

Forest and Stream 
A Weekly Journal. Copyright, 1907, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
GrorGe Brirp GRINNELL, President, 
346 Broadway, New York. 

Terms, $3 a Year, 10 Cts. a Copy. t 
Six Months, $1.50. 
CHARLES B. REYNo.tps, Secretary. 
346 Broadway, New York. 
Louis DEAN SpeEtr, Treasurer. 
346 Broadway, New York. 




NEW YORK, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1907. 


THE OBJECT OF THIS JOURNAL 
will be to studiously promote a healthful interest 
in outdoor recreation, and to cultivate a refined 
taste for natural objects. 
—Forest AND STREAM, Aug. 14, 1873. 

NINETEEN HUNDRED AND SEVEN. 
Tus old planet, in its travels through space, 
has reached and passed the point which gave us 
our shortest day. Already we are nearing the 
sun again, and the advent of spring is not so 
very far away as it seems. The year is almost 
a memory. 
The angler, the shooter and the nature lover 
found it a twelvemonth of many disappoint- 
ments—of seasons seemingly gone astray. 
Winter lingered in the lap of spring so long 
that summer was at hand ere the snowdrift be- 
came assuredly a thing of the past. Trout fish- 
ing there was little or none that could be fol- 
lowed under conditions even remotely approach- 
ing the ideal. In early summer the mountain 
brooks were icy and stoves were still hugged at 
eventide, when the results of the day’s fly-fish- 
ing were recounted over the cigars. 
Summer passed amid discouraging drouths 
that dried up the trout brooks over a wide re- 
gion, while in the North the salmon fishermen 
found little to console them for their long jour- 
neys, and the seasons there were out of joint. 
In the autumn the cold fingers of the frost 
king were withheld from forest and bay, and 
the wildfowler fretted over the non-appearance 
of seasonable game, while the foliage hid the 
wily old grouse that had survived the misfit 
And when the leaves at last left their 
the truth slowly dawned on the 
for 
season. 
parent stems, 
forest rovers that the grouse were gone, 
that season at least. 
Despite all these seemingly discouraging 
ments crowded into one year, there are 
sportsmen who look forward to the coming year 
and its seasonable sports with anything but a 
philosophical spirit. Empty creels, light bags, 
fruitless junkets far afield are all a part of the 
season’s sport—for the angler and the shooter of 
1907 did not reckon their pleasure by weight and 
number. 
“Better luck next time’ seems peculiarly in 
place at this time, for in wishing you all a happy, 
prosperous and successful New Year, we can- 
not forget this bit of angling and shooting phil- 
osophy. 
ele- 
few 
CHRISTMAS TREES, 
THE enormous demand for Christmas trees 
and its effect on forest preservation is one of 
the hardest nuts the forest protectionists have 
ever attempted to crack. It may be thought 
that the artificial Christmas tree is one of the 
results of the half-hearted sentiment against de- 
spoiling our evergreens, but it is rather the re- 
sult of failures to obtain natural trees in suffi- 
cient quantities to supply the demand, and it 
is doubtful if it will replace the evergreen so 
long as the latter can be secured in trainload 
lots. 
When sentiment and practical common sense 
stand on opposite sides of a question, there is 
seldom doubt as to the outcome. To teach our 
youths to forego the fun of a noisy Fourth of 
July and to contemplate a treeless Christmas, are 
matters that will require diplomacy and _ tact. 
It is possible that the artificial Christmas tree 
will in the future gradually replace the natural 
one if jt is made sufficiently attractive. Certainly 
it can be made to serve the purpose without the 
enormous waste necessary to adapt the natural 
tree to individual requirements, and it is also 
possible that it can be made of less inflam- 
mable material. If its use will obviate the 
anxiety of every parent lest a fire follow the 
Christmas festivities, it may in time come into 
more general use, and its manufacture furnish 
employment for a large number of persons and 
profits for its makers. 
AMATEUR FISHING RODMAKING. 
REFERENCE has frequently been made in Forest 
AND STREAM to the constantly increasing num- 
ber of persons who desire to make their own 
fishing rods. This wish exists epecially among 
beginners, who inquire almost daily for informa- 
tion relating to materials, tools and instructions. 
A great many anglers have adopted the short 
bait-casting rod, the free-running multiplying 
reel and artificial lures that are used so much 
nowadays in preference to the older methods of 
These short rods are 
much easier to than the fly-rods, and 
novices are encouraged to try their skill at rod- 
with surprisingly flattering re- 
angling with live bait. 
make 
making, often 
sults. 
In this day no youth who is handy with tools 
need forego the pleasure of fashioning his own 
rods because of the expense, for excellent wood 
and metal-working tools are cheap and all the 
metal parts of rods can be purchased in the open 
market. 
Of late years rodmaking literature has not 
kept pace with the demand for practical infor- 
mation, but early in the New Year Forest AND 
Stream will begin the publication of a series of 
papers on this subject, written by Perry D. 
Frazer. The series will be for beginners, and 
each step in the work will be treated carefully 
and thoroughly, and the text will be further ex- 
plained by photographs and drawings. The mak- 
ing of each style of bait- and fly-rod will be 
treated separately, and chapters will be devoted 
to materials, tools and all the numerous sub- 
jects about which the novice desires information. 
i VOL. LXIX.—No. 26. 
No. 346 Broadway, New York. 
Die [EETNOIS: “PHEASANTS. 
Game Com- 
birds 
In Illinois it is the practice of the 
mission to distribute the 
among the farmers in the spring. 
are shipped from the State game farm to al 
eggs of game 
These eggs 
l 
persons who will promise to care for tlie young 
birds from the time they hatched under 
domestic hens until they are large enough to 
shift for themselves. The recipients of eggs are 
also required to report to Commissioner Wheeler, 
in order that his department can keep a fairly 
are 
accurate record of the work. 
This method of distributing pheasants through- 
out the State may be said to have passed the ex- 
perimental stage, but it seems that the results 
for the season just closed have been disappoint- 
ing, if the reports from various parts of Illinois 
are accurate, for they are to the effect that but 
fifty-five per cent. of the eggs sent out hatched, 
representing a very important loss to the depart- 
ment. Carelessness in handling the eggs during 
shipment is believed to be the chief cause of this 
loss, and we understand that a new 
plan is proposed. This is that in future the game 
wardens from various parts of the State will be 
required to report at the pheasant hatchery at 
a stated time. There they will be placed in 
charge of the pheasant eggs, which they will take 
home with them and distribute among the far- 
mers of their respective neighborhoods. In this 
way it is believed the loss in eggs through failure 
to hatch will be largely reduced. 
It seems that the pheasants which were hatched 
under farmers’ hens thrived and are in 
good condition, and that these will mate and 
raise broods of their due time. The 
State pheasantry produces several thousand eggs 
however, 
have 
own in 
every year, and the farmers are sufficiently en- 
thusiastic over the plan to do their part in assist- 
ing in the work of propagation, while their in- 
terest in the young birds is not likely to cease 
with their liberation. 
The plan has distinct merit. A man who places 
pheasant eggs under his hens will watch them 
carefully, protect the chicks until they are strong 
enough to look out for themselves, and take care 
that they find food and shelter during the first 
winter. He feels a sort of responsibility, and 
pride prompts him to watch over his charges 
until they become full fledged game birds and 
the legitimate prey of the sportsman. 
This is but another form of advertising, and 
advertising, if handled properly, is profitable. It 
serves to assist the game commission in its ef- 
forts to propagate and protect the game mam- 
mals and birds, and to spread the gospel of law 
observance by enlisting the services of every 
citizen who is willing to keep an eye on a few 
eggs, and to see that the chicks receive food 
and shelter for a time. 
The work of the Illinois commission is attract- 
ing the widespread attention it deserves. 

