FIFTY YEARS 
W ITH the present issue Forest and Stream 
completes its first half century of publica- 
tion. -This period covers the most remark¬ 
able era in the development of healthful out-door 
sports in keeping with the great advance in science 
and art. During the first twenty-five years of this 
period destruction of game reached the point of ex¬ 
tinction of a few species. The last quarter century 
has witnessed great progress in the work of resto¬ 
ration m various lines. In this practical conserva¬ 
tion the sportsmen’s press must be credited with 
having taken an important part. 
There is a wealth of interesting and instructive 
matter in the complete files of Forest and Stream 
Charles Hallock, editor and founder, who a few 
years later was succeeded by Dr. George Bird Grin¬ 
ned with the co-operation of a coterie of excellent 
contributors, aided in the advancement of the peri¬ 
odical literature of American field sports to a 
higher plane. The primary object, “to studiously 
promote a healthful interest in outdoor recreation 
and a refined taste for natural objects”—con¬ 
sistently and persistently pursued—has been at¬ 
tained to a gratifying degree. 
In the near future we intend to publish, within 
modest limits, a symposium in which the surviving 
members of the Old Guard of contributors and 
readers will doubtless be pleased to take part, pre- 
sentmg a chapter of noteworthy reminiscences, 
J.he invitation is cordial, and the fraternal spirit 
the veterans well justifies belief 
that there will be ready response to our invitation. 
A FITTING MEMORIAL 
T HE act of a pioneer family of Humboldt 
County, California, in deeding to the State a 
valuable tract of primeval Redwood forest to 
stand as a memorial to Humboldt County’s pioneers 
is indeed appropriate. Mrs. Zipporah Russ, who 
herself crossed the plains in 1853, has given 166 
acres of wonderful land on the State Highway near 
Onck, California, in memory of her husband, Jo¬ 
seph Russ, a pioneer of 1852, and also as a me¬ 
morial to all the pioneers of Humboldt County. 
Che grove will be known as the Humboldt Countv 
Piorieer Memorial and will be dedicated to use as 
a public park. 
These giant trees, the Sequoia sempervirens or 
Redwoods, were ages old when California’s first 
pioneers arrived. They had for centuries been ob¬ 
jects of reverence and wonder among the Indians 
who inhabited these shores. Some of the very trees 
now standing in the Russ Pioneer Memorial Grove 
were practically as they are today in size and girth 
when Columbus discovered America, and when Sir 
r rancis Drake sighted the shores of California 
°i Jhese trees were saplings at the time of the 
birth of Christ. 
The gift 0 f this grove comes as the result of the 
work of the Save the Redwoods League, which for 
several years past has been active in securing 
through state, county, and private aid the preserva¬ 
tion of an adequate tract of our primeval Redwood 
iorest, one of the unique and priceless possessions 
° *- u rnia * ^ is to be hoped that the example 
set by this pioneer memorial will be followed in the 
establishment of many such public Redwood groves. 
Page 439 
CATS OR SONG-BIRDS—WHICH? 
W E cannot have l?oth. Let the lovers of birds 
rise up and assert their rights to the enjoy- 
suburban Me ^ ° f the greatest P riviIe « es of 
hprv’^n abu " da ,nce of trees, hedges and shrub- 
,? Ur , subur bs, together with the teaching 
w ich all school-children are now receiving of the 
sZZwnHH aeSthetiC ValUG ° f son 8'-birds, our 
uburbs would in a year or two become a veritable 
bird paradise except for one cause—the cats that 
are permitted to live, range and hunt everywhere 
Dr W e A°Fl IT* d ?°£’.’\ writes one of our readers,' 
Ur W. A. Flecker of Richmond, “we had a pair of 
nation ofthp g fl Wh ll Ch f We watched with eager antici- 
pation of the flock of young robins we would have 
on our lawn. A cat caught first the male robin 
His mate stopped laying but began to sit on two 
cfn^t WhlC , h afterwards batched, when the cl? 
taught and was seen eating the mother bird. 
inf o h , eard a commotion in the rear of the adjoining 
lot a few days ago and saw another cat stalking 
nhj m h- y S Ung T ? h J USh f in spite of the Protests of the 
old birds. Before I could act, the cat sprang and 
caught one. The others have probably gone the 
same way. A gentleman told me this morning that 
he saw a cat recently with a beautiful red cardinal. 
A lady saw a cat catch two young mocking-birds 
before she could intervene.” 
Let a ll who love birds unite in declaring death to 
piedatory cats, starting at home. One cat can 
destroy the bird life of a whole block. They do not 
compare m value to a five-cent mouse-trap, and not 
one cat m ten will attack a full-grown rat Rats 
be n bui e it d 0 e ut r ° yed With traPS and poison > and can 
Kill every cat found wandering in the fields. 
1 Gb LENOX CURTIS, who was President o 
June 27th la i923 amP ’ at Utica ’ NeW Y ° rk 
TT b )r * Curtis was born in 1854, graduate of the 
University of Pennsylvania Dental degree 1880 
Medical degree 1887, post-graduate courses Uni¬ 
versity of Berlin and Vienna. 
He was the founder of the Canadian Camp and 
P re f. lden i t for twenty years, active supporter of 
he National Park movement, an extensive traveler 
^brou&hout Southern Canada and the Western 
United States. 
The organization of the Canadian Camp was 
rather extraordinary and very unique. It had but a 
purely social object and its purpose was to promote 
fellowship and the observance of the highest form 
ot true sportsmanship. There was no constitution, 
no initiation fee, no dues and no liabilities and the 
membership included 6,000 men and women who 
had camped in Canada. 
Theodore Roosevelt, Joseph Jefferson, Robert E 
Peary Lord Kitchener, Cy. Warman, Fred Brown, 
C- J mies and John Burroughs were all associates 
fp- Curtis in the Canadian Camp Society. 
Thousands of friends of Dr. Curtis will, in his 
death, mourn the passing of a delightful gentleman, 
a true sportsman and an ardent enthusiast of the 
great outdoors. 
