196 Game Survey of the North Central States 



section, and a more extensive survey of deer hunting conditions on five surround- 

 ing sections. On the larger area of six sections he found the hunting conditions to 

 be as follows: 



Number of hunters 32 



Man-days hunted during 10-day season 213 



Legal bucks killed 17 



Hunters per legal buck killed 32 -4- 17 = 1.9 



Man-days per legal buck killed 213-4-17=12 



Man-days per hunter 213 -4- 32 = 6.4 



Square miles per legal buck killed 6 -4- 17 = 0.35 



Bucks killed per square mile 17 -=-6 = 2. 8 



With this background on local hunting conditions, the illegal kill may now 

 be examined. On the smaller area Kilp's planting crews found eight carcasses of 

 does, four of them with some meat cut out, on that part of the square mile 

 actually covered by planting operations (about 300 acres). Probably other car- 

 casses lying in unplanted swamps escaped detection. From these premises the 

 following relationships are indicated: 



Hunters per illegal doe actually found on 1/6 of the territory 



they hunted 32 -f- 8 = 4 



Illegal does actually found per square mile 8 



Probable illegal does per square mile 8X2 = 16 



Illegal does actually found on 1/6 of the large area per legal 



buck killed on the large area 8 -4- 17 = 1:2 



Probable illegal does per legal buck, if carcasses were just as 



thick on the entire area 16X6 = 96-4-17 = 5:1 



It seems hard to believe that these conditions are representative. Neverthe- 

 less they demand consideration because they are evidence based on actual measure- 

 ments rather than on mere opinion. 



A much rougher survey, pointing to quite a different conclusion, was made by 

 Rev. B. F. Schoenfeld, of Park Falls, Wisconsin. He questioned 32 selected 

 deer hunters, most of whom were personally known to him, as to the dead does 

 actually seen by them within the area on which they had all hunted. Eighteen had 

 seen dead does, but eight had duplicated, leaving 10 out of 32 hunters who had 

 discovered dead does in the woods. Schoenfeld assumed arbitrarily that the 

 number of does actually killed was ten, and by comparing this with the number 

 of bucks (100) estimated to have been killed in the same territory, arrived at the 

 conclusion that not over 10 illegal does per 100 legal bucks had been killed and 

 left in the woods. The trouble with this conclusion is the pure assumption that 

 all the does were found. Kilp, after his planting crew had covered his area 

 much more thoroughly than any group of hunters would ever cover a hunting 

 groundj^estimated that only half the actual dead does had been found. 



Another rough survey, somewhat more convincing than the Schoenfeld sur- 

 vey, was made by Game Warden Peterson in the vicinity of Sharon, Kalkaska 

 County, Michigan, in 1927. Peterson counted deer camps and cars on an area of 

 four townships, or 144 square miles, and concluded that 300 deer hunters were 

 using this area. This is two deer hunters per section. Peterson found eight 



