May 13, 1911.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
737 
New York State Legislation. 
On May 3, Senator Long’s bill, designed to 
open the spring for the shooting of ducks on 
Long Island, was again defeated in the New 
\ork Assembly. Several weeks ago it was 
beaten by a vote of 66 to 73; 76 votes being 
required to pass the measure. The friends of 
the bill tried to have it reconsidered and sup¬ 
posed that they had secured the required sevemy- 
six votes, but when they called it up, it was 
found that they were still three votes short. 
Assemblyman Sheide, of Suffolk, led the fight 
in behalf of the bill, but was again defeated. 
Apparently undismayed by defeat, Senator Long 
on May 4 introduced a bill making the open sea¬ 
son for wildfowl Oct. 1 to Feb. 1. 
W. T. Hornaday and Andrew D. Meloy unite 
in issuing an extra of the Wild Life Call, a cir¬ 
cular whose purpose is to stop the destruction 
of wild life and to preserve and increase it. This 
issue refers especially to the Bayne bill, which 
has been reported out of the Senate committee 
of forest, fish and game with amendments pro¬ 
viding for the breeding and sale, under strict 
supervision, of the few kinds of domestic game 
that may be successfully bred in captivity on 
a commercial basis. 
In the rush of legislation toward the close of 
the session there is danger that this bill will be 
sidetracked, and Dr. Hornaday urges that all 
sportsmen should request their Senators and As¬ 
semblymen to press for the consideration of the 
bill, to keep it from being crowded out in the 
closing rush and to get votes for it when it 
comes up for passage. These bills, introduced in 
the Senate by Senator Bayne and in the Assem¬ 
bly by Mr. Blauvelt, are intended to absolutely 
prohibit the sale of native wild American game 
and to encourage the breeding and importation 
of several species named in the bill. 
These bills permit the sale from Oct. 1 to 
March 1 of pheasants, blackduck, mallard duck 
and certain species of deer, bred in confinement, 
killed in the presence of a designated State 
officer by other means than with a gun, and 
properly tagged for identification. Besides, they 
permit the importation and sale of pheasants, 
Scotch grouse, black cock, European lapwing 
plover and certain species of deer. Imported 
feathered game must be brought into the United 
States unplucked,' must be identified at the port 
of entry as having been killed abroad, and must 
be tagged for further identification before it is 
placed on the market for sale. 
Andrew D. Meloy, for the New York State 
Fish, Game and Forest League, urges that mem¬ 
bers of the Legislature be made to feel the strong 
interest had in the passage of this law by the 
people of the State. He urges that members 
of the league and others make so active a de¬ 
mand on the members of the Legislature that 
these bills shall be driven to a vote before the 
adjournment of the present session. 
Every New York State reader of Forest and 
Stream should do his part to help these bills 
through. 
Governor Dix has had introduced in Senate 
and Assembly his conservation bill, which deals 
largely with the preservation and increase of the 
New York water supply and incidentally puts 
the making of New York game laws in the 
hands of a board of three persons. The bill is 
a ponderous one of seventy-two pages and is 
extremely radical in its changes. Containing 
many desirable features, it requires careful study 
before receiving comment. 
Bills have been introduced as follows: 
By Assemblyman Drummond, in relation to 
the taking, possession and transportation of deer. 
By Senator Frawiey, of New York, relating to 
automatic and repeating guns. 
The Assembly has passed these bills: 
By Assemblyman T. K. Smith, relating to pro¬ 
tection for pheasants in Oswego county. 
Assemblyman Gurnett’s, in relation to certain 
fish in Schuyler and Chemung counties. 
Assemblyman Wende's bill relating to spear¬ 
ing non-game fish in Lake Erie, and Assembly- 
man T. K. Smith’s prohibiting for a term of 
years the shooting of pheasants in certain towns 
in Oswego county. 
Senator Manley’s bill, in relation to the open 
season for grouse and trout in Oneida county; 
also Assemblyman Brereton’s bill relative to pike 
perch and angling through the ice in Lake 
George. 
Assemblyman Baumes’ bill, in relation to the 
use of nets in the Delaware and Hudson rivers, 
and Assemblyman Cosad’s bill, relating to the 
open season for lake trout and the use of nets 
in Seneca Lake. 
Bills passed by the Senate: 
Assemblyman T. K. Smith's bill, providing 
that if the open season commences or ends on 
Sunday, in connection with the application of 
Section 240 of the fish and game laws, it shall 
be deemed to commence or end, as the case may 
be, on the Saturday immediately preceding such 
Sunday. 
Assemblyman Gurnett’s, in relation to the open 
season for pheasants. 
Assemblyman Evans’, relating to hunting hares 
and rabbits with ferrets in Sullivan county. 
Assemblyman Miller’s, in relation to spearing 
fish in certain creeks in Otsego county. 
The Senate has advanced to third reading 
Senator Roosevelt’s bill relative to the appoint¬ 
ment of special game protectors and wardens. 
The Assembly on May 3 again defeated the 
Long bill to permit spring duck shooting on 
Long Island by a vote of 73 to 55, the latter 
many desirable features, it requires careful study 
before receiving comment. 
The Use of Game. 
Pasadena, Cal., May 2 .— Editor Forest and 
Stream: While I am not by-any means a pes¬ 
simist, I can easily see that at no very distant 
date most kinds of our game, both feathered 
and furred, will be a thing of the past outside 
of the Government game parks and private pre¬ 
serves. 
It is now over three score years since I first 
went out hunting with an uncle in Northwestern 
Vermont and adjacent Canadian woods, and until 
within the past three years I have nearly every 
season been over the same grounds and have 
seen civilization come in and destroy the best 
breeding grounds and game coverts there. 
Springs that we used to call living springs with 
trout in their outlets have been gone for years 
without even a depression left in the ground to 
show that there was ever there a spring of pure 
cold sparkling water. Every summer now the 
mowing machine cuts a good swath of hay in 
the very bed of the brook where I caught my 
first trout. When the snows melt in the spring 
of the jear, a flood of waters flows down 
through that valley, but in a few days those 
waters subside, and it again becomes dry meadow 
and pasture land. 
Public stocking and protection have increased 
the number of only one kind of game there, the 
\ irginia deer which, with continued protection, 
\vill hold their own in a semi-domestic state, 
d he amount of damage done by them to the 
farmers’ crops is very small when compared with 
the amount of claims for damages presented to 
the wardens. We have personally investigated 
many of these claims, and in most instances 
found them groundless. If any damage had 
been done, it was done by the farmer’s cattle, 
and m one case by his pigs. It is astonishing 
to see the number of persons who in most things 
are perfectly honest, but seem to think it no sin 
to beat the Government in taxes, customs, and 
in these cases by making fraudulent claims for 
damages done by deer. If the farmer would 
keep a good collie dog it could easily be trained 
to keep deer away from the orchards and culti¬ 
vated fields. 
Game farms are like some other kinds of 
farming, an expensive luxury, for only the wild 
turkey, the wild goose and the mallard duck 
can be domesticated and reared profitably. It 
costs more to breed and rear a deer than it 
does to breed and bring up half a dozen sheep, 
and there is more food value in a sixty-pound 
sheep than there is in a 150-pound deer. An 
average man on an exclusive mutton diet will 
wax fat, strong and greasy, while on an exclu¬ 
sive diet of venison he would starve in less than 
a month. A venison pasty with all the fixings 
is very palatable and appetizing, though there 
is very little real nourishment in the meat itself. 
It is wonderful how game has held its own 
in the face of the constant encroachments of 
civilization on its breeding grounds and resting 
places and the increasing number of hunters. A 
single firm of gun makers in this country turns 
out daily an average of over eighty double bar¬ 
rel guns, and this firm is only one of the manv 
gun manufacturing firms that are sending out 
among our citizens improved game destroying 
weapons. 
By all means let us unite in encouraging the 
increase of Government game parks, private 
game preserves and game breeding farms, as 
they are all in many ways public benefits. 
N. P. Leach. 
[In view of the enormous increase of interest 
in trapshooting, it does not follow that these 
guns are all used in killing game. —Editor.] 
Police Dogs. 
The police-dog is growing in popularity the 
world over, it would seem. The Inspector-Gen¬ 
eral of the Straits Police has ordered one of 
Major Richardson’s trained Airedale terriers 
as an experimental companion for the police on 
night duty in the outskirts of Singapore, with a 
special eye to counter the wiles of the Chinese 
burglar, a craftsman of peculiar skill. Always 
provided the burglar is not armed with a kriss. 
the dog will be most valuable. The North 
Western Canada Mounted Police have also in¬ 
vested in an Airedale trained in police work as 
an experiment.—London correspondence in the 
Asian. 
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