New York at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, St. Louis 1904 Part 27

_Water or Sea Birds_

Loon Black-throated Loon Red-throated Loon Horned Grebe Holboel Grebe Pied-billed Grebe Puffin Dovekie Cormorant Double-crested Cormorant Black Guillemot Brunnich Murre Paresitic [*sic] Jaegar Kittiwake Gannet Black Skimmer Sooty Shearwater Great Black-backed Gull Ring-billed Gull Claucus Gull Herring Gull Laughing Gull Bonapart Gull Black Tern Gull-billed Tern Wilson Tern Roseate Tern Least Tern Black-capped Petrel Leach Petrel Wilson Petrel

FUR AND GAME ANIMALS

All of our fur and game animals were represented as follows:

White-tail or Virginia Deer Black Bear Lynx Wild Cat Red Fox Gray Fox Beaver Racc.o.o.n Skunk Otter Fisher Cottontail Rabbit Martin Mink Black Squirrel Gray Squirrel Red Squirrel Fox Squirrel Flying Squirrel Chipmunk Musk Rat Opossum Varying Hare Porcupine

Our deer were represented by a fine buck, a doe mounted in a reclining position, and a small white doe. Arranged among bushes in the snow scene at the side of the camp this family was most lifelike and pleasing in appearance. White deer are very unusual, but not unnatural. One of them is killed in this State about every two years.

Moose and elk are introduced animals with us now, and, as it is illegal to kill any, life size specimens could not well be shown. However, very good heads were exhibited as a part of the decoration of the camp.

Albinos of muskrat and porcupine were exhibited. Such freakish specimens attract more attention than those of usual growth.

RARE SPECIES

In addition to the animals scheduled above were specimens of some species that are probably extinct in the Adirondacks, viz., a gray wolf and a panther. The gray wolf was an excellent specimen loaned by General E. A. McAlpin, of New York city. It was killed about eight years ago on his preserve in the northern part of Hamilton county, and none have been seen since. The panther was killed about twenty-eight years ago by Hon.

Verplanck Colvin in the southern part of Hamilton county, and is the last one heard of in the State of New York. The black bear was an unusually fine specimen, killed in Sullivan county. It was mounted to order by Mr. Fred Sauter, of New York city, for this exhibit, and without doubt was the best representative of this species at the Fair.

Experts in the art of taxidermy and naturalists were enthusiastic in its praise.

The great blue heron was loaned by Mr. Grant E. Winchester, of Saranac Inn. It was a very good specimen and was mounted by Mr. H. H. Miner, of Saranac Lake, N. Y.

The animals were placed about the camp under the trees in connection with the collection of birds in positions as true to life as possible in the available s.p.a.ce, making a picture of woodland life delightful to the eye and interesting to every person that visited the Palace of Forestry, Fish and Game.

FISH

The fish exhibit consisted of eighty-six mounted specimens, representing seventy-two species, most of them prepared specially for this display by the best workmen in the country. Substantially all the food and game fish were shown. In preparing this collection no attempt, with one exception, was made to show abnormally large specimens. The intention was to show the average fish true to life in color, size and contour.

Both fresh and salt water species were represented. The collection, which is undoubtedly the best in the country, comprised the following species:

Sea Lamphrey Common Sturgeon Short-nosed Sturgeon Horned Pout Long-nose Sucker Common Sucker Hog Sucker Golden Sucker Fallfish Carp Eel Sea Herring Hickory Shad Frostfish Common Whitefish Smelt Tullibee Atlantic Salmon Red-throat Trout Brown Trout Rainbow Trout Lake Trout Brook Trout Grayling Pickerel Northern Pike Shad Menhaden Spanish Mackerel Pompano Bluefish c.r.a.ppie Calico Ba.s.s Rock Ba.s.s Sunfish Small-mouth Black Ba.s.s Large-mouth Black Ba.s.s Wall-eyed Pike Weakfish Red Drum Kingfish Tautog Rosefish Tomcod Haddock Ling Cusk Summer Flounder Flatfish Muscallonge Northern Muscallonge Striped Mullet Common Mackerel Bonito Sauger Yellow Perch White Ba.s.s Striped Ba.s.s White Perch Sea Ba.s.s Scup Spotted Weakfish Croaker Bergall Spadefish Whiting Cod Burbot Hake Halibut Sand Dab Gar Pike

In addition to the above-mentioned specimens there was shown an interesting collection of sh.e.l.l fish, including different varieties of oysters, together with the enemies of the same, such as the drill and starfish. A number of exhibits showing curiosities of oyster growth were in this collection.

The fish were displayed in six cabinets constructed to order for the exhibit. They were lined with black plush, thus forming a strong contrast with the colors of the various pieces.

The land-locked salmon mentioned above is one of the finest pieces extant, not only in relation to size but also in the mounting of the same. It is owned by Hon. J. P. Allds, Norwich, N. Y., and was kindly loaned by him for this exhibit.

A great northern pike that weighed twenty-five pounds when caught was in the collection. It was loaned by Mr. Ferris J Meigs, of New York city, and was caught in Follensbee pond, in the Adirondacks, by Miss Juliet Wilbur Tompkins in 1902. This is the largest pike, sometimes erroneously called pickerel, within the knowledge of the Forest, Fish and Game Commission.

GENERAL NOMENCLATURE

All the specimens of animals, birds and fish were properly and uniformly labeled, giving the names the various species are generally known by, and also the scientific nomenclature adopted by naturalists. The importance of this matter of nomenclature was demonstrated very early during the Fair. The song birds being very small no labels were placed upon them at first, as the labels were in some instances larger than the birds. The fact that visitors examining the specimens would often search for the attendant in order to obtain information as to the names of the different birds exhibited proved the necessity of clearly labeling all specimens. On the other hand there seemed to be a general misunderstanding as to some species of fish, various names being applied to the same species. Visitors were constantly requesting information on these points. The northern pike are by many people called pickerel and sometimes when in water with pickerel are mistaken for muscallonge. The distinguishing marks were frequently explained to interested visitors.

FORESTRY

One of the most scientific and practical features of the New York exhibit was that made by the Forestry department. It was prepared to show the method by which the Forestry Commission is reforesting large areas of State land that have been denuded by repeated fires.

A FOREST NURSERY

The most important part of this was a fully appointed forest nursery, located out of doors close to the northeast corner of the Forest, Fish and Game building. Its neat rustic fence, made of white cedar poles, enclosed an area Of 7,200 square feet (120 feet long by 60 wide) and contained about 80,000 little trees alive and green. The soil being of heavy clay, it was covered to the depth of six inches with good loam before any seeds were sown.

About one-third of the nursery was arranged in beds each sixteen feet long by four feet wide with paths three feet in width. In two of these beds seeds were sown of Scotch pine, Norway spruce, hardy catalpa and American elm, half a bed being given to each species. The seeds were sown about the first of May. They germinated well, and the little trees grew thriftily, the catalpa reaching a height of eighteen inches before the Fair closed. A bed of Norway pine showed the plants on half the bed crowded together in a thick mat as if grown from seed sown broadcast; on the other half arranged as if from seed sown in rows across the bed, both methods of sowing seed being followed in actual practice. Four beds were given to two-year-old plants--Norway spruce, white pine, European larch and Scotch pine. These were also arranged as if grown from seed sown broadcast.

These beds, excepting the seed bed for broad-leaf species, were all shaded with neat screens made of lath to shelter the tender plants from the hot rays of the southern sun.

In actual nursery work, after conifers have remained in the seed bed for two years, they are transplanted into other beds, being s.p.a.ced four or five inches apart, where they remain for two or three years more before they are placed finally in the forest. Six beds were devoted to showing this feature of nursery work. For this purpose four-year-old plants were used, of the following species Norway pine, Norway spruce, white spruce, white pine, European larch and Scotch pine.

A sample plantation which occupied nearly half the nursery showed how the plants are, in actual practice, placed in the forest. White pine, Norway spruce and Scotch pine were the species used. These were about three feet high and were s.p.a.ced about four feet apart.

To show how the broad-leaf species are raised for shade trees, for planting along the highways of the State, for farmers' wood lots, for sugar groves and hardwood forests, ten drills, stretching entirely across the nursery between the beds and the sample plantation, were planted with scarlet oak, red oak, honey locust, hard or sugar maple, red or soft maple, ba.s.swood, white ash, black walnut and hardy catalpa, a row being given to each species. These were one year old and were s.p.a.ced about six inches apart.

The names of the species were printed plainly on neat board labels ten inches long by five inches broad. The nursery was kept free from weeds, and was watered each evening during a long drought which began about the first of September and continued till the Fair closed.

Thousands of people visited the nursery, attracted to it not only by the beauty of the small green trees arranged in such interesting manner, but also because of the instruction it afforded in the science of forestry.

Foresters, botanists, seedsmen, and others interested in trees in a scientific or practical way, many of whom were from abroad, gave the nursery close scrutiny.

The forester in charge who prepared the nursery, Mr. A. Knechtel, B.S.F.E., of Albany, N. Y., was kept constantly busy answering the numerous questions not only concerning the exhibit, but also in regard to the important work being done by the Forestry Department in restoring the forests upon the denuded non-agricultural lands of the State.

In a corner of the nursery stood two interesting cross-sections of white pine and white spruce, twenty-three inches and sixteen inches in diameter respectively, each having forty annual rings plainly visible, showing that in forty years, under favorable conditions, trees of these species can be grown from seed to the given diameters.

FORESTRY TOOLS AND INSTRUMENTS

Within the building were exhibited thirty-nine instruments and tools used in forestry practice, a collection of the seeds of eighty-four native forest trees of the State, and the photographs of eighty of our more important trees showing the same in leaf and in winter. In connection with each pair of photographs was a life size ill.u.s.tration of the bark of the tree, together with specimens of the leaf, flower and fruit.

INSECTS AFFECTING FOREST AND SHADE TREES

The exhibit of insects affecting forest and shade trees was prepared by E. P. Felt, D.Sc., New York State Entomologist, and was a small, though representative collection, designed to show the life, history and habits in particular of the more injurious forms of insects affecting shade and forest trees in New York State. A special effort was made to depict, so far as possible, the life, history, habits and methods of work of the forms possessing economic importance and to show whenever possible the natural enemies of value in keeping these species in control. This collection was arranged in a specially designed case having a series of three nearly horizontal trays thirty-seven and one-half inches by eighteen and one-half inches upon each side, and an elevated central portion bearing two nearly perpendicular ones upon each side, the middle being occupied by a gla.s.s case containing an attractive natural group. A brief account of the exhibit under appropriate heads is as follows:

_Insect galls_. This collection, occupying two nearly perpendicular trays and representing the work of fifty-three species, was devoted to the peculiar and varied vegetable deformities produced by insects. These structures are always of great popular interest, and the insects causing the same present biologic problems of unusual attractiveness.

_Forest insects_. The species affecting forest trees in particular were exhibited in three horizontal trays occupying one side of the case.

This section was devoted princ.i.p.ally to representing the biology and methods of work of this exceedingly important group.

_Shade-tree insects_. Like that representing forest insects, the exhibit of shade-tree pests was very largely biologic. It occupied three horizontal trays and a nearly vertical one of the exhibit case, and was devoted to species which are destructive largely on account of their depredations upon shade trees.

_Adirondack insects_. This was a small collection occupying one of the nearly perpendicular trays, and comprised over one hundred species.

This portion of the exhibit represented the more characteristic forms occurring in the Adirondacks.