Jan. 14, 1911.] 
57 
Foriy-five Minutes with the Geese. 
Selbyville, Del., Jan. 6 . —Editor Forest and 
Stream: Possibly some of the many readers of 
your very interesting paper \yould have enjoyed 
being in the blind with my friend V. and myself 
some weeks ago, shooting geese. I can assure 
you I would have enjoyed the company of many 
of my old shooting friends of years gone by, 
but the Great Spirit has so arranged it that 
possibly we may never meet again, and this is 
why, with your permission, I want them to 
know where I am and one of the many things 
I am trying to still do—point my gun straight, . 
as well as my character. 
Friend V. and I agreed, as we had tramped 
the fields enough after quail, to give our dogs 
a much needed rest and hunt bigger game. 
While we are up with geese, we are behind 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
enough for me. After listening a moment I 
roused V. as the geese pitched among our 
decoys and pointed through the blind. I shall 
never forget the look in his eyes as he asked, 
‘‘How did they get there?” I told him they 
just fell out of the clear sky. We got upon 
our knees to shoot, as we never shoot geese 
over decoys until they are on the wing, for fear 
of shooting a decoy. When the rumble was 
over, V. Said, “Floyd, we got two.” I told 
him he was wrong, for he had killed two and 
the one I shot at was still going. I never held 
any better in my life, and I was studying how 
it could happen, when V. said, “Let me see that 
empty shell.’ 1 To my surprise, I was shooting 
3 drams and No. shot. 
These geese pitched down not more than two 
hundred yards away and twelve of them started 
to swim back. We made up our minds to re- 
Governor Dix’s Message. 
In his annual message to the New York Legis¬ 
lature, Governor John A. Dix had this to lay 
regarding the State’s natural resources: 
As to the Forest, Fish and Game Commission 
and the State Water Supply Commission, under 
these heads I wish to call your attention to the 
very important question of the conservation and 
proper development of the natural resources of 
the State. It is now generally recognized that 
much of our prosperity, health and progress de¬ 
pend upon a continuous, all-year supply of pure 
water for the people, and that this can be assured 
only in great quantities by the preservation of 
the forest lands of the State. 
Intertwined with these questions is that of the 
proper development of the great water powers 
which are now permitted to go to waste and the 
DEER IN YELLOWSTONE PARK. 
with quail, on account of the scarcity of the 
latter. 
We procured three days’ provisions and 
aboard the gasolene boat we went, stopping on 
our way to get the bayman and his live geese 
decoys and sailboat. When we landed on the 
shooting grounds, it was 8:50 o’clock, and a 
fine sunny morning. As no geese were in 
sight, the bayman started up the bay to see if 
some could be found, while V. and I fixed a 
nice warm blind out of reeds and grass with a 
few bushes broken and stuck in the marsh with 
grass thrown over them. 
I had brought along a few shells loaded with 
No. yy 2 shot, intending, while waiting for geese, 
to shoot a crow or lark as it flew by while 
V. dozed a little in the hot sun. The decoys 
had been hobbled and staked off some twenty- 
five yards from the blind, and I was just about 
to shoot a lark, when I heard that familiar 
sound over my head—wish-wish-wish—and be¬ 
hold! there were about seventy-five geese going 
over our heads. A quarter of a mile down the 
bay they turned and pitched in among our 
decoys. Our geese were surely saying some- 
t ung to them, the prettiest and sweetest 
music I ever heard. One can talk of fox or 
rabbit hounds for music, but geese are good 
From a photograph by G. W. Ridge. 
ceive them in good sportsmanlike fashion. On 
they came until close enough, and our guns 
made more noise. Two fell to our first shots 
and five for the second. 
Down the bay they pitched again. The bay- 
men, hearing the noise and starting back, saw 
the geese and drove the remaining seven back 
to us, and we brought down six this inning, 
making thirteen dead, with one old gander 
going away saying something in goose 
language. 
We concluded we had plenty and had started 
to pick the thirteen geese up, when to our sur¬ 
prise, we looked up the bay and there came 
that lone gander, sixty to seventy-five yards 
high. Pie was talking and our decoys probably 
told him to come along. When he was about 
sixty-five yards away I poked that old single¬ 
trigger of mine out and touched it off, and the 
gander went into the pile with the thirteen, 
making fourteen down in three innings in 
forty-five minutes. 
My advice is, never take in the blind when 
shooting wild geese, any other than goose loads 
all the powder that the ammunition company 
will load and iy s ounce BB shot—for a wild 
goose is not so hard to hit, but is hard to kill. 
C. W. Floyd. 
proper utilization of which would result in bring¬ 
ing to the State an annual revenue of many mil¬ 
lions of dollars as well as adding greatly to the 
wealth of the people. The State has been buy¬ 
ing from time to time large tracts of woodland, 
and as all of these matters are related in one 
form or another to each other, it has seemed to 
me to be the part of wisdom that they should 
all be placed under one jurisdiction, to the end 
that they may be all treated in such manner as 
to ensure to the people their development along 
the most efficient and at the same time the most 
economical lines. 
The Constitutional Convention of 1894 con¬ 
templated the preservation of the Adirondack 
forests of this State. I he intent to preserve 
carries with it the necessity to conserve, and a 
constructive administration of the forests in¬ 
volves the development of the natural resources 
in the forests. In order that the State of New 
York should derive the full benefit of those re¬ 
sources, either developed or undeveloped, it will 
be necessary to utilize all the forces which will 
aid in the advancement of this great Common¬ 
wealth. This State ranks last in the proportion 
of population productively engaged. Although 
we rank first in the total value of our manufac¬ 
tured products, other States are relatively in- 
