Sept. 24, 1910.] 
FOREST AND STREAM 
495 
Michigan Association Meeting. 
The Michigan Association, which has for its 
object protection of fish and game, held its an¬ 
nual meeting at Owosso Wednesday, Sept. 14. 
There was a good attendance, but not nearly so 
large as it should have been. The active mem¬ 
bership of the association should be many thou¬ 
sands, instead of 450, as shown by the records 
at the meeting. 
The business session of the convention met at 
2:30 p. m., President W. B. Mershon in the chair. 
A number of new members were elected. 
A resolution was passed authorizing the sec¬ 
retary to notify the governor-elect and the chair¬ 
men of the committees on game and fish in¬ 
terests in both the House and Senate of the 
forthcoming Legislature that this association is 
unqualifiedly opposed to the spring shooting of 
waterfowl, and reiterates the stand it took at 
its last annual meeting on this subject. That it 
is in favor of a resident and non-resident hunt¬ 
ing and trout fishing license and urges that the 
fund derived from this source be used for the 
propagation, preservation, rearing and care of 
game, and that non-residents be permitted to 
take home with them a reasonable amount of 
game or fish for which they pay a license. 
The association by resolution urged the im¬ 
portance of placing all matters concerning game 
and fish in the hands of a non-partisan honorary 
commission, the scope of whose duties should 
be broader than that of the present game warden 
system, so that this commission should be au¬ 
thorized not only to enforce game and fish laws, 
but to plant, propagate, preserve and distribute 
game. It should have authority to destroy game 
enemies, and generally to care for the preserva¬ 
tion of Michigan’s natural life. 
The association showed its appreciation of the 
game refuge principle by declaring that the State 
should set apart game refuges where game may 
be cared for and preserved from molestation, so 
that it may increase and spread over adjacent 
territory. 
The chair was authorized to appoint a com¬ 
mittee on legislation to have charge of game in¬ 
terests before the next Legislature. 
The Harris bill was read section by section 
and seemed to meet general approval. This bill 
passed both branches of the Michigan Legisla¬ 
ture, but failed because of non-agreement be¬ 
tween the Senate and the House as to the num¬ 
ber of deer that might be killed. 
The chair was authorized to appoint a com¬ 
mittee on the revision of the by-laws and con¬ 
stitution, to report at the next meeting. 
1 he officers of the Michigan Association who 
were re-elected are: President, W. B. Mershon, 
Saginaw; Vice - President, Thornton Dixon, 
Monroe; Treasurer, George M. Brown, Detroit; 
Secretary, F. IC. George, St. Joseph. 
Those in attendance from Saginaw were: W. 
B. Mershon, M. H. Macomber, Vincent Kindler, 
C. H. Cobb and Charles F. Schoeneberg. 
In the evening about 200 members attended a 
banquet given by the Shiawassee County Sports¬ 
man’s Association—a very enjoyable occasion. 
Ihe program of the speakers was as follows: 
‘The Future of Field Sports in America,” 
Dwight W. Huntington. 
“Some Game Problems in Michigan,” C. E. 
Brewster, U. S. Government Biological Survey. 
‘‘Preservation of Our Birds,” T. Gilbert Pear¬ 
son, Secretary National Audubon Societies. 
“Gun Licenses in the Various States,” George 
W. Strell, of Chicago. 
“What Canada is Doing to Perpetuate Wild 
Life,” A. Kelley Evans, of Toronto, Ont. 
“What Michigan is Doing to Perpetuate Wild 
Life,” Charles S. Pierce, fish, game and forestry 
warden for the State of Michigan. 
A number of addresses were made by local 
men. The members present were very earnest in 
their anxiety to have Michigan step to the front 
in matters of game protection. They declared 
that Michigan is the only State to-day along the 
Canadian border that permits the spring shoot¬ 
ing of wildfowl, and in every one of the Eastern 
States, New York, Minnesota and the two Da¬ 
kotas, Montana and Idaho, as well as all of the 
Canadian Provinces from Quebec to British 
Columbia, spring shooting is absolutely abolished. 
The revenue derived from the gun licenses in 
the various States was reported as large, $135,- 
000 in Wisconsin, over $200,000 in New York 
State, $112,000 in California and over $150,000 
in Illinois are stated as approximately the an¬ 
nual returns from this source. Sportsmen pay 
this tax and feel that the expenditure should be 
made for the benefit of out-door life. 
Ideas and Illustrations. 
W. D. Simmons, who spoke before the Con¬ 
servation Congress at St. Paul, Sept. 8, said in 
part: 
“In business we endeavor by industrious and 
intelligent use of our capital to produce as the 
fruit of our efforts an annual return without 
impairing the capital — without touching the 
principal or jeopardizing it in any manner. In 
private enterprises the man who assumes the 
headship of a business organization in which the 
funds of others are invested as capital, and who 
then makes a show of prosperity by drawing 
on that capital to pay what he represents as 
dividends, is charged with running a get-rich- 
quick scheme, and in most States is by law held 
personally liable. 
“I commend to your consideration the consis¬ 
tency of applying that principle where there is 
involved the capital of all the people—the na¬ 
tion’s resources. 
“Is it not well for us thoughtfully to inquire 
whether the histories of any other nations record 
the handling of their resources on the get-rich- 
quick plan, that we may see what has been the 
outcome? History is full of such instances. 
Volumes could be written from evidences found 
in the valley of the Euphrates and of the Tigris, 
where stood the great kingdom of Babylonia; 
in the ruins of Palmyra and Palestine; :/i the 
Barbary States, once famed as the granary of 
Rome; now a howling wilderness, because the 
Mohammedans who conquered it neglected its 
natural resources. 
“If we look to history for the other side of 
the picture we find them so well defined as to 
lead to but one conclusion. 
“This is illustrated in Germany, where they 
have maintained the fertility of their soil for 
centuries. It produces more per acre to-day 
than it did many generations ago. Their great 
forest estates have remained intact; they have 
cut a crop of timber from them regularly every 
year, producing an annual income, but the capi¬ 
tal—the forest estate—is greater and more valu¬ 
able to-day than it was before our country was 
discovered. Fires have not destroyed their 
forests. They have long since learned the wis¬ 
dom of applying ‘an ounce of prevention.’ ” 
The Game Season. 
Little Falls, N. Y., Sept. 19 . — Editor Forest 
and Stream: The season now open finds deer 
abundant in the Adirondacks. Some good ones 
were killed the first day or two, a pair of fine 
bucks going on the train at Clearwater yester¬ 
day, and several coming aboard at places along 
the route from the Saranacs to Forestport. There 
seem to be a number of bears abroad, too. They 
were seen in the berry season and have left their 
marks in trails where the mud was soft. 
The woods are in poor condition for the still- 
hunter ; leaves thick and brush noisy. Most deer 
are killed under present conditions by driving. 
Men are posted along the foot of a hill or ravine 
and then men come whooping down the ravine 
or over the mountain driving game before them. 
It is a very effective method, and nearly all the 
deer killed by visitors to the mountains and many 
killed by woodsmen are shot before man-dogs. 
Straight still-hunting is very difficult in the 
days of leaves, and one must be rather lucky or 
hunt a country where trails are plenty to get the 
deer in the old way. There is as usual a good 
deal of talk about the best time for the open 
season. The best time is difficult to decide upon. 
Some woodsmen say Sept. 16 is too early, and 
that the hunting ought not to begin before Oct. 
1. The leaves are falling then and hunting grows 
better till the middle of November, which it is 
agreed is late enough for a season to stay open. 
The reasons advanced for having the season 
open later are that the deer meat in middle 
September is not in good condition. The ani¬ 
mals are lean and the meat stringy. , As soon as 
the beechnuts fall 1 —they are plenty this year 
deer fatten rapidly. 1 hey are taking on fat by 
the end of September, and in a good beechnut 
year one finds deer with great layers of fat 
under their hides. The deer killed now have 
no fat to speak of on them, except an occasional 
young buck or dry doe. 
A foreman on a preserve maintained by a 
lumber company told me that the company was 
not adverse to deer hunters, but that it was de¬ 
cidedly adverse to man-killers. 1 he company 
has a hundred or more men cutting and skidding 
timber on its preserve, and a few years ago it 
permitted promiscuous hunting. The foremen 
of camps were allowed to kill deer occasionally, 
and even the men took days off to hunt. 
But the mob that goes into the woods contains 
the shooters at moving bushes and at noises. An 
injured man and some narrow escapes made 
trouble for the company. Crews were fright¬ 
ened by reckless shooters, and men were afraid 
to work in the woods, or if they did work much 
time was lost watching for hunters. So the 
lands were posted. Then, as there were fire¬ 
arms in camp, the men wanted a day or two off 
to hunt, and as the good hunters are commonly 
good workers, sawing and skidding crews were 
broken up and the work disorganized. Thus it 
was a commercial matter to stop deer hunting 
by the men. Camps were forbidden the use of 
guns. The result has been a very marked in¬ 
crease in the number of deer, and at the same 
time a loss in their size. Large bucks grow 
