Big Game 199 



ably certain that while a small plantation offers effective cover for deer, a large 

 solid block of plantation will ultimately exclude them. This raises the question 

 of whether plantations could not to some degree be dispersed or "shot-gunned." 

 It is important that the degree of dispersion constituting the most advisable com- 

 bination between game and forest interests be determined in advance of large-scale 

 planting programs. 



In addition to furnishing merely ordinary cover, it is not impossible that 

 the judicious placement of evergreen plantations may be made the means of estab- 

 lishing new winter yards. 



None of the unanswered questions about deer management can be success- 

 fully solved without fundamental information on the composition of deer herds by 

 sex and age classes. It is especially necessary to determine how this composition 

 is affected by hunting, lack of yarding facilities, refuges and other factors dealt 

 with in management. It should be remembered that the deer is a polygamous 

 animal requiring two years to reach maturity. Accordingly every management 

 question must deal not only with the question of how many deer, but what sex 

 and what age. The complications attendant on this are absent in the case of 

 smaller game reaching maturity in one year. 



At the present time we do not even know how to tell the age of a deer. 

 Michigan is engaged in a much needed study of correlation between age, denti- 

 tion, and horns. 



Mere abundance of deer is never proof that the species is thriving or that it 

 is being properly managed. Pennsylvania offers ample proof of the correctness 

 of this assertion. A competent and continuous deer study is the only available in- 

 surance against the repetition of unforeseen disasters of the kind which have now 

 overtaken parts of the Pennsylvania range. 



