The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-05-28

which center around the headwaters of
the Mississippi and St. Croix prove
less valuable?
To-day the state spends its money
in the propagation of fish and in the
stocking of lakes and streams, 1t mas
its fish and game laws and its fish
and game wardens, and it imposes pen
alties for fishing and shooting during
the closed season (and these laws are
all GOOD, but meanwhile the destruc-
ton of forests and it's consequent evils
go on. To use homely phrase, it
is like closing the spigot and opening
the bung. To anglers the lesson is
apparent that if they desire to preserve
what fishing there is left in Minnesota
they must join hands with the For
estry association and help save the
forests and rear new fOrests-tor on
the preservation of the old forests and
the rearing of new forests do fish and
| fishing depend. There is only one an
swer to the question: How can we
| preserve the fish and fishing in the
| Northwest" And that answer is by
| preserving the forests and reforestins.
and thereby putting in play again
| all those manifold influences of nature
| that can come from the forests The
| propagation of fish in state hatcheries
| and the planting of them in our wa
| tiers, the operation of fish laws and
the acts of fish wardens, good as they
| are, nevertheless work only on a
| small scale, and are Intellectual and
| puerile as against the great evils OF
| forest destruction. Only by the opera
! tion of these great laws of nature
| which come from forests can our fish
| ing become and remain what it ought
| to be-
The Illinois legislature recently pass
| ed bill-in force July /. this year
! to regulate fishing in Lake Michigan
| and the shipping of fish in that state
| Section l makes an absolute closed sea
son in Lake Michigan from Oct. IA &c
| Nov. 30 of each year; forbids the Use
| OF any gill, pound or tike net within
one-quarter of a mile of the mai,
shore: and prohibits the use of 'liI
nets over 20 inches in diameter, anG
of that size only for the purpose OF
catching minnows for bait. Section
prescribes regulations for the plair
labelling of all packages containing fish
| to show the fact that said packages
contain fish and the variety of sale
fish. The penalty for a violation, upof
convection, is a fine of not less thar
S25. nor more than 5000 for each offense
The provision against the use of di!
nets viii work great good if it shut:
Off the immense nets used in sucf
numbers along the lake front in Chi
cago. on the piers and breakwater
| which the owners lower and raise will
a small windlass. These nets are dill
nets in every sense of the name, ant
for years their users have annual,
depopulated Lake Michigan of mil
lions of tiny fishes, to say nothing o
the larger denizens of the lake occa
sionally captured. If this slaughter o
infant fish had been stopped som
years ago, probably there would hav
been less complaint regarding tn
scarcity of decent sized white fish an
lake trout from the fishermen aroun
the head of Lake Michigan.
We do not gorge gingerbread jus
there happens to be a gingerbread sup
ply to gorge. Why should we try t
catch more fish than we can carry jus
because the fish happen to take til
hook? To recognize the wisdom Z
moderation and to exercise modera tior
this is one of the characteristics whic
distinguish the man from the babe. Lie
this thought be comfort and con
ISOLATION when the other fellow CONS
in with the bigger string.