¬ 
stant touch with the men in the field, and in this 
way knows what they are doing. 
The chief then told of the annual meetings 
of the protectors, at which time a mock trial is 
held and all the legal aspects of their work 
shown the protectors. The men are rated, there 
being four rankings, the lowest of which are 
discharged. The men, he said in closing, are re¬ 
quired to be on duty twenty-six days in every 
month. His remarks were heartily applauded. 
Dr. Arthur W. Booth, of Elmira, reviewed 
the forestry work of New York, the United 
States and foreign countries, and compared the 
sentiments of those who could see only lumber 
in the forests and water power alone in the 
streams, and those to whom both represented 
so much in health and recreation. In telling of 
the work of the league in preventing destruc¬ 
tion and in propagating fish and game he de¬ 
clared that too many persons were content to 
believe that it was enough to release birds in 
the fields and forests and fish in the streams, 
letting nature take care of them. He called 
attention to the vast acreage of barren lands and 
the possibility of reforestation thereon, and gave 
statistics showing that it was possible to make 
reforesting pay in a term of years. He believed 
the Legislature should remit taxes on reforested 
lands provided the owners thereof could show 
that no fires had occurred on their lands. 
In common with other members of the Che¬ 
mung County Forest, Fish and Game Protective 
Association he believed forestry of prime im¬ 
portance. To this end that organization at one 
time procured from the State commission 3,000 
young white pine trees, the total cost of which 
was $35, carriage included. From the available 
school children they chose 250, the toughest and 
most destructive ones first—boys who were fond 
of setting woods fires and similar mischief. Ar¬ 
rangements were made with-farmers whereby 
six acres of land was available, and on a cer¬ 
tain day previously announced 400 school chil¬ 
dren eagerly took part in the work of setting 
out the trees. This was divided up so that all 
the children could help, and in less than two 
hours the 3,000 trees had been planted. So far 
the loss has been about 10 per cent, only, despite 
last year’s severe drouth. Every one of those 
children has watched the experiment eagerly, 
and farmers of the county have become in¬ 
terested and have made inquiries as to procur¬ 
ing seedlings. Dr. Booth suggested that the 
commission be asked to further the work of re¬ 
forestation on Arbor Day, and to make its re¬ 
sults practical. 
A. Kelly Evans, of Toronto, commissioner of 
the fisheries of Ontario, delivered a long and 
very impressive address in which he said, among 
other things, that he would join with Mr. Whip¬ 
ple in asking the league members to take a 
broader view of the great work that has been 
and is being done by the New York Commis¬ 
sion. He was impressed, he said, with the results 
that had been accomplished by the commission 
in the shell fisheries, which, unknown to mem¬ 
bers inland, was nevertheless of vast import¬ 
ance to them and was deserving of support. 
More good, said Mr. Evans, had been done in 
Ontario since the establishment of. his commis¬ 
sion than ever before. It had supervision of 
a territory comprising 280,000 square miles, with 
a population of only 3,000,000. Last year the 
commission’s revenue was $100,000, and it had 
succeeded in a measure in driving out of the 
heads of the people the old idea that game and 
fish protection was only a fad of the rich. He 
had, he said, stumped the whole province, try¬ 
ing to impress the people with the monetary 
value of the fish and game and endeavoring 
to get them to look upon these as an asset of 
enormous value which they should protect for 
that if not for sentimental reasons. To this end 
the $2 rod tax was imposed, partly as another 
educational reason, and last year $18,000 was 
collected from this source alone. 
Mr. Evans said he was opposed to the leasing 
of large tracts of the public domain for private 
preserves. He then reviewed the history of the 
commercial fisheries in Canada owned by Ameri¬ 
cans, and of the evils attending the differences 
in the regulations on each side of the inter¬ 
national line through which fish which cannot 
b.e sold in Ontario are shipped to New York and 
other markets for sale. The mass of the peo¬ 
ple, he said, had been apathetic, but through the 
efforts of Theodore Roosevelt, Gifford Pinchot 
and other men they are coming to a realization 
of the forest, fish and game situation of to-day. 
He gave as an illustration of what sportsmen 
can do when opposed to politicians and the com¬ 
mercial interests, the case of the River Thames 
at London, Ont. There for forty years netting 
had been carried on at a destructive pace and 
it was believed that nothing could be done to 
regulate it. The Ontario Fish and Game Pro¬ 
tective Association took the matter up and suc¬ 
ceeded in attracting the interest of the mechanics 
in the coarse fishing. Associations were formed 
and missionary work carried on with the ulti¬ 
mate result that now, after several years of dis¬ 
couraging efforts, no net licenses are to be found 
on the Thames. 
The sportsmen of America, Mr. Evans de¬ 
clared, are all under one common flag, and he 
hoped the time would come at no distant day 
when the forest, fish and game laws will be made 
uniform. He dwelt on the difficulties besetting 
his department and its overseers when it was 
possible for a prominent hotel in a New York 
city to print on its menu cards in bold type the 
legand, “Bay of Quinte Black Bass.” He urged 
the league to pass a resolution forbidding the 
sale of these fish in New York State. 
There was free fishing on the St. Lawrence. 
This was because of the desire of the Ontarians 
to live in amity with their friends to the south, 
but he and they deplored the fact that launches, 
towing strings of skiffs, manned by Americans, 
provisioned in the United States, crossed to the 
Canadian side every morning in the fishing sea¬ 
son and returned at night, when, according to 
common rumor, many of the fish taken were 
sold by the guides in the market. 
Mr. Evans was cheered enthusiastically when 
he left the platform, after which Chief Burn¬ 
ham called his attention to waters lying on both 
sides of the line in which Canada had not, he 
said, acted fairly toward New York State in 
the matter of fish protection. There was an ex¬ 
change of compliments at the close of a brief 
argument, however, tending toward reciprocity. 
Charles R. Skinner, the father of Arbor Day 
in New York'State, then rose to say that in 
eighteen or twenty years the school children of 
the State have planted 800,000 to 1,coo,000 trees 
round about school houses. He also offered a 
resolution which was adopted, asking the Legis¬ 
lature for more liberal appropriations for the 
protection of fish and game. 
The Second Day. 
On Friday morning the delegates listened to 
an able address delivered by Oliver Adams, vice- 
president of the Ontario Fish and Game Pro¬ 
tective Association, and an associate of Mr. 
Evans in the protective work in the province 
where, according to estimates, $1,000,000 was 
paid during the past year by visiting sportsmen, 
a large number of whom hunted big game. Mr 
Adams reviewed the history of fish and game 
protection in his province, particularly that pari 
related to the clubs and associations, and told 
of the difficulties encountered by the handful of 
overseers, who were formerly dominated by po i 
ticians, and although brought to a more efficieir 
basis in recent years, were handicapped by lacl 
of adequate salaries and by the immense area; 
which they are expected to cover in their lint 
of duty. He referred especially to the fishing 
the immensity of the waters available, and tin 
possibilities for good sport for all time if safi 
and sane restrictions are made effective. Lik 
Mr. Evans, he felt that the best of feeling mus 
exist between the sportsmen of the two coun 
tries; that their organizations should work ii 
harmony, assisting each other in various way 
to the end that their descendants as well a 
