Forest and Stream 
Terms, $3 a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. I NEW YORK, SATURDAY, J l NE 6 , I 908 . j No. W^Frlnklin St., New York 
Six Months, 51.50. 1 _ 
A WEEKLY JOURNAL. 
Copyright, 1908, 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 OP THIS JOURNAL 
trill be to studiously promote a healthful interest 
in outdoor recreation, and to cultivate a refined 
taste for natural objects. 
—Forest and Stream, Aug. 14, 1873. 
THE EASTERN FORESTRY BILL. 
By voting favorably on the White Mountain- 
Appalachian forest bill the United States Senate 
has endorsed the opinions of President Roose¬ 
velt, the Forest Service, the press and numerous 
scientific and mercantile associations, but it now 
seems that no further action on the bill will be 
taken during the present session of Congress. 
The measure is in charge of the Committee on 
Agriculture. Half of the members of this com¬ 
mittee urge its immediate passage, but the others 
favor the appointment of still another commis¬ 
sion to “investigate” the situation, at an expense 
to the people of $20,000. 
It is difficult to understand how the House 
can be persuaded to favor this plan. The press 
of the country has put forth columns of matter 
in which the situation has been fully explained 
and illustrated. The Secretary of Agriculture 
and the Forest Service have furnished all the 
information lacking—if that were possible in 
view of the wide publicity given the subject. 
The House of Representatives is believed to be 
in favor of accepting the mass of evidence placed 
before it and passing the bill, but the speaker 
still opposes it. 
At the rate at which timber is being cut in 
both the White Mountains and in the Southern 
Appalachians; with the recurrence of such disas¬ 
trous floods as those which have destroyed prop¬ 
erty in the South Atlantic States during the past 
two seasons, withholding the protection of the 
Government for even one more year will mean 
a vast additional expense to the people of the 
whole country, and further loss to those whose 
homes or business enterprises lie within the 
zones it is desired to save. 
The United States Senate has refused to con¬ 
sider at this session another one of the bills, the 
passage of which has been strongly urged by 
President Roosevelt. This is the bill which 
carries an appropriation for the maintenance of 
the Inland Waterways Commission. The im¬ 
portance of the work assigned to this commis¬ 
sion cannot be questioned. It is of vital interest 
to sportsmen and anglers as well as to the peo¬ 
ple of every State. The antagonism of the rail¬ 
way interests to any plan to improve inland 
rivers is understood, but the railway companies, 
as well as other industries, have suffered heavy 
losses in all of the floods in the Mississippi 
River and its tributaries. Nor will these losses, 
and the vast sums it is necessary to expend in 
order to safeguard property against floods, show 
a decrease until the root of the evil has been 
reached. Too much time has already been 
wasted, and it seems that, with the lack of in¬ 
terest apparent in Congress, the people must 
content themselves with watching their property 
wash and float away toward the Gulf of Mexico. 
A MONTANA BISON RESERVE. 
The Montana bison reserve bill has been 
passed by the House of Representatives and has 
been signed by the President. The Senate 
passed it in April. It provides for the purchase 
of about 13,000 acres of land in the Flathead 
Indian reservation in Montana and carries an 
appropriation sufficient to acquire and fence 
the land. The bison are to be purchased by 
popular subscription. The American Bison 
Society, whose members and Senator Dixon 
brought about the passage of the bill in the 
Senate, will arrange all the details, but $10,000 
is needed for the purchase of the herd of bison 
with which the reserve is to be supplied at first. 
This plan is in accordance with the plans of 
the society, and no difficulty is anticipated in 
raising this sum. 
The land in question is in every way suited to 
the needs of a herd of bison, and was selected 
about two years ago by the Bison Society follow¬ 
ing the detailed reports of scientists who visited 
the region with a view to investigating the ques¬ 
tion. The Flathead reservation will soon be 
opened for settlement, and the land is therefore 
available. 
JUNE. 
May has passed and will be remembered as a 
record-breaker for rain. Although the tempera¬ 
ture during the month was higher than that of 
May last year, there was more rain than there 
had been during any May in years—just how 
many the weather bureau reports will show. 
The foliage was very late in opening; in fact, 
in some parts of New York State it was from 
two weeks to a month behind the average. 1 hen 
came several unusually warm days and the leaves 
fairly sprang out and assumed their usual ap¬ 
pearance. Wild flowers that had timidly hidden 
among the leaves peeped out, and being encour¬ 
aged by the warm sunlight, burst forth in all 
their fresh beauty of form and color. As if 
gladdened by the perfume and heartened by the 
change, the birds and the insects bustled about 
their duties. The transformation was completed 
in an incredibly brief time; indeed, it seemed 
that in three days the change from bud to leaf 
and flower occurred. As always at such times, 
the foliage and the flowers on the first of June 
were far more beautiful than is the case when 
the change is more gradual. 
Outdoor people were doomed to many dis¬ 
appointments in May. The anglers felt these 
more keenly, for while they, as well as those 
who were abroad merely for the pleasure of 
being in the open at leafing time, found shelter 
at farmhouses and small hotels, their favorite 
streams w'ere not often in condition for trout 
fishing. There was an exceedingly small daily 
hatch of natural insects to tempt the trout to 
rise and take them and their counterfeits, and 
the homeward-bound trains brought back their 
full quota of sad-faced men instead of the happy 
individuals who usually return to their duties 
with expansive smiles and creels from which 
grass and leaves protrude, telling of the trout 
within. 
ALIEN HUNTERS. 
The Pennsylvania State Sportsmen’s Associa¬ 
tion has approved the recommendations of its 
legislative committee. The members of this com¬ 
mittee have investigated the conditions and have 
declared that, until such time as aliens recog¬ 
nize the distinction between liberty and license, 
it will be to the interest of the game of the 
Commonwealth to prevent them from going into 
the woods and fields with firearms. 
Just how this will be accomplished remains 
for the Legislature to decide. The association 
favors a resident license law, and it is to be 
assumed that nonresident and alien license pro¬ 
visions will be arranged, the fee for the latter 
to be high enough to be prohibitive in most 
cases. At any rate, the fees for nonresidents and 
for aliens should not be the same. In those 
States w'hich require nonresidents to procure 
licenses to hunt within their borders, the idea 
is not so much to prevent them from hunting 
as to require them to assist in protecting the 
game, but in the case of the alien who believes 
because he is in a free country he can do exactly 
as he pleases, there must be laws to check him 
until the time when he will show a willingness 
to abide by the laws of the States and of the 
Federal Government. 
Meanwhile—as we have often pointed out in 
reference to refractory citizens who do not take 
any interest in or have respect for the game laws 
_a campaign of education, carried on in those 
papers that are read by aliens, will accomplish 
more good than any law. This also includes 
posted notices in several languages. 
When the Game Ordnance Amendment bill, 
which provides that geese and swans may be 
killed in spring, came up for second reading in 
the House of Representatives at Regina, Saskat¬ 
chewan, Canada, last week, it was favored by a 
few representatives, but was rejected by a vote 
of 11 to 10. 
