GAME SURVEY OF THE NORTH 

 CENTRAL STATES 



CHAPTER I 



DESCRIPTION 



>"~r"<YPES of Game Range. For game purposes the north central region may 

 JL be divided into four belts, and these subdivided into 10 types of game range. 

 The distribution of these types appears in Map 1, their areas in Table 1, and their 

 characters in Table 2. 



The species and abundance of game possible to produce in any given area 

 depends on its vegetation, culture, soil, physiography, and climate. Hence the 

 types represent different combinations of botany, agriculture, geology, and 

 weather. 



In order to make the types as few and as compact as possible, it has been 

 necessary to ignore many small differences known to exist on the ground. 



Affection born of nativity is probably in part responsible for my conviction 

 that no region in the world was originally more richly endowed with game than 

 this one, quantity and quality both considered. Contrary to common belief, the 

 cream of its game country was the prairie type, which is now the poorest. The 

 Agricultural Belt, which stretches in a broad east-and-west band across the region, 

 was richer in game than either the Forest Belt to the north, or the Hill Belt which 

 parallels it on the south. Game went with rich soils, and there displayed its great- 

 est tenacity in the face of settlement. Likewise, game restoration will be easier on 

 rich soils, other things being equal. 



Settlement preceded westward across the Agricultural Belt, beginning at its 

 east end just after the Revolution, and reaching its western extremity after the 

 Civil War. Lateral movements into the Lake States and the Ozarks followed, like 

 waves from the prow of a ship, but these struck upon poorer soils, and have re- 

 cently receded. 



It is important to visualize these movements, because most species of game 

 increased with pioneer agriculture. An increase of game rode, as it were, on the 

 wave of settlement, but a decrease soon followed. Conversely, recessions of settle- 

 ment have temporarily restored game, as is seen later. The important point is for 

 the reader to realize that game environments, and hence game abundance, are the 

 result of dynamic and fluctuating, not static or stationary, forces. Many of these 

 forces can be controlled. 



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