Forest and Stream 
Terms, $3 a Year, 10 Cts. a Copy, 
Six Months, $1.50. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, APRIL i, 1911. 
, VOL. LXXVI.-No. 13. 
1 No. 127 Franklin St., New York. 
A WEEKLY JOURNAL. 
Copyright, 1911, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
Georgs Bird Grinneix, President, 
Chari.es 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. 
OPENING DAY. 
March blustered and stormed and wrestled 
with the sunbeams, but lost in the struggle. 
Enter April, introducing the gentle angler, who 
will find conditions to his liking—brooks not too 
high nor too roily, warm sunlight, swelling buds, 
the chirp of insects and the songs of birds. If 
the amateur weather prophets have not guessed 
wrong, spring is due to appear shortly; at any 
rate, it is on the way—as usual. 
Early April is a season when winter weary 
mortals can tolerate the conflicts that rage 
among the elements, for the outcome of the 
contest is never in doubt, and even though de¬ 
layed, the power of the sun will prevail. They 
know that winter is behind and a long season 
of enjoyment outdoors just commencing. Even 
though the mornings be cold, there are the 
robins calling cheerily from treetop and meadow, 
and the flute-like notes of the bluebird as it 
searches for the home it seems never to be 
entirely satisfied with. 
The first brook trout fishing took place yes¬ 
terday, when the season opened on Long Island. 
To-day the brooks of New Jersey will be 
searched by an army of anglers, while the same 
privilege will be afforded good citizens of Rhode 
Island, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Oregon 
and Washington. In Massachusetts, Pennsyl¬ 
vania, Minnesota and Wisconsin the 15th of 
April will be opening day, and in the southern 
tier of counties in New York, the 16th. 
It does not appear that the past winter was 
severe on trout, but it remains to be seen what 
effect the long drouth of last autumn has had 
on them. In the Northwest there are many 
streams in which most of the trout were killed 
by the forest fires, while elsewhere the streams 
were so low during the winter that they were 
deeply frozen. 
Big-game hunting is fraught with uncertainty; 
in fact, to those who possess patience, the very 
uncertainty is not without its charm. But to 
hunt unsuccessfully for several weeks, and then 
bag a splendid specimen, as did one of the 
sportsmen in Mexico, as told in another column, 
is an experience to be remembered. 
FOR THE PUBLIC GOOD. 
As we go to press an important hearing is 
being held in Albany before the Game and Fish 
Committee of the Legislature. Advocates and 
opponents of the Bayne bill, which is intended 
to prevent the sale of game in the State of New 
York, are presenting their arguments for and 
against the measure, and its fate may depend on 
the committee’s report. 
It is unfortunate that measures of this kind 
are too often affected by political or by local 
interests. Very often members of the Legisla¬ 
ture seem unable to take a broad view and to 
consider what is actually for the public good. 
Instead of regarding the best interests of the 
whole people of the whole State they are more 
likely to consider what they believe to be the 
wishes of the inhabitants of their own village 
or township or county. Often, too, legislators 
walk in the direction indicated by the pointing 
finger of the political leader, feeling that with¬ 
out his approval and help their political pros¬ 
pects will be injured. Or the careless good- 
natured legislator trades his vote on some sub¬ 
ject in which he feels no interest for the vote 
of another legislator on a subject about which 
the latter cares nothing. 
For fifty years or more the larger cities of 
the United States have been the dumping ground 
where the spoils of market shooters, netters, 
trappers and other wholesale destroyers of game 
have ultimately been sold. Without such mar¬ 
kets there would be no inducement to the com¬ 
mercial gunner to destroy game, and the sooner 
these markets are cut off, the better it will be 
for the wild life of the land. 
It may be expected that large commercial in¬ 
terests will oppose the passage of the Bayne 
bill, but nevertheless that bill should be passed. 
The persons who now purchase game do not 
need it. As pointed out in Forest and Stream 
years ago, there are substitutes such as duck¬ 
lings, young turkeys, young guinea fowl and 
other birds, which may be substituted for the 
wild creatures of our fields and woods, now so 
rapidly disappearing and some of them almost 
threatened with extinction. 
We may all of us wish for convincing power 
to the able arguments of the men who are advo¬ 
cating the passage of the Bayne bill. Unlike 
their opponents they have no commercial in¬ 
terest to serve. They are thinking of the public 
welfare. 
On Wednesday, March 22, Senator Long’s bill 
to permit spring duck shooting on Long Island 
came up in the New York Assembly. The bill 
had already passed the Senate, and its supporters 
in the Assembly were convinced that they had 
votes enough to carry it through that body. On 
the other hand the opponents of the measure— 
which was objected to by sportsmen generally 
throughout the State and by the Forest, Fish and 
Game Commission—intimated that they had a 
promise from Governor Dix that if the bill came 
before him he would veto it. 
Practically the whole legislative day was de¬ 
voted to the consideration of this bill by the 
Assembly. There was a long debate, a number 
of amendments were offered, all the reasons for 
and against spring shooting were ventilated, and 
the bill, when it finally came to a vote, was de¬ 
feated by a vote of 66 to 73. 
The members of the Assembly from the sea¬ 
board counties, New Yorkers and Long Island¬ 
ers, generally supported the bill, while the repre¬ 
sentatives from up the State voted against it. 
There were grave fears among game pro¬ 
tectors that this bill would pass, and when the 
Senate voted favorably on it, this fear was 
augmented. Game protectors in other States who 
are fighting local measures of a character similar 
to the New York bill may take courage. It is 
certain that even if bills such as this should be 
passed in some of the States, the defeat will 
only be temporary. 
The education of the public has progressed 
too far, and the importance of protecting our 
useful birds is now far too well understood to 
make it seem possible that a permanent back¬ 
ward step such -as was proposed by New York 
legislators can ever be taken. 
One by one the reforms for which sportsmen 
have striven so earnestly during recent years 
have been brought about. The conservation 
propaganda has swept aside the barriers so long 
maintained against the rescue of watersheds and 
forests in the Eastern States, and the Forest 
Service is now ready to purchase limited areas 
of land in the White Mountains and the South¬ 
ern Appalachians. These plots will not be closed 
to shooters and anglers, but will be regulated 
according to the laws of the States in which 
they will be located. But while they are not to 
become game and fish refuges, it can with con¬ 
fidence be said that in these reserves State laws 
will be enforced by the foresters, and stream 
pollution and poaching will not be tolerated. 
* 
Refusing to assume that a large proportion 
of the men who fish in summer also shoot in 
autumn, the sportsmen of several States are 
clamoring for fishing licenses in addition to the 
shooting licenses. Funds are accumulating, and 
every man has his own theory as to the dispo¬ 
sition of the money. Foreign game birds are 
the hobby now being ridden hard and long, and 
demands for foreign fish are expected. The 
money spent on these costly but uncertain creat¬ 
ures would go far toward restocking woods and 
waters with native species, and giving addi¬ 
tional protection, but not until the glamor of 
importing stock has passed will common sense 
prevail. 
