cae 
FOREST AND STREAM. 








































DEVOTED TO FIELD AND AQUATIC SPoRTS, PRACTICAL NATURAL HISTORY, 
Fish CULTURE, THE PROTECTION OF GAME, PRESRVATION OF FORESTS, 
AND THE INCULCATION IN MEN AND WOMEN OF A HEALTHY INTERFST 
IN OvUr-Z20R RECREATION AND STUDY: 
PUBLISHED BY 
forest and Stream Publishing Company, 
——aT—— 
108 FULTON STREET, NEW YORK. 
SS 
Terms, Five Dollars a Year, Strictly in Advance. 
ae 
A discount of twenty percent. for five copies and upwards. Any person 
sending us two subscriptions and Ten Dollars will receive a copy of 
Hallock’s ‘‘ Fisnine Tourist,'* postage free. 
Pee 1 
Advertising Rates, 
In regular advertising columns, nonpareil type, 12lines to the inch, 25 
cents per line. Advertisements on outside page, 40 cents perline. Reading 
notices, 50 cents per line. Advertisements in double column 25 per cent. 
extra. Where advertisements are inserted over 1 month, a discount of 
10 per cent. will be made; over three months, 20 per cent; over six 
months, 30 per cent. 


NEW YORK, THURSDAY, NOY. 20, 1878. 


To Correspondents. 
ae Wate iag 
All communications whatever, whether relating to business or literary 
correspondence, must be addressed to THe Forest AND STREAM PuB- 
LISHING ComMPANY. Personal letters only, to the Manager. 
All communications intended for publication must be accompanied with 
real name, as a guaranty of good faith. Names willnot be published if 
objection be made. No anonymous contributions will be regarded. 
Articles relating to any topic within the scope of this paper are solicited. 
We cannot promise to return rejected manuscripts. 
Ladies are especially invited to use our columns, which will be pre- 
pared with ::areful reference to their perusal and instruction. 
Secretaries of Clubs and Associations are urged to favor us with brief 
notes of their movements and transactions, as it is the aim of this paper 
become a medium of useful and reliable information between gentle- 
men sportsmen from one end of the country to the other; and they will 
find our columns a desirable medium for advertising announcements. 
The Publishers of Forest AND STREAM aim to merit and secure the 
patronage and countenance of that portion of the community whose re- 
fined intelligence enables them to properly appreciate and enjoy all that 
18 beautiful in Nature. It will pander to no depraved tastes, nor pervert 
the legitimate sports of land and water to those base uses which always 
vend to make them unpopular with the virtuous and good. No advertise- 
ment or business notice of an immoral character will be receiyed on any 
terms; and nothing will be admitted to any department o the paper that 
may not be read with propriety in the home circle. 
We cannot be responsible for the dereliction of the mail service, if 
money remitted to us is lost. 
This paper sent gratuitously to all contributors. 
Advertisements should be sent in by Saturday of each week, if possible. 
CHARLES HALLOCK, 
Managing Editor. 



Calendar of Events for the Current Week. 
PRE FS 
FRIDAY, N vember 21.—Meeting of the Natchez Jockey Club, Natchez, 
Mississippi. : 
SarurDAy, November 22.—Meeting of the Natchez Jockey Club, 
Natchez, Mississippi. ¥ 
TurspAy, November 25.—Charlotte State Fair, N. C. 
Wepnespay, November 26.—Charlotte State Fair, N.C. 
THURSDAY, November 27, Thanksgiving Day.—New York Caledonian 
Club Sports on the grounds of the N. Y. A. C. 

SPORTSMEN VS. POACHERS. 
eek 
LL true sportsmen will read the following account of 
atrial, which we take from the New York Herald. 
It is idle to suppose for a moment that the preservation of 
game and fish acts detrimentally to the poorer classes. The 
poacher will never work, and is always ready and willing 
to take his chances in private preserves to kill game and 
fish in all seasons. For what benefit? Certainly not for 
his poor wife and family. Sometimes, as in this instance, 
the poacher gets his just deserts. Stock the forests and 
streams once again with game and fish suitable to the land 
and water, and the production of food from these sources 
will be within the means of all:— 
“The South Side Sportsmen’s Club vs. John Kortright.— 
This action was tried at Riverhead, and presents some in- 
teresting features for sportsmen and owners of fishing pre- 
serves on Long Island. The plaintiffs, the well known 
shooting and oe club of which Recorder Hackett is 
President and John E. Devlin counsel, own some nine hun- 
dred acres of sporting preserves in the town of Islip. The 
defendant is a fisherman of Amityville, some fifteen miles 
west of the club grounds. On the night ef Sunday, 16th 
of March last—a windy, rainy, tempestuous night—he, in 
company with three other Amityvillians were detected by 
the club’s boatman on watch, in drawing a net in Connet- 
quot Creek, into which they had sailed and rowed from 
the South Bay. This creek composes part of the waters of 
the club, in which it owns the exclusive right of fishery 
under the Nicoll patent. The club, determined to protect 
its property and fishing privileges brought a separate action 
against each of the trespassers. The jury was out all 
night, and in the morning rendered a verdict of $25 for 
plaintiffs, which, as the title of the club to its property 
came in question, is understood to carry full costs in each 
of the suits. These will amount to about $150, besides de- 
fendants’ expenses and loss of time in attending court, and 
their own counsel fees, making up the pleasant sum of 
about $300 for one night’s fishing. The value of the fish 
taken was abuut $10. A rather poor investment, but an- 
other illustration of the truth that ‘‘The way of the trans- 
essor is hard.” A venerable piece of documentary evi- 
ence was produced on the trial, being no other than the 
original patent issued by King William III., of England, 

to William Nicoll, in 1697, of a tract of land some ten 
miles square, extending from Blue Point on the east to near 
the present village of Islip on the west, with the South 
Bay for its southern and the country road running through 
the middle of the island for its northern boundary. This 
interesting piece of parchment, with the great seal at- 
tached, is in the possession of and was produced on the trial 
by Mr. William Nicoll, now residing upon and still owning 
a considerable portion of the land granted by the Crown 
to his namesake and ancestor. His patent is liberally word- 
ed, and shows that the colonial gentlemen ‘‘in favor” in 
those days kept a good lookout for the main’ chance and 
were ‘‘learned in the law.” Here are some of the things 
granted in addition to the land:—‘‘Marshes, pools, ponds, 
lakes, fountains, waters, water courses, rivers, rivulets, 
runs, streams, brooks, creeks, harbors, coves, inlets, out- 
lets, fishing, fowling, hunting, and hawking.” The club 
was owner under this patent, and the Judge held that, al- 
though, as claimed by the defendants, in the Connetquot 
Creek the tide ebbed and flowed, the Crown had a right to 
and did grant to Nicoll and his grantees the exclusive right 
of fishery in these waters, and that this right belonged to 
the club, and had been violated by the defendants, for 
which they must respond in damages. The Game laws 
limited the recovery for exemplary damages to $100, and it 
is understood that most of the jury were in favor of award- 
ing that amount, but that one of them, who did not think 
that the owners of trout streams, on which they had ex- 
pended thousands of dollars, had any rights which a Long 
{slander was bound to respect, kept his eleven stubborn 
fellows—cold, hungry, and uncomfortable—out for an en- 
tire night. 
“The result of this trial is encouraging to gentlemen of 
means fond of outdoor sport witn gun and rod, because 
they can now rest assured of protection in the enjoyment 
of their property, and that their fishing privileges will be 
respected and reserved for their own and their friends’ en- 
joyment.” 

—}- 9 
THE ENGLISH HORSE QUESTION: 

» EADERS of Forest anp STREAM, may have noticed, 
that from time to time, we have touched on the horse 
question in England. Notwithstanding a parliamentary 
committee, with Lord Rosenberry at their head, has been 
convened to study this particular subject, the decrease of 
horses in England, we were rather inclined to think that 
complaints were dirécted toward the scarcity of pleasure 
horses, as hacks, hunters, or carriage horses, than toward 
any dearth of agricultural or working animals. 
From a more careful study of this important subject, we 
are forced to admit that the matter is a grave one, and that 
there are strong reasons to suppose that unless greater atten- 
tion be paid to the rearing of horses in England, the conse- 
quences may be quite serious. ‘‘Some ten years ago,’’ says 
an excellent authority, ‘‘a fair horse for cart, harness or sad- 
dle might be bought for £30 to £40; to-day; he is worth 
double the money. Any kinds of horses fit to drive in a 
carriage, providing they are sound, are worth to-day in 
London £150. If they are anything like fine or handsome, 
the figures for a pair will go as high as £400. It seems of 
all the things which have notably increased in price in 
England, the noble horse is now at the top of such aug- 
mented values. 
Testimony of well known dealers in London, Tattessall’s 
among them, declares that in the last ten years, the price of 
horses has increased more than thirty per cent., and in 
some cases, such as of hunters, 100 per cent. The reason 
assigned by the horse merchants is the growing scarcity. 
It has become more profitable to raise sheep and oxen than 
horses. One of the leading dealers in England, in reply to 
a question put to him by the committee said ‘‘If you told 
me that you would give me £400 for a pair of carriage 
horses that you dare put your wife behind, and give mea 
fortnight to get them in, I would not guarantee to buy 
them.” It seems that to make up for the dearth of horses, 
foreign animals are imported, and this very strange practice 
isin vogue. Young English horses are sent abroad to the 
Continent, kept their for a certain time, and then shipped 
back again to England as foreign horses. This scarcity of 
horses includes every variety of horses, from the huge 
brewer’s horse to the diminutive Shetland pony. Here again 
there comes in a peculiar quality of the horse as to his size, 
which is worth noticing. Under-sized animals are required 
to work in coal mines, in England and Scotland, and the 
want of such animals is a serious inconvenience. Importa- 
tion of horses from Iceland have been noticed in the United 
States, as arriving in England, undoubtedly to be used for 
underground work. 
Some peculiarities essentially English of a remarkable 
character, have apparently cramped the trade in horses. 
We might imagine a revolution in the United States, under 
similar circumstances, as it would kill the dicker and swop, 
the highest aspiration and birth-right of our own free born 
Yankees. 
The law of selling or disposing of horses seems to be as 
follows: Chambers’ Journal is our authority. ‘*Any person 
buying or selling even a single horse is compelled to pay a 
horse dealer’s license of £12.10.” An instance is cited of a 
man going into an English county to buy pigs, who seeing a 
likely pony, and thinking he could turn an honest penny 
by it, he bought it, and bringing it home, made ten shillings 
by the sale of it. A gentleman bought the pony, exchanged 
him fora horse, and was immediately held liable to pay 
$12. 10, a horse dealer’s license. 
It seems curious that particular licenses should be re- 
quired for selling a horse in England when none are required 
by a person who disposes of a cow or ox. , 
The guarantee question on warranty, valid for six months, 
is another impediment tothe horse trade. It renders a 
horse liable to be returned at any time. In Ireland no such 
extended warranty exists, nor is a license requisite, 


Very interesting information was obtained by the com- 
mittee in regard to the cost and management of the large 
London omnibus lines. Almost all the horses used, were 
found to be foreign animals. They aregenerally from five to 
seven years old, and cost abovt £34. They lasted on 
an average four anda half years, some fully five years, 
which we think if any thing is slightly below the experience 
of New York omnibus lines. 
In a late number of the London Feld, we saw announced 
that fifty horses would be sold every day for a certain num- 
ber of days, these horses having been purchased by the 
Government some time prior, at a high cost, for the use of 
the army duriug their late summer manceuvres. These 
horses were employed for army transport and artillery 
service, and were bred almost all of them in France. The 
history of the purchase of these horses was as follows: A 
dealer was commissioned to purchase horses in 1872, con- 
tracting for 2,000 horses, for the army, and of this number 
1,500, at least, were foreign animals, bred in Normandy, 
and were derived strangely enough from English stock sent 
to France some forty years ago. They cost about £42 each. 
So scarce then were and are now horses of this class, that 
in order to procure them, should England be engaged in 
war, she would be obliged to provide her artillery and 
trains almost entirely with imported horses. 
Some of the evidence given by practical cavalry officers 
was as follows: that if it had not been for this importation 
of foreign horses, there would not have been any army 
manceuvres at all, and what is even stronger, Col. §. G. 
Jenyns stated ‘‘that if a war broke out tomorrow (in Eng- 
land) and you had to get 7,000 horses for the combatant 
branches alone, they would all be unbroken horses, and be- 
fore they were really broken, the war would be over.” 
Racing matters were thoroughly overhauled by this com- 
mittee, and though we do not agree with some very strong 
authorities, men familiar with horses, we give their 
conclusions which were as follows: and they were ‘‘that the 
world did not want race horses. It wanted horses fit for 
harness, and horses to carry a good weight, and as for the 
army; it wanted horses that could take the field and stand 
fire, and that administrators of Queen’s Plate appear to have 
lost sight of these objects.” No one doubts but that Eng- 
land produces scores of animals which are weedy and 
leggy. é A ase) 
Certain taxes in England, discriminating between agricul- 
tural and sporting horses act too detrimentally in the raising 
of horses. For example, one authority states that “‘if a 
farmer allows his son to ride one of his farm horses to a 
hunt, the duty must be paid for it, the same as if it was a 
regular riding horse.” 
In 1872, about, 859,358 horses paid duty in England. In 
1870, 7,200 horses were sent to Germany and France, in 1872 
only 3,388. To-day imports fai exceed exports. Last year 
12,618 horses came over to England. The reason fer 
the scarcity and high price of horses does not ap- 
parently arise as much from any marked diminution 
in the number of horses, raised in England, as from 
the increased demand. Instead of railroads having dim- 
inished the carriage of goods by horses, they seem to 
have increased it. In England wealth has augmented en 
ormously, andmore people ride and drive. Merchandise 
alone in the’cities, not counting the transportation of pass- 
engers by omnibuses and cars, consumes more horse-fiesh 
than was used perhaps in the whole of England fifty 
yearsago. The remedy for this scarcity of horses we think 
lies in less legislation in regard to the whole matter, and 
turning more attention to the breeding of useful, instead 
of ornamental animals. 
In the United States, the total number of horses, according 
to the estimate made in 1872, was 9,222,470. As to states, 
Indiana had the largest number, 1,049,400, and of the 
Eastern, Middle and Southern States, Rhode Island had the 
least number, some 14,700. The total value of the horses is 
estimated at $684,468,957, an average price of $74.24 per 
horse, the New Jersey horse being held the highest, at 
$127, and the Texas horse at the lowest, some $37. Of 
mules the number is estimated at 1,310,000. 
From the taking of the census of 1860 up to 1872 the in- 
crease in horses, notwithstanding the enormous quantity of 
animals killed during the war, has been in round numbers, 
about 1,750,000. ° 
To conclude this interesting subject, the question natural- 
ly arises, .can we ever hope to send some of our surplus 
stock to England, in order to fill, up the void in harses 
which is so apparent there. Putting aside the poorer quali- 
ties of animals, which would be worthless in England, 
there is no doubt but that from certain sections of this 
country, occasionally good horses could be procured, which 
might even after cost of shipment allow some small margin 
of profit, but while France is so near, we should think the 
business would at best be a precarious one. 
That our working horses fre improving every day at 
home, there is little doubt about, but as to their docility, or a 
thorough acquaintance with breaking them, we think we 
have much yet to learn from England. 

toe 
—The ‘St. Louis Ledger” is the title of an illustrated 
independent journal to be published by John S. Hay for the 
Ledger Publishing Company, the first number of which will 
be issued on the 25th of this month. As this paper is to 
devote some portion of its space to sporting intelligence, 
we shall be compelled to receive it into the fraternity, and 
we feel, from our personal acquaintance with the manager, 
that he will make it worthy of the place accorded toit. St. 
Louis, with a half million of people ought to support one 
illustrated paper like this that is if all the inhabitants take 
it. Terms $5.00. : 
