Forest and Stream 
Terms, $3 a Year, 10 Cts. a Copy, [ 
Six Months, $1.50. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, APRIL 8, 1911. 
j VOL. LXXVI.—N®. 14. 
1 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. 
THE BAYNE BILL. 
The hearing on the Bayne bill at Albany last 
week was interesting for the unanimity with 
which sportsmen, game protectors, scientific men 
and the public general.y advocated the enact¬ 
ment of a law forbidding the sale of game in 
New York State—whether killed in the State or 
elsewhere. The opposition consisted of a single 
individual, understood to be an attorney in the 
employ of an association of hotel keepers. 
The bill's advocates made a very effective pre¬ 
sentation of the case, and, so far as the hearing 
went, the sentiment was all one way. On the 
other hand, no one can tell what view the Legis¬ 
lature will take of the matter, and . the fight is 
not yet over. Many petitions in the bill’s favor 
are being sent in to the Legislature and should 
carry great weight. It is to be hoped that all 
interested in the passage of the measure will 
bring to bear on their Assemblymen and Sena¬ 
tors all possible influence, whether by writing 
letters urging a course of action or by inducing 
acquaintances of the legislators to represent to 
them the importance to the public of its passage. 
Those who oppose the Bayne bill do so in 
part on the ground that it forbids the sale with¬ 
in the State of birds taken outside of the State, 
but as a matter of fact this is one of the most 
necessary features of the measure. Why should 
New York State be utterly careless of the well¬ 
being of her sister States? It is only the large 
cities that furnish a considerable market for 
game, that encourage commerce in it, and so 
put a premium on its destruction. How great 
that commerce and that destruction are has often 
been shown, but perhaps never more effectively 
than in the year 1901, when a New York game 
protector seized at a single cold storage ware¬ 
house in New Y’ork city 50,000 game and song 
birds which were being illegally held in close 
season. 
At the time Forest and Stream printed an 
account of that seizure, giving a detailed list 
of the game found there. This was one of the 
most effective game protection documents ever 
printed, and in this number of Forestand Stream 
we repeat the figures. They should be brought 
to the notice of every Senator and Assemblyman. 
If this were done and the legislators understood 
the figures’ significance, the Bayne bill would be 
sure to pass. 
FOR MICHIGAN TO CONSIDER. 
It seems an odd circumstance that of all the 
States and most of the Canadian Provinces lying 
along the international boundary line, Michigan 
is the only one in which spring shooting is per¬ 
mitted. It seems as if it were time now that 
Michigan shouid step forward into line and take 
her proper place with her sister States. 
It was shown years ago that the number of 
non-residents that visited Maine in the year 
1902 for the purpose of shooting and fishing was 
more than 130,000. If each of these visitors left 
behind him in the State, for transportation ex¬ 
penses, subsistence, payment to guides and other 
purposes, $100, it is evident that the sum of 
$13,000,000 was spent that year in Maine by such 
visitors. It is said that in Scotland the game 
yields annually more than $15,000,000. With 
these statistics before her, does it not seem 
worth while that Michigan should do everything 
in its power to conserve its game? 
A great mammal, the elk; an important bird, 
the wild pigeon; a unique fish, the grayling, once 
existed in Michigan in great numbers. There 
are none there now. 
In Michigan there is enough wild land to make 
many great preserves, which, properly protected, 
would insure the existence there forever of 
numerous beautiful and useful birds and mam¬ 
mals. Is it not time that the best people in the 
State should take a stand against the compara¬ 
tively small number who wish to kili everything 
all the time and insist that laws be enacted ar.d 
enforced which shall be for the benefit of the 
whole people, and not for a small class only? 
OUR NATIONAL PARKS. 
Many years ago, John Muir, one of America’s 
chief apostles of outdoor life, said: “When in 
trouble take a trip up the canon.” These words 
contain a profound philosophy. The real lover 
of outdoor life — whether he be observer or 
active lover of exercise—when he gets close to 
nature drops from his mind the worries and 
the burdens that oppress him, and for a time 
at least, forgets his trouble and anxieties in the 
delights which surround him. 
Y T ear by year the importance of permanent 
grounds for public recreation is coming to be 
better understood. This is given special em¬ 
phasis in cities where the poor little children 
have no place to play except the public streets, 
but it is felt also that there should be play¬ 
grounds for children of larger growth. For a 
number of years the few people who harped on 
this subject talked to deaf ears; their words 
were as the voice of one crying in the wilder¬ 
ness, and received little or no attention. Y r et 
with the Y r ellowstone Park as an object lesson, 
people have gradually come to realize that there 
should be such National playgrounds, and a 
number have been established, all of them in the 
West. We have thirteen of these National parks, 
but we ought to have a great many more. More 
than that, they should be better known and 
should be visited by hundreds of peop e for one 
who now goes to them. 
At a recent dinner of the Canadian Camp, the 
chief topographer of the United States Geologi¬ 
cal Survey, Robert B. Marshall, expanded this 
idea, and gave an interesting illustrated descrip¬ 
tion of a number of our National parks. 
High officials of the Government recognize 
the importance of this subject, and recently the 
President recommended to Congress the creation 
of a Bureau of National Parks. A bill to create 
such a bureau was introduced in Congress, but 
did not pass. The time is at hand when the im¬ 
portance of these playgrounds will be more gen¬ 
erally appreciated, and when far more attention 
will be paid to their care than at present. 
The wintry blasts which greeted early trout 
fishers last Friday and Saturday gave ample 
proof of the fallacy of opening the trout season 
earlier than April 15. To see anglers faring 
forth at daylight on a wintry day, clad in heavy 
garments and wearing wool gloves, tends to call 
down ridicule on the sport. In the New Eng¬ 
land and middle Atlantic States April 1 is 
usually anything but springlike, nor do the rough 
winds calm down for another ten days. In 
Pennsylvania trout may be taken next Saturday, 
April 15, while in the southern tier of counties 
in New Y T ork State Sunday, the 16th, is open¬ 
ing day, but the majority of anglers will defer 
their first journey to the brooks until the 17th. 
A bill is now pending in the Legislature which 
provides that when opening day falls on Sunday, 
as it does this year, the previous day, Saturday, 
shall be the legal opening day. 
tt 
Since additional ships have been put into ser¬ 
vice between British and East African ports, 
sportsmen traveling to and from East Africa 
have found the long journey much pleasanter 
than it was a few years ago, with fewer de¬ 
lays and discomforts. 
v. 
The United States imported more Indian buf¬ 
falo hides than any other nation in 1909. Of 
the 1,011,000 buffalo hides sent out of India in 
that year, 416,585 came to this country. 
K 
Fire has rendered two State Legis’atures tem¬ 
porarily homeless this year. The Missouri State 
House was burned eariv in February, and the 
New Y’ork Capitol last week. 
W 
The first International Anglers’ Congress will 
be held in Berlin, Germany, June 1 to 7, in¬ 
clusive, T912, under the auspices of the Deutsche 
Ang'erbund. 
