
1020 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Dec. 28, 1907. 

| Notes of the Yellowstone Park. 
THe fence which incloses a part of the alfalfa 
field in the Yellowstone National Park, separat- 
ing that reservation from the town of Gardiner 
and the adjacent public land of Montana, has 
for time needed care. The fence which 
is serviceable so long as the ground is reason- 
some 
ably level or only slightly ascending or de- 
scending, does not follow the inequalities of the 
surface down and across the gulches and 
ravines, which here and there pass under it, and 
through the gaps thus left the 
been in the habit of passing and 
of the protection of the park. 
As antelope may be killed in Montana—al- 
though the residents of Gardiner for the most 
part have no wish to kill them, preferring to 
antelope have 
so getting out 
see them feeding half tame about the town— 
Gen. Young, superintendent of the park, has 
had the fence fixed by closing up the gaps 
through which the antelope escaped and 
confining them within the park limit. 
We are permitted to publish the following re- 
port on the condition of game in the neigh- 
borhood of the Mammoth Hot Springs. This 
will be read with interest by all our readers, 
and shows the good condition in which the game 
is at present: 
thus 
Fort YELLOWSTONE, Yellowstone 
Dec. 11—The Superintendent, Yellowstone Na- 
tional Park: Sir—I have the honor to report 
to you some interesting observations made on 
the game in the last two days. Yesterday, Dec. 
10, I took my troop up the road back of the 
hotel, across the target range, thence around the 
little lakes at the foot of Sepulchre Mountain, 
National Park, 
and from there worked down to the old trail 
from Gardiner. We counted one hundred and 
two deer, one cow elk and six coyotes during 
the two-hour ride. 
To-day I took the troop up on the plateau to 
the east of the Gardiner River. We found in 
all, thirty-eight mountain sheep. The sheep 
were in small bands composed of a large ram 
and several ewes. The first band contained 
seven: the second, nine; the third. eight, and 
the fourth, eleven. Then we found two to- 
gether, a ram and a ewe, and then a lone ram. 
The two that we found together allowed us to 
approach within forty or fifty feet. It is possible 
that we might have gone closer. as they were 
lot frightened. The lone ram we rode right up 
to, and in fact all around him. being at times 
not more than ten or fifteen feet distant from 
um. Unfortunately, I did not have my camera 
to show accurately the condition of the sheep, 
ut they all looked sleek, fat, and in prime con- 
dition, except one ram, the leader of the band 
of nine, which was very lame and seemed to 
lave a broken leg, 
Our time was rather limited, so that we did 
not, by any means, make a complete search of 
the plateau, and there were very probably many 
sheep that we did not see. | 

report the num- 
ber absolutely counted, in the course of a two- 
hour ride. The antelope were on that plateau 
by the hundreds. We could not count them. 
We saw no coyotes. | may add that the grass 
there is abundant, and of good qual_ty. 
Very respectfully, 
MortIMer QO. BiGetow, 
Captain, 8th Cavalry. 

Hunting in Mississippi. 
SAGINAW, Mich., Dec, 18—Editor Forest and 
Stream: I have been to Mississippi. It has 
been our custom for five years to take a little 
trip for quail down in that country, and this 
year we went a little earlier than usual. There 
were only six of us in the party and we took 
our car and five dogs with us. Some of the 
dogs proved good and some did not. We found 
plenty of birds, but it was early in the season 
for good shooting. They were in the thickets 
and’ made it very hard and sporty shooting, and 
six or eight birds to a man on an average 
the best we could do, though I think 
one day got fourteen and one day I had 
We burned lots of 
was 
Davis 
eleven. 
ammunition and had a bully 

good time and did not shoot extra well, though, 
as I said before, the shooting was awfully hard. 
The birds were very strong and full grown. 
We were royally entertained by our Missis- 
sippi friends and found delightful weather, two 
days being so hot we had to discard our hunt- 
ing coats. We got back to find a blizzard rag- 
ing and eight inches of snow throughout Michi- 

gan. W. B. MeErsHon. 
New Publications. 
AFIELD WITH THE SEASONS. By James Buck- 
ham. Illustrated; 174 pages. New York, 
Thomas Y. Crowell & Co. $1.25. 
This is a 
pleasing volume of nature studies, a 
record of 
impressions received during many 
walks in the woods and fields at all seasons of 
the year. Mr. Buckham’s opening chapter re- 
lates to signs of the coming spring, the first one 
of which, he says, is the cawing of crows which 
have for the most part remained silent during 
the winter. He remembers the visits to sugar 
camps in March with great pleasure, but truth- 
fully asserts that “the majority of nature stu- 
dents would as lief eat chokecherries and milk 
as go out for a tramp in March. The notes on 
spring migrants and the flowers to be found at 
that season make pleasant winter's night read- 
ing, when one looks forward eagerly to the first 
fishing trip. 
Mr, Buckham devotes a chapter to fishing, in 
which he says: “I am of the opinion that all the 
sleight-of-hand of the piscatorial art can be ex- 
plained by one little word—patience. It is by 
an exquisite refinement of this humble virtue 
that the most famous anglers win their success 
and their reputation.’ But we doubt if the 
patient angler will succeed if he lack skill and a 
knowledge of the habits of the trout. 
In common with many another nature lover, 
the author cannot resist the fascination of the 
marsh in September, though he often forgets that 
he has a gun and is out for game, sO numerous 
are the things that distract one’s attention from 
the shooting. 
The illustrations are from 
photographs, are 
most excellent, and well chosen. 

New CREATIONS IN PLANT Lire; an authoritative 
account of the life and work of Luther Bur- 
bank. By W. S. Harwood. Illustrated, 430 
pages. New York and London, the Mac- 
millan Company. $1.75 
This, the second and revised edition of Mr. 
Harwood’s book, is even more appreciative of 
the great work performed by Luther Burbank, 
than the first edition. He tel's us that the man 
who has worked on more than 2,500 distinct 
species of plants was ever fond of flowers and 
plants. One of his first “pets” was a cactus, and 
one of his most recent achievements has been 
the creation of thornless cacti that may in time 
change the character of the deserts where these 
plants grow so profusely. From one plant four 
years old he has succeeded in producing more 
than 400 pounds of this delicious fruit, so satis- 
fying to the water-famished and hungry traveler 
on the desert. Of the six distinct varieties he 
has created by crosses with many wild varieties, 
only a few have thorns, and these are insignifi- 
cant compared with those of the wild prickly 
pear cactus of the Southwest, whose fruit is 
hedged about with thorns and studded with tiny 
spicules that render it unfit to eat until each 
“pear” is first rolled in a cloth to 
tiny spines. 
Mr. Burbank’s efforts to improve edible fruits 
and vevetables have been no less successful than 
those directed toward the betterment of our 
forest trees, and in all his work he has en- 
deavored to render his creations more hardy, to 
increase their rate of growth, to male them of 
greater value to man, and to beautify them in 
every way possible. The untiring d-votion of 
the man to his chosen profession in the face of 
seemingly hopeless opposition of various sorts, 
his patient application of practical methods to 
assist nature in bringine about desired changes, 
and the results of his efforts are told in the most 
pleasing fashion by Mr, Harwood. the camera 
assisting him. 
remove the 
The Ruffed Grouse Scarcity. 
Derry, N. H., Dec. 1.—Editor Forest and 
Stream: To-day is the first day of the close 
season on game birds with us. We are situated 
about ten miles north of the Massachusetts State 
line. 
We have a good natural cover for ruffed 
grouse. We had a good supply of birds left over 
last fall, but a cold wet spring killed off a lot 
of young birds and prevented eggs from hatch- 
ing. Our season opened Oct. 1. We did not 
find many grouse, but more woodcock than we 
have had for years, and they kept a coming 
until well into November. Later in the season 
we began to find more grouse, or partridges we 
call them, and I actually believe there were as 
many shot here by our local hunters as in past 
seasons. A friend and I bagged fifteen birds in 
one day, seven partridges and eight woodcock. 
Will Sawyer and his setter pup got seventy 
birds, about twenty partridges and fifty wood- 
cock. This is his second season at hunting, and 
the first for his dog. 
The birds are undoubtedly much searcer this 
year than usual, but the gunners are too on ac- 
count of our nonresident law. With two friends 
I hunted a week in Sandwich, too miles north 
of here, and only shot two grouse; we did not 
Start a dozen birds. In the town of Campton, a 
few miles east of Sandwich, a friend writes me 
“there are more partridges than for the last three 
or four years.” 
We hear all kinds of theories about the scar- 
city. It seems strange to me if so many of these 
birds have been killed off by a disease or gos- 
hawks why we have not run on to some of their 
feathers. Some of my friends have been in the 
woods about every Sunday all the season, and 
have seen no signs of dead birds. | did shoot 
two young partridees out of one flock, in the 
cavities of which I found white worms, some 
three or four inches in length. Otherwise they 
seemed to be smart and in good condition. 
In most of the best hunting country east of 
us, and up in Chester there seems to be the 
greatest scarcity, but west, in Londonderry, I 
hear more favorable news. One man told me 
he “started more than thirty” last week while 
rabbit hunting. 
Two of my friends hunted east on a twenty- 
one mile walk and did not get a bird, probably 
a half dozen flushes. So there you are, my 
friends and I let up On hunting them a fort- 
night since, they are worth more to us alive than 
dead. 
We are thankful our 
shortened two weeks. 
Under favorable conditions I see no reason why 
we cannot have plenty of birds another year. 
We have a fine row of woodcock covers all im- 
proving by growth each year. This year we found 
such good shooting that no day could we take 
open season has been 
them all in. So I think we have much to be 
thankful for. Jorn W.. Bassirr. 
ELMira,®\N. -Yn Dec) 2={Rinizon Forest and 
Stream: JT have noted several letters from peo- 
ple in the different States regarding the scarcity 
of grouse. As far as I can Jearn by a thorough 
inquiry in the States of New York and Pennsyl- 
vania I am disposed to believe that the cold, wet 
late spring of this year killed nearly all the young 
birds. Every gunner whom T have talked with 
in the two States says that he killed no young 
birds to speak of, but did kill very large and 
strong healthy old birds, and mostly cocks. 
Last spring was the worst one for raising 
young grouse that I remember in forty years 
with dog and gun. In April, May and into June 
the weather was cold and wet. 
Now, about game bird protection! TI note that 
a great many people protect the grouse very thor- 
oughly by talk, but when its comes to a shortage 
of birds, they do not put up the gun. Yet that 
is the way to protect our grouse, and the only 
way, for he cannot be caught and kept up in 
the winter like our quail. As an illustration of 
this, one of my shooting friends told me of being 
out on Thanksgiving day where there were no 
bird shooters; that is, none who used bird dogs 
and shot on the wing. He said that they found 
(Continued on page 1035.) 


