Forest and Stream 
Terms, $3 a Year, 10 Cts. a Copy. 
Six Months, $1.50. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, MARCH n, 1911. 
VOL. LXXVI.—Ne. 10. 
No. 127 Franklin St., New York. 
A WEEKLY JOURNAL. 
Copyright, 1911, 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. 
FORBID SALE OF GAME IN NEW YORK. 
Seventeen years ago—in February, 1894, to be 
exact— Forest and Stream announced its plat¬ 
form plank, "The Sale of Game Should Be For¬ 
bidden at All Seasons.” The novelty and bold¬ 
ness of the idea startled the world of gunners. 
Here was food for thought for game protectors, 
for plain average shooters, and above all for 
commercial shooters and market men. From 
the start the game protectors ranged themselves 
with Forest and Stream, and so did some of 
the plain average shooters. Some of these, how¬ 
ever, were timid, and declared that the time had 
not yet come for such action as this, that no 
State Legislature would ever pass such an act. 
Others said it sounded well, but was too radical. 
As for the market shooters and the commercial 
dealers, they regarded this as one of the finest 
jokes that had ever happened. They declared 
that Forest and Stream must be crazy and 
laughed heartily at its folly. 
Well, those who have followed the course of 
game protection, know what came next. Game 
protective clubs all over the country began to 
get together and discuss this novel movement. 
Presently the Legislatures of one State after 
another passed laws prohibiting the sale of game, 
until at the present time there is a long list of 
States, in some of which the sale of game is 
forbidden throughout the year, while in others 
it is forbidden in close seasons, and in others 
still, the sale of some species is forbidden, and 
that of others permitted. 
At Albany, Senator Bayne has introduced a bill 
in the New York Legislature amending the game 
laws and forbidding the sale of game—whether 
mammals or birds. This law ought to pass, for 
wild game should be made absolutely non-com¬ 
mercial. So long as men can make a profit by 
slaughtering game, or so long as they can pay 
the expenses of an enjoyable outing by selling 
their game, so long the wholesale destruction of 
our wild things will continue. It should be for¬ 
bidden to sell game, and this prohibition should 
be universal over the whole country. The pres¬ 
ent bill is broadly drawn and seems to cover the 
ground well, protecting alike the game of New 
York and that of other States. 
If a time shall come when it is demonstrated 
that wild animals or birds may be reared in 
domestication in commercial quantities, then they 
may properly be sold under suitable restrictions. 
Meantime it will be an enormous benefit to 
the community and a great satisfaction to all 
game protectors if New York will drive a solid 
spike into Forest and Stream’s now well-sea¬ 
soned platform plank. 
CONGRESS AND GAME PROTECTION. 
Out of the tumultuous session of Congress, 
which has just ended, has come not a little com¬ 
fort for those who are interested in the preser¬ 
vation of natural things* 
The passage of the Weeks Appalachian forest 
preserve bill, though so tardy, was a great gain. 
In the Sundry Civil bill the appropriation for 
warden service in Alaska has been increased from 
$10,000 to $15,000. This should count for some¬ 
thing, though Alaska is a vast territory. Two 
items in the Agricultural Appropriation bill, 
passed on the last day but one of the session, 
are of high importance. One of them—referred 
to in Forest and Stream two weeks ago—pro¬ 
vided for an appropriation of $5,000 for the pur¬ 
chase, sale and transportation of game for na¬ 
tional reservations. The other, spoken of in 
last week’s issue, is an appropriation of $20,000 
for the feeding, protection and removal to safety 
of the Jackson Hole elk. 
This last item was retained in the bill un¬ 
changed and may do much good, The other 
item was reduced in amount to $2,500, but its 
passage establishes the eminently proper prece¬ 
dent for the appropriation of funds with which 
to stock various national reservations from other 
reservations owned by the Government, or— 
where it may be necessary—for the purchase of 
animals for that purpose. 
This is an encouraging entering wedge, and 
looks toward the establishment of game refuges 
in various places and the stocking them with 
various species of wild animals. It thus promises 
protection and perpetuation for various species. 
For many year Forest and Stream has been 
urging the establishment of the game refuges 
in some of the forest reservations. After a time 
Congress will reach a point where it will pro¬ 
vide such refuges—and the Western country is 
full of sections where they might properly be 
set aside—and henceforth it will probably be 
found easier to convince Senators and Represen¬ 
tatives that these reservations ought to exist, 
and ought to be stocked. Last week our Wash¬ 
ington correspondent urged this again, and grad¬ 
ually the idea is being taken up by the news¬ 
papers all over the country. 
The Agricultural Department is already taking 
steps to co-operate with the Wyoming State au¬ 
thorities to help the starving elk. 
Our cover picture shows a group of the starv¬ 
ing Wyoming elk for the relief of which Con¬ 
gress has appropriated $20,000. 
CUT DOWN THE BAG LIMIT. 
Without wishing to reflect on the sportsman¬ 
ship of the person referred to, we quote the fol¬ 
lowing paragraph from a letter received from 
one of our California correspondents. In refer¬ 
ence to the wildfowl season, which closed last 
month, he said: 
* * *, a member of the Blue Wing Club, which is our 
best shooting club, closed the season with his fifty-seventh 
consecutive limit, the result of shooting during the last 
two seasons since the twenty-five bird bag limit has been 
in force. This is a great record, and shows better than 
anything else the phenomenal consistency of the shooting 
on the Blue Wing preserve. 
This is indeed a great record. The bag limit 
is twenty-five per day. Multiplying this by fifty- 
seven gives a total of 1,425 wildfowl for the two 
open seasons, an average of 712*4 for each sea¬ 
son. At present the season opens on Oct. 1 
and closes Feb. 15. 
In justification of this record there are these 
facts: This club has, through artificial means, 
improved the shooting, at great expense to its 
members. The sportsman in question can no 
doubt exhibit an array of figures to show that 
it cost him a good deal of money to make this 
record. Evidently few have closely approached 
it and none has equalled it. The record maker 
has observed the law to the letter. Fellow mem¬ 
bers, and other California sportsmen, have twice 
agreed to observe a reduced bag limit law, first 
from fifty to thirty-five, and then to twenty-five 
per day. They do not insist on spring shoot¬ 
ing. Californians do nothing by halves. In a 
land where nature is so kind, picayunish things 
are not considered. Viewed from the Califor¬ 
nian standpoint, a bag limit of twenty-five ducks 
is moderate. So much for the existing state of 
affairs. 
Viewed from other standpoints, the California 
bag limit is still too large. It cannot be justified 
on the ground that prolific nature sends flocks 
of ducks into that glorious region and directs 
but few to other waters, for history shows that 
the duck supply is not inexhaustible, and the 
Californians owe it to other States to conserve 
the visible supply, so that the surplus may seek 
other feeding grounds. This can best be done 
through a reduction of the bag limit, but it 
would also be in accord with the best principles 
opposed to spring shooting if the season were 
shortened by closing in January. 
The death warrant of the last one of the 
great stone quarries, once so numerous along 
the Palisades of the Hudson, has been signed. 
On June 30 next blasting on Hook Mountain 
will cease, thirty days later the crushers will be 
closed down, and all the machinery must be re¬ 
moved before the close of the year. The Pali¬ 
sades Interstate Park Commission has purchased 
the land for the Hudson River Park. 
