The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1880-07-28


SoMEnsEr COUNTY TRouT.-Mn EDrroR
Your jolly correspondent, Mac" of Ursina
has, think slightly misapprehended I'm
Gle Jay Zee and his first chapter on Som
crset County Trout. Mac no doubt knows
by this time that | am not professional
sportsman, much less jug" fisherman
! am plain, old-flshioned Lutheran preach
cr, fond of a trout, admit, and not less of
the sport Of catching him. | think that if
this Mae Of Ursina. would invite me to
spend day or two with him next season. in
one Of the fiyorite angling streams of his
end Of the county. he would afterwards have
respect enough for Uncle Jay Bees seuti-
ments on trout 10 treat them with measure
Of respect
Mac" need not longer distress himself
about my desire to have trout" talked over;
I have been talking it over. more or less,
for a much as ten ycars-and not in vain,
always am friend of the trout and the
enemy of his destroyer. 1t is perhaps true
that have caught as many trout as any
other man in the county Of my age; but
three in four of all my catching were saved
alive for the purpose Of propagation. And
if all anglers would limit their summers
catch as do, our streams would populate
rapidly, in place of annually becoming more
and more depleted. Indeed, that Mae
may know how much am interested in the
preservation and increase OF this noble spe-
cies Of fish, here invite him to join me in
an effort to secure an act from our Legi-la-
ture that shall prohibit al trout-fshing in
Somerset county for period of five years.
such q measure | have seriously thought Of
proposing to our people am very certain
that if left alone for five years, all our trout
I bearing :; ;reanis would be well stocked again.
( The experiment would at least be well worth
trying.
I want to say 20 Mae that | have no
+ quarrel with nay grandlathers they were
30; people much given to offending in the
way spoken of, and they angled, for the
mos. part, in streams that flowed from the
snowy sides Of old Mt. Blanc OF the hills of
/ the Schwartz Wald. in the Fatherland.
There for the most part. they also sleep;
and | shah not likely stumble" much over
them 50 long as | contine my rlmbles othe
brooks and hills Of Old Somerset am in
clinea to think that somebody's grandfather
+ id sin in this matter, however; and maybe
Mac might find room for reflection nearer
home. Certainly, if his nom fits him well,
. he belongs 10 n race who were not strangers
u this neck y woods even hundred
1 years ago. There was McPherson along
o Billy BradGock." and sundry other Macs
no doubt, who, for aught ! know to the con-
( trar,. may have pitched their tents among
/ these Somerset hills, to angle for trout, and
fattea a steer to trade on "A bushel and u
half 81 shore salt" The agricultural Mac is
not usually a very sharp trader, and it may
be that some Of our [ rsina Macs ances-
tors were 50 imposed upon. But, supposing
that even to have been so, the fact would
not correct our Macs" bad reasoning lie
made a sorry parallel between trout-cateh-
ing and iree-cutting. | fancy it Will require
a good many newspaper articles from his
pen % convince his readers that it was a.
necessary TO take the trout from the streams
as the trees from the forest, in ortlerto make
dairy farms and meadows No, friend
Mac" You shot Wild there Why, Ishould
not wonder If some Somerset farms might
even be larger and better If the grand
father," had spent les time in the trout
streams, The gun and rod are poor help to
an agricultural outcome.
But, If Mac reckons the depletion OF
our streams the necessary result of the de
struction uf timber in opening out farms,
his logic is not - bad, as a process; but the
premises would be wrong The cutting oi
timber has s,o, mainly destroyed our trout
Indeed, We might add thousands OF acres to
our farms STILL and then have the best trout
county east Of the Rockies
Friend Nae j. behind on the subject OF
brain-food. That old fiction is exploded
Brain. to be worth anything, must be con
structed Of something rather more solid than
mere phosphorus.
It May be that my estimate OF the quality
Of trout in Somerset county streams on,
hundred years ago was somewhat too high
but ] ana ise; mistaken in my opinion anj
assertion thai our streams could now sustain
from one 10 two hundred thousand pound.
Of marketable fish, of this superior variety
And l claim that this Is a matter that call,
for serious consideration Fish culture ha.
come to be one Of the civilized worlds grea'
industries, and the main reason why som
erse5 county people have no; a good supply
Of fish-food. is that they don't cure
True, Mr. Mac. Of Ursina, the farmers o
Somerset county do not, as a rule, destroy
the trout and honor enough for You and
me, my friend if we do not belong 70 YOU
-fine-hairei~ fratersiity Of the keys and bot
tle7-
Try II again, friend Mac; We are not
done with this interesting and important
subject. think there Is no danger Of tn,
subject becoming sour on our quills
Uncle Jay Bee Is very amiable in such mat
ter, a. lover OF trout should be.
USoIE JAY Bee
RoEzErs' ExBEocArfox.-Rh Rheulnatics d
sufferers with spr.iins, cuts, bruises. old al
fresh wounds. swellin-s. burns. ETC.. vii