174 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[July 30, 1910. 
nearly 200 square miles, or upward of 125,000 
acres. Comparatively few of the larger pre¬ 
serves are inclosed. In some instances part of 
the tract is fenced, while large areas are unin¬ 
closed, but are protected by being posted. The 
character of their tenure varies also. Some are 
owned in fee simple; others, particularly the 
larger ones, are leased, or comprise merely the 
shooting rights on the land. In both size and 
tenure the upland preserves of the United States 
are comparable with the grouse moors and large 
preserves of Scotland. Several of those in Ross- 
shire vary from 40,000 to 45,000 acres in extent, 
and one in Aberdeenshire has an area of 110- 
000 acres. 
Not all upland preserves are on wild land. 
Many of the quail shooting preserves of the 
South include farming land, the owners having 
leased the shooting rights, in return being re¬ 
lieved of their taxes and to a certain extent of 
the trouble of protecting their property against 
indiscriminate hunting. In Central North Caro¬ 
lina may be found a very interesting group of 
leased preserves, some of which contain several 
thousand acres, while nearly all are made up by 
combining farms of moderate size. Here the 
preserve idea does not seem to interfere with 
agriculture, and has been welcomed by the small 
landowner as a means of securing, through lease 
of the shooting rights, an income from his hold¬ 
ings at least equal to his taxes, and in many 
cases exceeding them. In this group belong 
many preserves controlled by clubs composed of 
men of moderate means unable to enjoy the 
luxury of inclosed parks for big game or of 
membership in the expensive clubs which main¬ 
tain ducking preserves. Those who have not 
investigated the subject will doubtless be sur¬ 
prised to learn the comparatively small cost of 
a club of this kind, which leases a few hundred 
acres and has none of the expenses connected 
with an elaborately appointed club house, keepers 
and other appurtenances usually associated with 
a private game park. 
A preserve of special interest is that of the 
Bolsa Chica Club, near Newport Bay, in South¬ 
ern California. This club, organized by Count 
Jaro von Schmidt in 1898, purchased a tract of 
land in Orange county comprising about 3.000 
acres, with a frontage of nearly three miles along 
the ocean. A commodious club house with ac¬ 
commodations for the forty members was erected 
and other improvements were made. An inlet 
with some sixty miles of channels formerly ad¬ 
mitted the tide to much of the property. At 
high tide nearly two-thirds of the land was sub¬ 
merged, and at low tide this became a more or 
less barren salt marsh. The erection of a dam 
and four cement spillways with automatic gates 
effectually shut out the salt water and gave con¬ 
trol of the depth of water within the inclosure. 
Thirty artesian wells were sunk, which, with 
the overflow from several hundred more in the 
drainage district above, furnished an ample sup¬ 
ply of fresh water. As a result of excluding 
the tide and sinking the wells, the tide flat grad¬ 
ually changed from a salt to a fresh water 
marsh. Sorghum saccliaratuni, duckweed, and 
other food plants were introduced to attract the 
birds, and manure was distributed along the 
edges of the channels, both as a fertilizer and 
as a means of introducing earthworms and in¬ 
sect larvae for food for snipe and other birds. 
The plan proved successful, and the club now 
enjoys good shooting of jacksnipe, teal, mal¬ 
lards, widgeons and other birds formerly scarce 
or absent, in addition to many of the salt water 
ducks normally found in that vicinity. 
New Forest Roads. 
Linville Falls, N. C., July 21. — Editor Forest 
and Stream: The Blue Ridge Mountain High¬ 
way is now being surveyed, and when it is bu.lt 
it will offer to automobilists one of the most 
attractive scenic tours in America. The plan is 
to make a first class automobile road from Ashe¬ 
ville on the crest of the Blue Ridge to Roanoke, 
Va., and beyond. The section now being sur¬ 
veyed is from Altapass on the Carolina, Clinch- 
field & Ohio railway, via Linville Falls, Alta- 
mont and Pineola to Linville City. This will be 
about twenty-seven miles of road and will con¬ 
nect there with the famous Yonahlossee road 
from Linville City to Blowing Rock, eighteen 
miles. This road, winding around the Grand¬ 
father Mountain, is a perfect road in all re¬ 
spects, built on practically a level grade and 
well made and maintained. From Blowing Rock 
a turnpike is now being constructed at great 
cost through rock to Lenoir, twenty-four miles, 
where it connects with another railway. Just 
above Linville City another branch of the turn¬ 
pike has been constructed and is in operation 
to Edgemont, another railway point, fifteen miles 
distant. All these are automobile roads and have 
been used by many motoring parties this sum¬ 
mer. 
The section of highway now surveyed, starting 
at Altapass, will be the most attractive perhaps 
on the whole line. It crosses the Blue Ridge at 
an elevation of 4,100 feet over Humpback Moun¬ 
tain, which sits majestically in front of us to the 
west two miles away, and winds along the sum¬ 
mit of the mountain for nearly two miles, open¬ 
ing up a view from the highest point in this 
immediate vicinity and one hitherto not acces¬ 
sible. From this road all the highest points in 
the Eastern Mountains will be plainly in sight, 
none of them more than twenty to twenty-five 
miles distant. Range after range for hundreds 
of miles may be seen. The ascent will be 
through a charming series of little vistas that 
will include cascades, beautiful trout streams 
and the green-clad ruggedness that makes the 
Blue Ridge so attractive. As the road winds 
among ridges and valleys to secure its grade, 
nowhere greater than 4^ per cent., it passes 
through one of the grandest hardwood forests 
in America, and now that there is better pros¬ 
pect of the country being opened up to the re¬ 
sort business, this splendid forest will probably 
not be cut, as it stands in all its original beauty. 
The survey is being made under the auspices 
of the State Geological Survey, under the direc¬ 
tion of Dr. Joseph Hyde Pratt, State geologist, 
and W. L. Spoon, State highway engineer. 
When the plans are complete the project will 
be submitted to the Legislature next winter and 
there is every prospect that, with the co-opera¬ 
tion of the private interests concerned, it will 
be put through. The road will be not less than 
twenty feet wide at any place and will be twenty- 
six to thirty feet between ditches in most places. 
The mountain people are much interested and 
most of them will give the right of way and 
help all they can. Frank W. Bicknell. 
Spring Shooting in Massachusetts. 
Wareham, Mass., July 19 .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: It is with sincere regret that I have 
recently seen some of the fair pages of Forest 
and Stream dimmed by the articles of advocates 
of spring wildfowl shooting in Massachusetts. 
These gentlemen, under the name “practical 
gunners,” are organizing with a view to destroy¬ 
ing the present important statute which stops all 
shooting in Massachusetts Jan. 1. 
They are opposed to what they consider the 
drastic measures of the Audubon Society work¬ 
ers and others who have the real interest of the 
birds at heart, and by introducing a spice of 
socialism they are making it appear that the poor 
man, much against his will, is being deprived of 
actual food upon which he has relied. 
Much of this talk emanates from the coast of 
Cape Cod, where I am sorry to say, in spite of 
the admirable character of the people, the spirit 
of game economy has never taken very firm 
root. Anyone who is familiar with the wildfowl 
conditions along the coast of Massachusetts, 
knows pretty well that the actual food value of 
the small numbers of fowl taken is a mere drop 
in the bucket, and the man who sets out to sup¬ 
port his family on such slender hopes had much 
better be engaged in a more lucrative pursuit. 
But here is not the point at all. In a nutshell 
it is this: Nearly everyone acknowledges that 
the shooting of blackducks should stop in mid¬ 
winter at latest, and that uniformity of the game 
laws is the first essential. We all know the re¬ 
sult of half-way measures, especially in a State 
where it is a long way between deputies. If we 
are to protect one species, we must protect all. 
Very unjustly the gentlemen above mentioned 
have accused those who are working for pro¬ 
tection with the ultimate idea of abolishing all 
shooting. They have termed it “an agency bent 
on destroying all gunning in Massachusetts.” 
Those who are now advocating opening the 
season on several species of fowl up to the 20th 
of May use as another of their arguments that 
wildfowl are on the increase, and also that “it 
is simply impossible to exterminate the migrat¬ 
ing bird.” Readers will find this statement on 
page 14 of Forest and Stream for July 2, under 
the name of Orville D. Lovell. Strange, indeed, 
does this sound in the pages of a journal de¬ 
voted to the best interests not only of the pres¬ 
ent sportsmen, but of those that will follow. 
Both of these statements are time-honored re¬ 
iterations of the large though diminishing school 
of spring shooters and serve as a basis for their 
arguments. It is useless to dwell on this point 
now, as many an abler hand has shown the true 
state of affairs and has compared the present 
with the past, nor does it take an able person 
to see the real conditions. 
In Forest and Stream of June 25 Mr. Kim¬ 
ball has quoted some of the sentiments of Mr. 
Fletcher Osgood at a meeting of Massachusetts 
gunners held in Boston, June 15, 1910. The lat¬ 
ter advocates the supervision of the game laws 
by gunners themselves, a sentiment which cer¬ 
tainly sounds fair enough, though we might ask 
in the case of the automobilist whether, if the 
speed laws had been left entirely to motorists, 
the public would be as well protected as it is 
to-day. 
In truth the average gunner is only too prone 
to an entirely local opinion to the confusion of 
