Forest and Stream 
Terms, $3 a Year, 10 Cts. a Copy, | 
Six Months, $1.50. ) 
NEW YORK, SATU.RDAY, JANUARY 7, 
1911. 
VOL. LXXVI—No. 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. 
A VERMONT VICTORY. 
The first real fight in behalf of conservation 
in the State of Vermont ended recently in a 
victory for the conservationists—that is, *the peo¬ 
ple of the State. 
The question arose over a bill to control the 
Ottauquechee River—a measure to grant the 
Champlain Realty Company authority to float 
logs down the Ottauquechee River. The realty 
company desired the right to improve the chan¬ 
nel of the river in order to permit timber cut 
on its lands along the river to be floated down 
to the Connecticut River. The Champlain Realty 
Company is said to be a subsidiary company, of 
the International Paper Company. 
It was held by the opponents of the bill that 
this stream not being navigable, the riparian 
owners owned to the center of the stream, that 
the bill conferred on the corporation the right 
of eminent domain, that the measure would 
cause irreparable damage to the residents along 
the valley, that the Champlain Realty Company 
was asking that the sovereignty of the people 
over this stream be surrendered to it, and that 
the rights of private persons should not be taken 
for the benefit of a corporation. 
The fight in the House was led by Colonel F. 
S. Billings, whose interest in this and other mat¬ 
ters of conservation and preservation is very 
great. Mr. Billings—a former New Yorker— 
is a member of the Boone and Crockett Club and 
a successful big-game hunter. His energy and 
care in getting to the bottom of this whole mat¬ 
ter made him a most effective leader, and he was 
ably supported by many other members of the 
Plouse. This was emphatically a fight of the 
people of Vermont to preserve their lands and 
streams. They are to be congratulated on the 
able leadership and the sturdy devotion to prin¬ 
ciple which defeated this bill. 
Howard M. Buller, who died on Dec. 22 in 
his forty-fifth year, was one of the Buller 
brothers who have long been identified with fish 
cultural work in Pennsylvania. William Buller 
is superintendent of the Corry hatchery; Nathan 
R. Buller is superintendent of the Wayne hatch¬ 
ery; A. G. Buller is superintendent of the Erie 
hatchery; Howard M. Buller was superintendent 
of the Bellefonte hatchery. 
THE SPORTSMAN’S DUTY. 
Elsewhere in this issue we print an argument 
in favor of the hunting of prairie chickens with¬ 
out dogs. It is not a new proposition, it will 
not be received with much favor, but it is worthy 
of careful thought, as it is indicative of one of 
the many new directions in which public opinion 
trends when old and well-tried plans have failed. 
There was a time when it was the belief that 
the then abundant prairie chickens could be 
saved by the passage of proper laws. Little by 
little these laws were passed, £rom time to time 
they were made more stringent, but still the 
supply of birds dwindled. The settling up of 
the prairie country was largely accountable, but 
this and the great increase in the number of 
hunters are only items in the long list of rea¬ 
sons for the increasing scarcity of birds. In the 
prairie country as elsewhere the great truth has 
long been apparent, that good laws alone will 
not bring desired reforms. There must be rigid 
enforcement of these laws by conscientious war¬ 
dens, and honest observation of them by farmer 
and sportsman alike. There have always been too 
many “sooners” in the chicken country—men who 
shoot the young birds in early autumn in the 
closed season. There has been too much zeal 
to be on the ground early before “the other fel¬ 
low” has had his chance. In a wide region, 
where wardens are few and far apart, minor in¬ 
fractions are lost sight of, if indeed many of 
them are observed at all. 
Meanwhile the glorious birds of the prairies 
have decreased in numbers at an alarming rate, 
and this, too, in a remarkably brief time. To 
follow them with good dogs has ever been a 
keen delight; to hunt them without dogs would, 
to the old sportsmen, seem a hollow mockery. 
Many would, if compelled to choose, prefer to 
leave their guns behind and take the dogs. To 
watch intelligent dogs at work is to many a 
greater pleasure than the shooting. 
It may come to this, not only on the prairies 
but in the stubble fields as well. If we are to 
have game, there must be more restraint, less 
license and selfishness. We must be satisfied 
with the interest on our capital, for encroaching 
on the capital year by year is ruinous. 
Bag limits are excellent where game and fish 
are scarce, but elsewhere the plan leaves much 
to be desired. In States where game and fish 
are abundant, and in which limits have lately 
been imposed, the number is invariably too high. 
There it is noticed that large parties return 
home, each man with the exact number allowed 
by law. Special efforts are made to fill out that 
number, and even the least skilled members 
usually boast “the limit.” Then there are gun¬ 
ners who regard the fall bag limit as their just 
due, since they have paid for a license to shoot. 
What has been said of the shooting is equally 
true of fishing. Ruinous methods of taking fish, 
in season and out, have too long been tolerated. 
Our laws are in the main excellent, enforcement 
fair, observance not what it should be. The time 
may come when it will be necessary to impose 
other restrictions which, to the average angler, 
will prove as odious as would the barring of 
bird dogs to the gunner. It is not unlikely that 
one of these will be the prohibition of all forms 
of angling save fly-fishing in certain waters. This 
has already been done in Michigan and, as we 
have pointed out, the result has justified the 
means employed. There one of the trout streams 
has by law been closed to all lures save the fly, 
and in it the trout have increased. 
Limiting the angler to the use of single hooks 
will probably be another restriction. 
Licenses to fish may be the next move, and 
the fishing public generally will have only itself 
to blame if this change is brought about. There 
are already indications that this will be accom¬ 
plished, if at all generally, by enlisting the sup¬ 
port of the gunners who do not fish but who pay 
for shooting licenses. A license to fish or shoot 
at one’s option will probably be the entering 
wedge, to be followed by separate licenses, cost¬ 
ing individuals but a small sum, but producing 
large revenues. 
President Taft said, on New Years day, that 
it is the administration’s intention this year to 
enforce strictly the existing laws rather than 
to look for relief from present ills in new laws. 
It is an excellent sentiment. It should be re¬ 
membered by all persons interested in game and 
fish preservation. Present lav/s need only be 
made more simple, and enforced. 
The conservation movement is gaining strength. 
Its effect may be seen in the court decisions 
against the pollution of streams. The State 
Board of Health of New Jersey has ordered a 
half dozen villages lying along the Hackensack 
River to stop polluting that waterway, although 
the portion of the river affected is tide water. 
The Supreme Court of New York State has 
ordered the village of Sharon Springs to stop 
polluting Brimstone Creek. The village con¬ 
tended that the State had approved the plans 
for its sewage system; the riparian owners, 
mostly dairymen, complained that the water was 
unfit for use. The court held that no prescrip¬ 
tive rights on the part of a municipal corpora¬ 
tion or of an individual exist to create a public 
nuisance detrimental to the rights and health of 
riparian owners. 
*! 
When John Enright', the famous salmon fly- 
caster and angler, died in the prime of life, his 
mother felt his loss more keenly than any of 
her friends thought. She continued to look after 
the welfare of the guests at her hotel in Castle- 
connel, Ireland, many of whom were anglers, 
but early last month her health failed, and in a 
week she was laid to rest beside her son in the 
cemetery overlooking the beautiful River Shan¬ 
non, so well beloved by both. 
