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and boats averaged $46,20 per hunter, When this equipment was depreciated over a 5-year 
period, the cost was calculated to be $9,24 a year, or $1,85 per hunting day. Investment in de- 
coys was $33,00 a hunter, which, with an allowance for painting and depreciation, would amount 
to $6.60 per year or $1.32 per hunting day, 
The cost items totaled $13,36 per day for the 41 public-shooting-grounds hunters in- 
terviewed, or, on the basis of 1,34 ducks killed and bagged per day, $9.97 per duck, The average 
bag per day by these hunters is very close to the 1,45 ducks per hunter-day at Illinois public 
shooting grounds in 1940-1942, as reported in a previous study (Bellrose 1944), 
Although cost items were higher per day of duck hunting for members of private 
shooting clubs and for daily-fee shooters, their cost per duck, $9.67, was slightly lower be- 
cause of their greater success, 
A questionnaire sent out to shooting-club hunters in 1939 and answered by 127 of them 
disclosed that the minimum average expenditure per duck killed and bagged was $4,77 for that 
season, An approximate mid-point in the cost per duck between 1939 and 1947 has been-es- 
tablished as $7,25, This figure has been used in the present study in calculating the value of 
duck-hunting land, 
When the average bag per acre at.public shooting grounds, table 1, is 1,68 ducks and 
the average cost of bagging a duck is $7.25, the economic value to the public of a bottomland lake 
or marsh for public hunting is calculated to be $12.18 per acre-year, When the average bag per 
" acre at private shooting clubs is 1,48 ducks, and the average cost of bagging a duck is $7.25, the 
value of bottomland for such clubs is $10,73 per acre-year, 
ANGLING VALUES TO PUBLIC 
Angling is a recreation for which 574,784 Illinois residents bought licenses in 1947, 
Sport fishing is especially popular on 11 Illinois River valley lakes that comprise 25,000 acres 
of the 75,000 acres of water in the valley, The greater popularity of certain lakes for angling is 
related to fishing success there and to their accessibility to fishermen, Factors contributing to 
fishing success are transparency and depth of water, amount of shore line per acre of water, and 
composition of the fish population, Some lakes are difficult of access because of private owner- 
ship or poor roads, 
Sport fishing data for Illinois River valley lakes were gathered largely from Lake 
Chautauqua, a former agricultural levee district and now a national wildlife refuge, Although 
11 
