* Feathers AN                                            FinsD 
 
                  Contributed by Research Committee 
 
 
  Today is the Tomorrow we were going to 
do such a hell of a lot about Yesterday. 
 
  "The finest things in life are those 
  A bursting buucf[bird that sings, 
     A glowing western sky. 
   And friends to love-these are indeed 
     Well worth their weight in gold. 
   And may you know the gladness which 
     Such things forever hold." 
 
"Give me a friend apd I'll worry along; 
My vision may vanish, my dreams may 
     go wrong; 
 My wealth I may lose, or my money may 
     spend; 
 But I'll worry along, if you give me a 
     friend. 
 
"Give me a friend, and my youth may 
     depart, 
 But still I'll be young in the house of my 
     heart, 
 Yes, I'll go laughing right on to the end, 
 Whatever the years, if you give me a 
     friend." 
 
  A man should never be ashamed to say 
he has been in the wrong, which is but say- 
ing in other words that he is wiser today 
than he was yesterday.-(Alexander Pope) 
 
"The trout by nature mark'd with many a 
     crimson spot, 
 As though she curious were in him above 
     the rest, 
 And to fresh-water fish, did note him for 
     the best."--(Michael Drayton). 
 
             FISHING 
On the cooling bank 
Patiently musing, all intent I stand 
To hook the scaly glutton. See! down sinks 
My cork, that faithful monitor; his weight 
My taper angle bends; surprised, amazed, 
He glitters in the sun, and struggling, pants 
For liberty, till in the purer air 
He breathes no more. 
                  -(William Somerville). 
 
         GRIST AND ECHOES 
  Insects are reckoned to cause annual loss 
of about 10% of all food and fibre crops. 
 
  The Mississippi River, which charts one 
of the great migratory bird flyways, collects 
drainage from about 40% of the United 
States. 
 
  In New England, 600,000,000 pounds of 
seafood are caught by fishermen each year. 
 
  The turkey is the one pheasant native 
to the New World. The name arose 
erroneously about the year 1524 when 
ascribed to the bird by a Swiss biologist. 
He overlooked that this famous bird of the 
festive board had been acquired by Turkey 
from western traders. 
 
 
  Cattail floss is a substance of many uses. 
It is a good heat insulator and suitable for 
filling cushions. Indians used it widely. 
 
  Pigeons were used as messengers by that 
man renowned for wisdom, King Solomon. 
The Persians are credited with employing 
pigeons as long ago as 560 B.C. In 43 B.C. 
these feathered messengers conveyed prompt 
news of winners in the Olympic Games. 
 
  Most animals in their native haunts are 
vegetarians, living on leaves, stalks, seeds, 
fruits and berries. 
 
  Drops of moisture on the leaf tips of 
grasses in early morning are there as a 
result of root pressure. When the sun 
comes the water evaporates. Only aquatic 
plants seem capable of securing moisture 
supply through their leaves. 
 
  Roots of plants require air. It is very 
interesting to study the various devices 
the water plants have developed to supply 
needed air to the roots. 
 
  Annual rings, which characterize cross 
sections of stems of our common trees are 
due to the tubes which convey sap being 
relatively large in spring, when growth is 
rapid, but more compact and smaller in 
autumn   when   growth   processes have 
 
 
  A solitary pocket gopher has been re- 
ported to dig an underground tunnel more 
than 600 feet long in 48 hours time. 
 
  Bird song brings charm and delight to 
woodland, moor and meadow. . It is for the 
purpose of announcing preemptive claim to 
the area in which it is dispersed. A 
parallel is found in that common domestic- 
the barnyard rooster. Obviously a bird's 
song is not for the intent of beguiling his 
lady love, as some of the finest and most 
enthusiastic melody is wafted into the 
spicy springtime air before his mate has 
returned home in migration. Of course, 
home is where the nest is built. 
 
  Poison Ivy, that troublesome small mem- 
ber of the sumac family that does a fiendish 
job on many people, by promoting itchy 
blisters, is common in some of our woods. 
"If leaves three, let it be." About one 
person in three is nearly insensitive to it. 
Perspiring humans are particularly suscept- 
ible. If resistance is once broken down, 
thereafter the individual is likely to be 
poisoned by the slightest contact. When 
exposed, wash the skin with a strong 
laundry soap. Dissolve ferrous sulphate in 
half water and half alcohol to make a 5% 
solution of the salt. Apply a coating to the 
skin and allow to dry. The iron salt forms 
an invisible deposit and neutralizes the 
alkaloid in the poisonous juice before it 
can work its misery. The solution is also 
approved for treatment. 
 
 
  To stock American waters with six to 
seven billion fish each year, the Federal 
Government of the United States operates 
ninety-nine fish hatcheries. 
 
  Otters and badgers seldom experience a 
food shortage as their diet is so diversified. 
They eat, among other things, snakes, 
honey, roots, worms, frogs, eggs and fruit. 
 
  Muskrats have curved teeth which grow 
continuously. They must be worn down 
and sharpened. Nature has endowed them 
with the ability to swing the lower jaw for- 
ward. Thus the lower teeth can be sharp- 
ened against the upper and the upper 
against the lower. 
 
  Algae, or green slime, can be checked in a 
small pool by addition of potassium per- 
manganate. In garden pools a teaspoonful 
of a saturated solution of the salt for each 
gallon of water involved will be harmless 
to fish and water lilies. 
 
  Early Norse boats were steered with an 
oar placed on the right side. Thus that 
side became known as the steering-board, 
and later the term was shortened to star- 
board. 
 
  Mother Nature is not a nudist by choice. 
If left to her own ways, she would clothe 
herself in a leafy smock of forest trees, or at 
least in a sarong of weeds and prairie grasses. 
 
  In making that kettle of camp coffee it 
is timely to recall that coffee beans are 15% 
fat  Grounds sould not.be in the water 
more than five minutes. Have the water 
boiling:- Keep coffee in storage air-tight 
and cool. High temperatures tend to 
chemical change, with decomposition of 
fats and loss of the aromatic oils that 
impart the fine flavors. Coffee in open 
containers may absorb moisture and foreign 
odors. 
 
  Heaviest bird mortality is usually within 
two days after the young leave the nest. 
Losses in some situations are estimated as 
high as 50%. 
 
  Deer were kept away from a forest 
ranger's garden by spreading moth balls. 
These graceful creatures of the glen have 
sensitive nostrils and the napthalene odor 
was offensive. 
 
 
 
Ever Been Fishin' There - Co.t'd 
it. I couldn't figure out what I had on. 
I knew it wasn't either a Great Northern or 
a Walleye, no matter what size, since they 
do not act like that. Then out he shot 
about 18 inches and shook his head, trying 
to free himself. I knew then, as I had 
caught hundreds of the species, that it was 
a small mouth bass. But it had been so 
long ago that I had forgotten their action. 
On landing him I found he wasn't as big 
as the Great Northern Pike, being only 
31/2 lbs., but a mighty nice bass in any man's 
country. So remember, folks, fish are right 
where you find them. 
 
 
12 Owrote this rýPort. TT henwe asked him              GAME AND FISH.
June, 19I47 
     fartwright                                                         
                     the many rePorts 
     od decreases called for more caution he said:"'When I think the

     situation i   cserious  will say S'....