REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF FISHERIES, C;AME AXD FORESTS. 



301 



Our game law is at fault in this matter. It should not permit the killing of deer, 

 by any method, until they have attained their full weight anil until the females have 

 reared their young. It might as well permit the robbing of spawning beds. No 

 other State or Canadian province allows its deer killed before the first of October. 

 But the deer law in New York was made for the benefit of the "summer people" 

 instead of the protection of game. It is ridiculous to argue about the propriety of 

 hounding and at the same time permit the shooting of lean, nursing does in August. 



r/ATED. 



Our State has not so man)- tleer that it can afford to give ten weeks deer shooting, 

 while Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Ontario find that three is all that can be 

 safely granted. 



Reports from the Catskill counties indicate that the deer which were liberated 

 there in July, 1895, ^'^^ doing well, and appear to be increasing in number. Where 

 they have been observed, they seem to be large and vigorous. As only forty-five 

 were turned loose, some time must still elapse before the region can be fairly stocked. 

 A few deer cross the Delaware River each year from Pennsylvania into the Catskill 

 forests, but no more than will offset what are killed by the Sullivan County people, 

 who succeed in getting a bill through the Legislature occasionally permitting them to 

 kill them. The period in which deer shooting is prohibited by law in the Catskills 

 should be extended five years more. 



