
FOUNDERS OF THE AUDUBON SOCIETY 

Dr. WILLIAM BRUETTE, Editor 

Member of Audit Bureau of Circulation 


THE OBJECT OF THIS JOURNAL WILL BE TO 
studiously promote a healthful interest in outdoor 
recreation, and a refined taste for natural objects. 
August 14, 1873. 
THE CODE OF AN ANGLER 
R. CHARLES REITELL is an enthusiastic 
D angler who devotes a great deal of his time 
to bettering fishing conditions. He is a mem- 
ber of the Board of Fish Commissioners of Penn- 
sylvania and at present is doing research work on 
natural fish food, lake and stream conditions, 
marine growth and other matters that make for an 
abundant supply of game and food fish. We are 
pleased to present the following code, of which 
Dr. Reitell is the author: 
1. He holds that a good fisherman not only can 
catch fish but is one who rigidly conserves 
angling as a sport. 
realizes that fish must have homes in which 
to live, therefore he sees to it that good 
forests and waters are made available and 
kept available for abundant fish life. 
3. He knows well the enemies of the fish—the 
water snake, the hawk, the otter—and he 
takes of his time and money to rid fish life 
of these menaces. 
4. He loathes that human “‘fish-hog’”’ who ruth- 
‘lessly wastes and destroys, and he vigilantly 
brings to bay these robbers of our fish. 
5. He is tortured by that ghastly nightmare, pol- 
lution of waters, and he fights everlastingly 
to keep clear waters clear, and to redeem 
foul waters to purity. 
is a student of fish life and habits. Thus 
he knows that both the size and number 
of fish depend directly upon the abundance 
of the food supply. Therefore he con- 
serves bait life, and water vegetation. 
7. He obeys the fish laws, not out of fear, but be- 
cause he understands that they are abso- 
lutely necessary for the preservation of 
the fishing sport—for himself, his associ- 
ates and posterity. 
8. He has found that artificial propagation is nec- 
essary to keep the supply of fish abreast of 
the growing numbers of fishermen. As a 
result he is in touch with fish culturists 
and their work. 
9. He believes that ‘the Compleat Angler” is a 
result of wholesome development from 
boyhood and girlhood days, and he is as 
much interested in dating a fishing trip for 
the youngsters as he is in arranging one 
for himself. 
rire ak: 
216 
10. He is a dynamic part of the spirit of American 
Democracy and therefore holds as inviolate 
that all fishing waters shall be open to all 
of the people. Believing this, he holds that 
real conservation means conservation for 
all—not for a few at the expense of the 
many. 
NATURE STILL MASTER 
HAT Man might claim to be the master of 
nature if it were not for forestry, was the 
inference of Dr. Carl A. Schenck, founder of 
the first forestry school in America, and one of the 
pioneers in modern world forestry, at his first ap- 
pearance in this country in ten years. 
Dr. Schenck’s return to America is being marked 
by a series of lectures to the students of the New 
York State College of Forestry at Syracuse Uni- 
versity. Dr. Schenck established the first school 
for instruction in forestry at Biltmore, N. C., in 
1898, where he also conducted practical operations 
under scientific methods in logging and reforesta- 
tion. 
Dr. Schenck said in his first talk that the phe- 
nomena of the interdependence of forest life was 
little understood and that for this reason some 
results differing from the ones intended in the 
handling of woodlands have been obtained and that 
such accidents were often looked upon by present 
generations as great triumphs of the forester. He 
referred particularly to the growing of repeated 
crops of trees in Europe. He said that a Darwin 
was needed in forestry and explained that we were 
not always sure of the exact crop of trees that 
soil, climate and topography would produce, and 
it was due to this fact that the old silvicultural 
practice obtained many results which it did not 
intend. 
Referring to the essentials in successful forest 
growing he said that “patience, purpose and a 
purse,” especially patience, were the most impor- 
tant and that strange as the thought may at first 
seem, forestry had not arrived in any country 
except by the evolution brought about by the axe. 
The speaker declared that the United States would 
be no exception to this rule. Dr. Schenck said that 
the truisms of today were the fallacies of tomorrow 
in forestry, and that while expert loggers are able 
to fell a tree with such accuracy that they can 
drop it on a hat, so many mysteries of nature 
relate to the handling of forests that forestry could 
not as yet be declared a science and he philoso- 
phized that it is better to be striving after truth 
than to possess truth. 
SPRING SIGN 
T intermittent times in life comes the call of 
the outdoors, the song of the Red Gods. 
Never is the witchery more compelling than 
in the allurement of Spring. I allude to those who 
fish for the ultimate love of fishing, who spend 
vagabond hours in that most idyllic of angling— 
the pursuit of the brook trout. 
When the signals of Spring become more fre- 
quent over the brown miles of March landscape, 
one picture emerges out of the far vistas of mem- 
ory and that scene is of a sinuous, flashing, soft 
crooning brook winding down out of the granite 
hills, hiding among the woodlots, and eventually 
seeking the open spaces of field and meadow. The 
