ning and no end, that seemed to have served no 
purpose other than to do the immaculate snow 
with meaningless impressions. Again you come 
upon trails you recognize and it is with great plea- 
sure you follow it to an end—you find the foot- 
prints of old acquaintances far from their habitat 
haunts and wonder the reason of the pilgrimage. 
The snow may reveal the cause—a bit of feathers 
and spots of blood. At other times you never find 
trail’s end nor solve the meaning of the problem. 
In time, with practice and patience born of 
woods’ experience, you read these silent prints as 
you recognize old friends along a city street. The 
happenings of wood and field become common 
property. The lace-work designs of voles and 
shrews, the delicate tracery of small birds, the fine 
clean-cut print of the ruffed grouse, the circles and 
triangles of the hares and rabbits, the far-flung 
line of wanderings of the fox, the prowling of 
mink and weasel and skunk, the big tracks of deer 
working out of the dense growth, the catty yet fur- 
tive dottings of the wildcat—all these snowy trails 
have a tale that may prove not only interesting 
from a biological point of view, but quite useful 
in information necessary to one in the fishing and 
hunting seasons. He who can read footprints must 
know the wild and there you find that friendship 
is strong and love is reciprocated. 
MORE DRAINAGE 
T is now proposed to drain the Winneshiek Bot- 
| toms along the Mississippi extending for thirty 
‘miles between Lynxville, Wisconsin, to Lan- 
sing, lowa. This project has for its object the de- 
velopment of this land for agricultural purposes. 
Previous instances of a similar nature have shown 
enterprises of this nature to be of a very doubtful 
character. Should it go through, however, it would 
unquestionably benefit the drainage companies and 
the engineers—that is all. 
On the other hand, as opposing this project, we 
have arrayed the following incontrovertible facts: 
(1) The estimated expenditure in draining this 
land is about $80.00 per acre. 
away a great storage plant for flood water that has 
in years past materially helped to mitigate the 
losses in the flooded districts of the lower Missis- 
sippi. (38) It would abolish one of the most mag- 
nificent breeding grounds for waterfowl in this 
section of the country. (4) It would wipe out the 
revenue obtained annually from the trapping of 
muskrats in this section. (5) It would destroy an 
excellent fishing territory and a spawning ground 
which has served to stock the Mississippi Valley 
with fish. 
One of the best ways to protect natural re- 
sources of this character is to make sure that the 
Public Shooting Ground Game Refuge Bill passes 
at the next session of Congress. Write to your 
Congressman. 
N. R. A. 
HE majority of the shooting public, especially 
the field sportsmen, do not appreciate the 
scope of the National Rifle Association and 
regard it solely as a target shooters’ proposition. 
Nothing could be further from the truth. 
In the first place, the qualification courses and 
various competitions given by this association 
prove of inestimable value to the field sportsmen. 
Page 19 
(2) It would take | 
They train his eye, develop his self-control, and 
augment his powers of observation. 
Secondly, they keep alive that natural love of 
shooting—the report of the rifle, the smell of pow- 
der and the outdoor life. This spirit is prone to 
wither in the man who goes in the field but once or 
twice a year and fires only a few shells. Then, too, 
they cultivate new and valuable friendships. 
Lastly, and perhaps most important of all, the 
National Rifle Association is the only organization 
of its kind of national scope and sanctioned by the 
War Department. This close cooperation is mani- 
fested in the privileges that have been accorded the 
members of the N. R. A. in the purchasing of gov- 
ernment arms and ammunition. Its potent in- 
fluence has been specially felt by the stand it has 
taken and the pressure it has brought to bear in 
keeping secure the inalienable right of every citi- 
zen to possess and, when necessary, protect him- 
self with firearms. This in itself, if for no other 
reason, is sufficient cause to warrant the existence 
and maintenance of such an organization, and 
it deserves the earnest and hearty cooperation of 
every sportsman. The only way in which this co- 
operation can be secured is by increasing its roll of 
membership. 
THE REASON FOR THE UNSTABLE 
BALANCE OF NATURE 
EOPLE talk of the balance of nature as if it 
were as stable and permanent as the everlast- 
ing hills. They forget that it is unbalanced 
more often than balanced and that it requires very 
little to upset it. 
Civilized man is continually upsetting the so- 
called balance of nature. He shoots the game 
birds and lets their natural enemies escape, with 
a result that the surviving game birds often have 
a very unequal battle with the vermin. 
Nature itself is often responsible for destroying 
the balance, as, witness the effects of the rabbit 
plague in the North. When the hares die from 
disease the vermin of the North turn to the ptarmi- 
gan and grouse for food and in a short time almost 
annihilate them. Then the vermin with wings, 
notably the goshawk and snowy owl, travel south 
like another plague and destroy the grouse of the 
forest regions of Canada and northern United 
States. When we have the next rabbit plague, 
which will be in about two years, our grouse will 
almost disappear. They should then be protected 
by closed seasons in all the states. At such times 
the grouse are as scarce in the great governmental 
preserves of Canada and this country where guns 
are never taken as in the open shooting territory. 
The sportsmen should give up shooting them vol- 
untarily and instead devote their energies to kill- 
ing the destroyers. 
Regardless of the existence of plagues, the bal- 
ance of nature would be upset to a very noticeable 
extent within twenty-five years if no efforts were 
made to keep the vermin in check. If no vermin 
were destroyed during that length of time and a 
closed season declared on all legitimate game dur- 
ing the same period, there would be less of the 
latter at the end of twenty-five years than there 
is now. 
While man often does upset the balance of na- 
ture, he can at the same time prove a most impor- 
tant asset in maintaining the proper balance, 
