180 FIRST BOOK OF FORESTRY 



GAME AND FISH 



In the Adirondack Mountains the game and fish, as 

 much as the beauty of forest and lake, have brought to 

 these mountains millions of dollars, and helped to create 

 a sentiment worth many millions more. Streams and 

 lakes well stocked with fish, and a few dozen of deer to 

 every thousand acres of forest, are capable of producing 

 considerable income through the pleasure which they give 

 by their beauty and the possible chase, without interfering 

 in the least with the real objects of the forest. 



In hardwood forests, like those of the Alleghenies, at 

 least twenty-five deer should find their living on every 

 thousand acres of land ; but in all cases the number 

 should be regulated, and old does as well as old bucks 

 should be removed. 



Pine and spruce forests naturally offer very much less 

 feed ; and, therefore, if game is to be kept, more or less 

 hardwood should be mixed in with the conifers. Patches 

 of coppice growth, especially of poplars, cottonwood, aspen, 

 etc., also willows, mountain ash, maple, oak, and beech, 

 furnish large quantities of fodder and are well suited to 

 help the animals in severe winters, when the poorer trees 

 may be thinned out merely to feed the game. 



But, above all, the animals must be protected against 

 the dog and gun. Of these the former is by far the more 

 harmful, and in any district where stray dogs, these 



