His Name is America

We hear so much of our way of life in these days of storm. Our wise men speak pontifically of Democracy in terms so sententious and learned that all meaning is lost and they themselves stumble along in a haze of verbiage, their cold, sharp words as unfeeling as barbed wire.

The quality of human values contained in the word "America" escapes the savant with his thick volumes and thicker lenses; escapes, too, the scientist and his analytical apparatus of the laboratory. Our statesmen hurl their profound thoughts at us and at other people so often and so forcifully that when we hear them over and over again they sound like a rubber ball bouncing down a well. We have thousands of bright and alert young fellows devising adroit ways of explaining our philosophy of life to other peoples, yet one cannot help from wondering what good, if any, they do with their skillful use of propaganda, a sinister word, and often a useless weapon. Propaganda aims at the mind. America or Democracy is a matter of the heart and soul. It cannot be bartered as a box of pills; no hawker, however glib his delivery, can peddle it in the market place. It is a precious something as simple as day and night, not a convenient something to tack an "ism" on and brandish like a cudgel. It's a deep something, like religion, its warmth and its strength springing from within the individual. It is a political philosophy that cannot be shoved down your throat nor can you shove it down the throat of others.

All that we stand for, everything that has made us great and durable, can be expressed in the scene of a little American boy fishing from a rocky ledge, his strong hands gripping a bent fishing pole, his attention riveted on the bobber of his fishing line, a convenient can of worms beside him and his dog to keep him company. He is a distant cry, indeed, from the boys in the totalitarian countries marching, saluting, "heiling," cruel little automatons, heartless robots in stone and wood, devoid of kindness, utterly lacking in warmth and feeling. Little boys brought up that way are the unfortunate ones, doomed and lost from the very beginning. Mankind has come too far to revert to a savagery beyond that of beasts in the jungle.

This little boy with the fishing pole is an average American boy. His father and mother are to him the finest people on earth, and so they should be. He is taught to be kind and good and charitable. and has a definite understanding of right and wrong. In his games he doesn't cheat because he knows it is wrong to cheat and more fun to play fair.

From the very beginning when he began to speak his mother taught him to say his prayers, and those were the memorable words that will stay with him always: "Our Father which art in Heaven..." He absorbs the Christian principles from his parents who teach by precept and by sympathy and kindness and understanding.

He is born in a republic of free citizens. Later on he will hear about "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." He will read with consuming interest the stories of men like George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. It would never occur to him to defy the president, but he respects the president as a great man and the head of a great nation. He is an individual, he stands on his own feet, his mind is his own. Sitting there on the rocky ledge fishing the world and its troubles are far, far from his thoughts. Time will come soon enough for him to carry his share of life's problems on his shoulders.

He does not judge his fellows by their color or the clothes they wear. The American public school has taught him that. He surveys his existence through clear eyes and has learned to evaluate things as they are.

His place in life will be governed by his own capabilities. He recognizes even as a boy the wisdom of the simple virtues of truth, honesty, industry, kindliness, charity, tolerance. The state requires only that he give hurt to no man, and that he become a good citizen and worthy of a place in his Republic.

There are thousands of little boys like him in our country. He'll fish until he gets tired and then romp with his dog. If his luck isn't good today he'll come back some other time. When the late afternoon shadows tell of waning day he'll hear his mother call him to supper and then he'll plod along home or to camp. He will not realize it at the time but years later he'll think back to those hours and tingle with the blessed happiness of his days of youth. And the days our youth should be days of happiness. His name is America. R. C.

Arizona's Native Century Plants

(Continued from Page Ten) Or "core." All the growth of a leaf takes place while it is inside the bud, and the first part of the leaf formed is the large spine on the end. Growing leaves inside the bud are white but become green as they are exposed to sunlight on the outside of the bud.

As the young plant grows, its central stem enlarges, the bud becomes larger, and it produces longer leaves. The oldest, small leaves become crowded against the ground and die, but the larger leaves live until the plant dies. At maturity a plant may have 50, 100, 200, or more leaves, but the number varies in different species and even among plants of the same species growing side by side.

Like all other living things, century plants have their enemies, insect pests, and diseases. Even with their defensive armor of spines, they are helpless in some ways. Young plants with softer leaves may be eaten and tramped upon by grazing cattle. Cattle also eat young flower stalks and prevent them from producing seeds after all the years of growth toward that goal. Small rodents, such as packrats, gnaw off a few leaves, especially on some of the smaller agaves.

Insect larvae or worms sometimes bore into the bases of leaves and kill them. Certain wasps make peculiar round holes in the leaf bases and lay their eggs there. Sucking insects, including weevils and bugs, stick their sharp beaks into growing flower stalks and occasionally into leaves to absorb nourishment. Ants and bees feed upon the sugary liquid exuding from wounds on leaves. Other insects, including moths and weevils, lay their eggs in the young seed pods, where the developing larvae fed upon the seeds. Disease, such as leafspots and cankers on the leaves, are caused by parasitic fungi.

Century plants have three methods of propagation or reproduction. Besides the usual method of forming flower stalks and seeds, they propagate vegetatively by forming underground sprouts, also called offsets and suckers, from a few inches to 3 feet away. The small agaves, such as Schott's agaves, which consists of large mats, propagate mainly by this method. So do Parry's agaves and Huachuca agaves, which occur in large colonies of cabbage-like plants. Where they are scattered rather than in clusters, such as in Palmer's agaves, they probably have started from seeds. Bulbils or "sets," called "hijos" in Spanish, are less common. These young plants with a few leaves are formed rarely in flower stalks. Upon falling to he ground bulbils under favorable conditions may grow.

Without doubt the most spectacular method of propagation is by means of the tall flower stalks. It is possible to tell a year or so in advance when the mature plants are going to flower. The bud becomes narrower and produces narrower leaves thinner at the base and attached on top of the stem. The leaves may have a slight purple tinge. In side view the tips of the youngest leaves may be seen to spread out more widely from the bud than in other plants not ready to flower. One can cut open the bud for positive confirmation by technical characters also, but this procedure prevents the plant from flowering.On the year a mature century plant flowers, the bud starts to lengthen into a flower stalk in spring, generally in April or May. The flower stalk elongates rapidly, from a few to 6 inches or more a day, using food that has required years for its manufacture. In June or July, usually, the succulent flowers open. Their color is yellow in most species, sometimes with a tinge of green, red, purple, or white.

Flowers of the larger agaves produce quantities of nectar, so much that one can get a shower of sugary liquid merely by shaking a flower stalk. The odor is not very pleasing to most persons, suggesting a combination of sweet and cheese-like elements. However, the nectar attracts many insects and even a few hummingbirds, which collect pollen on their bodies and thus pollinate other flowers.

Within a few days the flowers wither, and by the close of summer the seed pods with many thin black seeds are mature. In the meantime, the leaves, exhausted, have spread out, almost dry, on the ground and the flower stalk has become dry and hard. Winter winds shake the flower stalk, which has borne its seeds high in the air, and carry the light seeds a short dis tance away. A year or two later the dead flower stalk falls over.

Brief, nontechnical descriptions of the 11 native species of Arizona agaves, with notes on geographic distribution and habitat, are summarized below. The first 6 species have large, branched flower stalks, while the last 5 have small, unbranched, wand-like flower stalks. The first 7 species have spiny margined leaves, while the last 4 have leaves with threads along the margin.

Palmer's agave, century plant, or mescal (Agave palmeri). Named in honor of Dr. Edward Palmer, who collected plants exclusively in Mexico, it is the largest of the native species. Leaves are 11% to 3 feet long and form a cluster as much as 5 or 6 feet in diameter and 4 or 5 feet high. Flower stalks reach a height of 10 to 25 feet. The central heads or "cores" of mature plants can be used in manufacture of the alcoholic drink, tequila.

Palmer's agave is widely distributed but scattered on foothills in semi-desert and grassland zones in southern Arizona, southwestern New Mexico, and adjacent Sonora, Mexico.

Golden-flowered agave, century plant, or mescal (Agave chrysantha). The golden-flowered agave is closely related to Palmer's agave, from which it differs chiefly in having flowers golden-yellow and not purple-tinged, and in having leaves with marginal spines farther apart. It is scattered and common locally on semi-desert mountains in an area roughly a rectangle 100 miles long and 50 miles wide extending southeast from a point near the center of the state.

3. Murphey's agave or century plant (Agave murpheyi). This agave, named for William C. Murphey of Superior, who discovered the plants, differs from Palmer's agave mainly in

having the end-spine of the leaves very short

(only about 1½ inch long), in starting growth of flower stalks in early winter instead of spring, and in producing many young plants, or bulbils, on the flower stalks. This very rare species is found in only four localities in central Arizona, where it is found on rocky hills in the semi-desert zone.

4. Desert agave or century plant (Agave deserti). Desert agave is a species of the Colo-rado desert of southern California but extends also into desert mountains of southwestern AriArizona. It is similar to the first three species but smaller, with leaves only 1 to 1½ feet long.

5. Parry's agave, century plant, or mescal (Agave parryi.) This agave commemorates Dr. C. C. Parry, physician and naturalist on an early government surveying expedition. It differs from all the preceding species in having the leaves relatively short and broad, about 10 to 16 inches long, and typically overlapping to form a rounded, cabbage-like cluster. Parry's agave is common in mountains of southern and central Arizona (north to Flagstaff and Hualapai mountains near Kingman) and southern New Mexico, south into northern Chihuahua, Mexico, and western Texas. It occurs at higher elevations than the other species, in the woodland zone from 5,000 to 8,000 feet elevation and is the hardiest of all the Arizona agaves in enduring low temperatures. Indians baked the heads of Parry's, Palmer's Utah agaves and others for food.

6. Huachuca agave, century plant, or mescal (Agave huachucensis). Huachuca agave, which is known locally as century plant, is similar to Parry's agave, from which it differs mainly 6. Huachuca agave, century plant, or mescal (Agave huachucensis). Huachuca agave, which is known locally as century plant, is similar to Parry's agave, from which it differs mainly in its larger size and usually larger and broader leaves. It is very local and uncommon, being confined to Huachuca Mountains and vicinity in southeastern Arizona, where it grows in large colonies in the oak woodland and grassland plain.

7. Utah agave, century plant, or mescal (Agave utahensis). Utah agave is Arizona's only species with the combination of unbranched flower stalks and spiny-margined leaves. It is found on semi-desert areas and mountain-sides in eastern California, southern Nevada, southwestern Utah, and northwestern Arizona. With a closely related species in Utah, it grows farther north than all other century plants. Visitors at Grand Canyon may see Utah agaves growing along the rocky rim as well as down in the canyon.

8. Amole, or Schott's agave (Agave schottii). The remaining four species are smaller, have unbranched flower stalks, and have threads or fibers instead of spines along the margins 8. Amole, or Schott's agave (Agave schottii). The remaining four species are smaller, have unbranched flower stalks, and have threads or fibers instead of spines along the margins of the leaves. As a soapy substance is made from the heads and other parts, these plants are known as amole, which is the Spanish word for soap root. Schott's agave was discovered in 1855 by Dr. Edward Schott, physician and naturalist with the Mexican boundary survey.

The leaves are 10 to 15 inches long and very narrow, only 14 to 3/8 inch wide. The plants form large mats on foothills and mountains in southern Arizona, extreme southwestern New Mexico, and adjacent Sonora, Mexico.

9. Trelease's agave, or amole (Agave treleasii). Trelease's agave honors Dr. William Trelease, the leading authority on agaves, and differs from Schott's agave principally in its larger size. The leaves are 10 to 21 inches long and 12 to 1 inch broad. It is known only from the rocky, southern slopes of Santa Catalina Mountains in southern Arizona.

10. Toumey's agave (Agave toumeyana). Toumey's agave was discovered in 1892 by the late Professor J. W. Toumey, who was then botanist at the Univeristy of Arizona. Its leaves are about 6 to 12 inches long and 5/8 to 7/8 inch wide. It is uncommon in the semidesert zone in central Arizona mountains.

11. Small-flowered agave (Agave perviflora.) This species not only has small flowers, scarcely 1½ inch long, but is the smallest agave in Arizona and at the time of its discovery in 1855 was the smallest one known. The rounded plants 4 to 6 inches in diameter have leaves only 2 to 4 inches long and flower stalks only 3 to 5 or rarely 8 feet high. Small flowered agave is uncommon and restricted to rock slopes in the grassland and open woodland on mountains along the international boundary west of Nogales.

If these century plants could only speak, they would give us an interesting story of the many useful products they contributed to prehistoric Indians as well as to modern civil-izations. A hundred years ago the explorer Humboldt concluded that agaves were outranked only by maize and potatoes in usefulness to the Aztec, Maya, and other Indians of Mexico.

They furnish a variety of useful products, such as food, drink, soap, clothing, rope and other fibers, needles and thread, paper, glue, parts of houses, parts of weapons, military barricades, sacrificial implements, medicines, and red coloring matter, forage, and ornamental garden and hedge plants.

A detailed account of uses of Agave by the various tribes of Southwestern Indians has recently been prepared by Dr. Edward F. Castetter, Dr. William H. Bell, and Alvin R.

Grove, all of the Universty of New Mexico. This bulletin, "The early utilization and the distribution of Agave in the American Southwest," may be obtained from the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, for 50 cents.

Probably the best known uses of agaves are as food and drink. Indians of southwestern United States as well as Mexico wherever these plants grew made extensive use of them for food. The method of cooking was essentially the same among various tribes with different

kinds of agave. Large pits were dug

in the ground and lined carefully with

small stones. Then a fire was made

in the pit and kept up until the stones were thoroughly heated, when the fire was raked out. Mature agaves

almost ready to flower were uprooted

and usually the leaves trimmed off,

leaving the central head, crown,

heart, or "core" with bases of leaves. The plants were thrown in to fill the pit, covered over with grass and earth. and left to bake one to three days.

Then the sweet jelly-like mass was eaten or pressed out into cakes and dried to be consumed later. Baking in some way changes the stored food

into sugars and changes the color

from white to brown. The cooked

product tastes somewhat like sweet

potato or squash.

Apaches in the Southewst used principally the two largest kinds here, Palmer's agave and Parry's agave. Tribes in the Grand Canyon region were obliged to employ the smaller, Utah agaves, the ones found there. Because of their extensive use of these agaves or mescal plants for food, one group of Apache Indians have become known as Mescalero Apaches. The Mescalero Apache Indian Reservation is located in the Sacramento Mountains of southern New Mexico. Old mescal pits can still be found scattered over rocky hillsides where agaves grow.

It is said that these mescal plants helped to prolong wars with Indians and thus delayed the settlement of our state. Indians could retreat into the hills, find there plenty of agave plants for food, and then go out to raid upon the white settlers. It was unnecessary to be burdened with carrying food supplies.

The late J. W. Toumey, who was professor of botany at the University of Arizona from 1892 to 1898 and afterwards the distinguished silviculturist and dean of the Forest School of Yale University, wrote an interesting account of his observations. He found a party of Papago Indians in May 1894 encamped in the Santa Catalina Mountains 14 miles north of Tucson making food and ropes from agaves. The camp had a rank odor from the fermentation of cooked mescal thrown about on all sides. After being baked in pits, the mescal was put into large Indian baskets. Then the women squatted on the ground and stripped the epidermis and fibers from the cooked leaves. The prepared food was then spread on the ground or on blankets to dry. These Indians made large quantities of mescal each spring and carried it back to their reservations, where it formed an important item in their food supply during the year.

Toumey described also the manufacture of ropes by these Papago Indians from the fibers of the leaves. The men thoroughly washed, cleaned, and separated the fibers. Each man took a quantity of fibers and began to twist. The strands were tied to trees, from which the men backed away as they kept adding fibers. Sticks about a foot long and larger and heavier at one end were used. The small end of the stick was fastened to the rope close to the hand, and with the motion of the heavy end whirling around, the twist was given greater force. When the ropes were long enough, the loose ends were pegged to the ground and left for several days to dry. Hundreds of ropes were staked out in this camp.

Alcoholic beverages were made from agave by primitive Indians as well as by modern inhabitants of the Southwest. Apparently American Indians had no knowledge of making distilled drinks at the time of Columbus. However, they did make fermented drinks, pulque and a kind of mescal, which contained 3 to 10 per cent alcohol. Historians report the use and abuse of pulque by Aztecs long before their conquest by the Spaniards. It is stated that pulque and a similar drink made from maize resulted in frequent drunkenness under the Aztec dynasty and probably were important in the demoralization and degeneration of the Aztecs. As a result, Cortez with a handful of men was able to conquer the whole empire of Montezuma.

Besides ropes, articles such as sacks, clothing and brushes were prepared from the fibers by Indians. Aztecs made paper by macerating the leaves. Some of the smaller agaves and related plants, all known as amoles, furnished a substance used as soap.

The thorns served as pins and nails, and were used in piercing tongues, ears, and flesh in religious rites. It is said that the Aztecs showed their appreciation by naming one of their gods in honor of agave.

In addition to the many products made by Indians, other modern uses of century plants have been developed. Pulque is the national drink of Mexico, an inexpensive alcoholic beverage consumed in great quantities by the poorer classes. It is made from cultivated giant century plants or magueys, which weigh as much as a ton and have broad, thick leaves sometimes as long as 9 feet and weighing 100 pounds. When 2 or 3 years old these plants are set in rows in plantations, where they are cultivated throughout the tablelands and mountains of Mexico. They mature in about 7 to 14 years. When a plant starts to flower, a large cavity or bowl is hollowed out of the center. The sap which would have nourished the growing flower stalks collects in the cavity, and 1 to 2 quarts of sap are removed daily for a few months. When fermented in cowhide vats for a day this sugary sap becomes pulque.

Europeans introduced the art of distilling and manufacture of stronger drinks containing 40 to 50 per cent alcohol and known as mescal and tequila, tequila being the more refined product. Mescal and tequila are made from different agaves from those used for pulque, typically agaves with thinner and narrower leaves. A number of wild species are used, and there are also great plantations. When they start to form flower stalks, the plants are pried loose from the ground and the leaves are cut off at the white bases. The white heads or "cores" are then carried by mule or burro to the distillery, where the heads are baked to convert the stored food into sugars. Then the heads are run through a mill or press to extract the syrup from the fibrous mass. This liquid is then fermented with a special kind of yeast, is distilled twice, and becomes tequila. Industrial alcohol can be made from certain agaves also.

Sisal, the agave producing sisal hemp and originally grown in Yucatan, Mexico, is now planted widely for fiber in about 40 tropical countries in Africa, Asia, Central America, South America, and tropical islands. In order to make a profit from sisal hemp, it is necessary to have large plantations of low-priced suitable land under efficient management with modern fiber cleaning machinery and adequate capital.

A medicine for kidney diseases called aguamiel is made from fresh, unfermented juice of certain century plants. While the therapeutic value has been questioned, recent laboratory researches have shown that rabbits and dogs suffering from artificially induced nephritis or inflammation of kidneys, showed marked improvement when given aguamiel. Leaves are reported to be used as poultices in the treatment of cancer also.

Agaves have even been tested in tropical countries for their erosion control values. One investigator recommended planting agaves to hold drifting sand. Another study in Mexico indicated that they were not suitable for revegetation of denuded lands because they grow slowly and provide insufficient cover to protect the soil.

In southwestern Texas the small agaves known as lechuguillas have been found to be poisonous to livestock. Lechuguilla fever, a form of swellhead, occurs when sheep and goats eat the plants.

Boy Scouts make fire without matches by friction from the dry fibrous, inflammable flower stalks of agaves and yuccas. One can make an emergency needle and thread for repairing torn clothing by cutting the end spine of a leaf and pulling off the spine with a few attached long fibers.

The question of commercial possibilities of agaves, both wild and cultivated,in Arizona has been raised. Tequila, and probably industrial alcohol also, can be made from heads of large native agaves. The leaves contain fibers which should be suitable for ropes and other fiber products.

It is desirable to develop resources on a conservative basis wherever they can contribute to the wealth and prosperity of the people of Arizona. However, at present the commercial possibilities of agaves in Arizona seem to be limited and unfavorable.

In the first place, the supply of wild agave plants in Arizona is too small for commercial manufacture of fiber and barely enough to meet a limited local demand for manufacture of tequila. In the second place, agaves here are widely scattered in the less accessible foothills and mountains, where costs of harvest and transportation are relatively great.

Several hundred thousand acres of limestone hills in southwestern Texas are covered with lechuguillas. This resource is said to have been developed for fiber on a small scale. Also, the similar fiber plants known as yucca are much more abundant in Arizona than are agaves, and there is some interest in promotion of the yucca-fiber industry at present.

The Southwestern Forest and Range Experiment Station, of the U.S. Forest Service, has established experimental plots in southern Arizona for study of growth and propagation of Palmer's agave, largest native species. In case demand for native agave plants on national forests should increase, the experimental plots will contribute data on proper management of the areas on a continuously productive basis without reducing the numbers of plants.

Nearly all the coarse fiber used in the United States for cordage and other purposes is imported from tropical countries, where fiber plants are grown in productive tropical climates with cheap, native labor at probably a much lower cost than that of producing similar fiber in this country.

Native agaves, like the giant cacti or saguaro, for which Arizona is noted, have an esthetic value which cannot be measured. These unique plants of our native flora certainly deserve to be protected and preserved so that future generations may marvel at them.

Along with cacti, ferns, ocotillos, and other distinctive or unusual plants, all native agaves are protected by state law. These protected plants must not be destroyed, mutilated, or removed from public, state, or private land without a written permit from the owner and approval of the Arizona Commission of Agriculture and Horticulture. A copy of this permit must be filed with the county recorder. A fee of $5 is charged for each permit for one shipment of plants.

This law is needed to save agaves from commercial exploitation and possible extinction. A species of agave in Lower California formerly found rarely at one place across the border in California is already reported to be extinct in California. Even though a few of the Arizona agaves seem to be common enough today, efforts should be made to prevent them from becoming rare.

Century plants have long been prized for ornamental planting in conservatories, formal gardens, lawns, terraces, and rock gardens. Their shape and other features make them especially valuable for this purpose. It is preferable to grow century plants wherever they are hardy, instead of plants commonly found all over the country. Century plants, like palms, serve to advertise the mild climate. The rare opportunity to observe the rapid growth of the tall flower stalk and opening of the many flowers is a further reward for raising a century plant to maturity.

There are so many kinds of century plants that any gardener is sure to find several to suit his fancy. No other group furnishes such a variety of decorative plants. They range in size from giants weighing more than a ton to dwarfs about the size of a man's fist and weighing less than a pound. Many varieties occur in shape of leaves and in leaf margin of spines or threads. Native agaves, while not so large as the introduced ones from Mexico, are well worthy of cultivation as ornamentals.

Probably the largest collection of century plants in Arizona is that at Boyce Thompson Southwestern Arboretum, near Superior, where agaves of about 70 species may be seen. Dealers in cacti and other succulents can supply a number of kinds, including some of the rarer ones. Introduced century plants are quite common on lawns in Phoenix, Tucson, and other cities of southern and central Arizona. Some of these are variegated, that is, they have borders or stripes of white on the green leaves.

It is easy to raise century plants. They grow better in sandy loam than in rich fertile soil. Good drainage is needed, and the plants should have a firm footing or anchorage. While the plants may be raised from seeds, they are mostly started from vegetative sprouts, also called offsets and suckers, which often are formed around a plant where the soil is not too rocky. When they have reached sufficient size to have their own roots, the sprouts can be removed and transplanted with success. Transplanting is not difficult, as these hardy succulents are adjusted to endure periods without water in nature and are not killed by being left out of the soil in a cool place for weeks or months. Century plants of a few kinds produce bulbils or "sets" or "hijos," young plants on the flower stalks, which may be propagated also.

Some century plants, especially those from subtropical regions, cannot endure cold winters. The youngest leaves of some cultivated century plants in Arizona were killed by the exceptionally cold weather of January, 1937, but the plants survived. In colder climates it is customary to take the plants indoors in winter. They are found also in conservatories and greenhouses in the north. Parry's agave, one of the native species, grows at elevations as high as 7,000 to 8,000 feet in Arizona and should be hardy in cultivation where winters are too cold for the introduced ones.

To plant creel size trout means rearing them to lengths of eight inches or better, this is being done.

TROUT . . . Aristocrat tor Sportsmen

And reached only by trail from Big Saddle Camp.

Up on the Mogollon Rim, blanketed by the largest stand of native yellow pine in the world, are many other trout streams which will yield spotted Brown, multi-colored Brook as well as flashing Rainbows to the angler.

Up in the White Mountains are more miles of mountain streams. And, up here is lake trout fishing. Big and Crescent Lakes near Springerville, during 1942, produced trout from twelve to thirty inches in length. They were taken with every conceivable type of lure, from fancy-dancy flies to plain barnyard tackle.

All this is available to the angler in Arizona. His trout season begins May 30 and ends in the last of Indian Summer with the month of September. Residents can obtain their licenses for $1.75. Non-resident licenses are $3. These permits can be obtained from any local dealer or by mail from the offices of the Arizona Game and Fish Commission.

In addition to the three state operated trout hatcheries in Arizona there is a new federal hatchery on the head waters of Williams Creek on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation. This hatchery under the supervision of the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service supplies the trout for the restocking of streams on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation. It was in full scale production for the first time in 1941. This hatchery is not only supplying the planting fish for the streams on the reservation in the form of creel size and fingerling trout, but in past years their surplus has been given to the Arizona Game and Fish Commission for distribution. In 1942 175,000 fingerling Yellow-stone Natives were placed in Big Lake.

The Fort Apache Indian Reservation is open to anglers by permit only. Valid fishing licenses from the Arizona Game and Fish Com Oak Creek receives tens of thousands of trout each spring, and subsequent plantings during the season. Fish are transported in special equipment. (Photos by Abbott.) mission are required before fishing permits will be issued. These permits were fifty cents for the first day, twenty-five cents for each additional day, or a ten day permit for $2.00 during 1942. No seasonal permits were issued except to residents on the Indian Reservation. For additional information as to the 1943 season write the Indian Agent at White River, Arizona.

Good trout fishing may be had on the Navajo Indian Reservation, also. Anglers visiting this territory must have a valid fishing license issued by the state game department as well as a permit from the Navajo Indian Reservation. These permits for fishing the reservation's trout waters can be obtained for $1 from the Indian Agent at Window Rock, Arizona, and are good for the entire fishing season which coincides with the state's trout season.

There is one trout stream in Arizona that is open to fishing the year long. It is the Colorado River below Boulder Dam. This water, drawn from the bottom of Lake Mead, issues cold and clear and is considered by internationally known anglers as the world's best flowing trout water. It was stocked by fingerling trout raised in the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Services hatchery at Las Vegas, Nevada. This project was financed in part by both Arizona and Nevada.

By agreement either state recognizes the fishing license of the other on the boundary waters between them. Special fifteen day non-resident permits are issued for $2 by either state.

These miles of the world's best trout water are only accessible at two places of its entire length. The easiest to reach is Willow Beach, twelve miles south of the Boulder Dam on the Kingman highway. The other is Emery's Landing on the Nevada side.

So, no matter the season of the year, there are trout in Arizona's streams for the resident or non-resident angler.

In winter they can be taken from the Colorado River below the dam, water flowing blue and cold through deep canyons. Swift water that beats and tempers the body of the trout within it, until it is hardened and packed with strength to use against the wiles of the skillful angler.

Trout in the Colorado River take many lures. Flatfish, deep running bass plugs, tandom and spinners with trailing flies, and salmon eggs clusters are the more favored lures of troutwise fishermen on the Colorado.

Rainbows, Brooks, Browns, Cutthroats, Yellowstone Natives and Arizona natives are to be taken by the careful angler. For trout are wily and alert. They are not creeled, often, by the clumsy fisherman casting his shadow across the pools, whipping water with his rod, or splashing his offerings.

Wild Turkey in Arizona

(Continued from Page Fifteen) Mr. Bohl and I took our turns to visit this blind often, entering it before daylight and staying until late afternoon. It was a thrill to be so near to the birds as they drank and fed on the short, tender grass which grew in the moist earth around the spring.

Observations and sketches made here by Mr. Bohl pertaining to the general action and extreme alertness of the turkey will be of inestimable value in portraying these birds in etching and painting.

Our camp was at White Horse Lake and when it was deserted of other campers, we discovered turkey tracks one evening at the far end of the lake from our trailer. Each evening for several days we returned to study the soft earth at the edge of the water for fresh signs. The tracks were short and rather broad and there was but a very short mark left by the hind toe.

It was decided that the turkey would continue to drink at the lake so we looked about for a suitable place to build a blind. We chose a small pine with low branches which was about 200 feet from the water's edge. Four poles about five feet long were driven into the ground and the tops were tied in the branches of the tree. Cross pieces were wired to these uprights to support boughs cut from a windfall. The general appearance of the completed blind was that of a heap of pine boughs. However, it was not to fool some old gobblers.

One never knows from which direction the birds might come and I was surprised one day to suddenly find two large turkeys standing beside a big pine and peering in my direction. Soon five more came into view but all stood back at the edge of the timber. After a bit they pecked here and there at the grass and two took up a stand across a depression from each other and nodded their heads to one another. They all were gobblers one with a pendant or "beard" so long it dragged the ground as he bent forward to eat. I hoped they would come to drink but after standing about for some ten minutes and suspiciously eyeing that blind, they turned and walked back over the ridge. From the direction they were taking I thought they probably would water at an inlet over the ridge from me. Fresh turkey tracks at the water's edge when I passed the spot on my way back to the trailer told me I had made a good guess. Evidently those gobblers had watered before near the place where we had built the blind and knew the spot rather well and immediately recognized our blind as a foreign object. The following afternoon and approaching from another direction than the gobblers had, eleven hens came to water. They apparently didn't see the blind or else were less wary than the gobblers for they drank, fed on the short, green grass on the shore, stretched their wings and legs now and then and one or two ruffled their feathers and shook. We had put out some whole corn to attract them within camera range but they didn't even bother to sample our offering. We learned later that oats was better to offer them. I watched them for an hour as they fed, and "talked" in low tones and then they wandered back to the pines. That evening we walked about the shore where they had been, looking at their tracks in the mud, and Freckles, our English Setter, picked up their scent and excitedly started "working" the grass where they had been feeding. He soon was covering the ground under the pines just up a ridge and a few rods from the lake shore. As we stood there watch-ing him we were surprised to hear some movements in the pines overhead and in the evening light we made out the forms of turkeys. We hurried away with Freckles so as not to frighten them, deciding that the next morning we would try for a picture of them before they would leave the roost.

Before daylight, and with his movie camera loaded with color film, Mr. Bohl took up his position behind the upturned roots of a windfall and waited, hoping the turkeys might remain in the trees until it was light enough to get them in silhouette against the red of the morning sky. In approaching he was extremely careful to not make a sound and apparently the birds were not aware of his presence. Just as the first sign of light appeared in the eastern sky, the turkeys, which by that time he could dimly make out, started "talking" to each other in low, peeping tones. One bird, that he could quite plainly see, stretched its wings, spread its tail, ruffled its feathers and then moved about On the branch on which it was roosting. After a few minutes it began peering about and finally setting its wings, sailed to the ground very close to him. When once on the ground it gave the rapid call characteristic of these birds and which as closely as can be described is a rather high-pitched, short, grating sound and is repeated approximately five or seven times in rapid succession. Soon other birds sailed to the ground and gave the same call in answer as they banded together. One short call of a gobbler was heard in the distance. They seemed to have been roosting one and two in a tree. It was impossible to take movies of them in that dim light even with a very fast lense.

When all the birds had flown to the ground and they had become quiet, he left very carefully not wishing to alarm them as we hoped they would continue feeding in that area.

Sometimes we looked long and hard for turkeys, often sitting in a blind the entire day without seeing any and at other times they appeared unexpectedly almost at our door.

One morning a small flock were watering within sight of our trailer when Mr. Bohl went out to the car. A day or two later, nineteen were just around a bend in the road along the lake shore feeding on the grass as he was leaving the blind at the end of the lake.

He circled them and getting some distance ahead in the direction they were taking and using the roots of a windfall as a blind, he was able to get some fine colored movies as they fed toward him and passed within about sixtyfeet.

Along a flat and just after leaving the lake one morning as we were driving to Williams, a flock of nineteen crossed the road just in front of our car. Others had related exper-iences of turkeys crossing in front of their cars and we were beginning to think we weren't going to have that experience when all at once there they were.

As we were returning to camp one day with the car we saw some gobblers drinking at an inlet just down the hill from the road. They saw us, too, and started away walking rapidly.

We stopped the car just out of sight and down a hill from them and hurriedly getting the camera out Mr. Bohl thought he might circle ahead of them and have an opportunity for some pictures. He spent sometime looking for them but they had vanished so completely it made one wonder where so large a bird could have disappeared in just those few moments. It seemed almost as though the earth had opened and swallowed them. Wildlife is always unpredictable. Perhaps that is why it is so fascinating.