104 WILD LIFE CONSERVATION 



wherever it is thoroughly prosecuted there is 

 nothing left for elk and deer. 



But there are millions of square miles of other 

 forests in which no herds of cattle and sheep ever 

 will graze, and they seem to remain for deer alone. 

 Imagine for a moment the result of introducing 

 upon all the wild lands of the United States good 

 colonies of deer of the species that is most suitable 

 to them, permitting them to remain for fifteen years 

 unmolested, and then shooting only the young 

 bucks. With the female deer even reasonably well 

 protected, the annual result in pounds of good 

 edible flesh soon would challenge the imagination. 



Henceforth, the cost of beef and mutton to the 

 people of this country is bound to remain high. The 

 free grass ranges of Montana, Wyoming and Texas 

 exist no longer on the old basis. Henceforth the 

 great bulk of our beef supply must come, not from 

 the ranches of the cattle kings of the great plains, 

 but from the farms of the middle West ; and it will 

 be fattened on corn worth from fifty to sixty cents 

 per bushel. That means high-priced beef. The 

 New York farmer now sells his calves to the 

 butcher because he can not afford to raise them for 

 beef! Odd, is it not? Yet it is quite true. 



There are counties in the state of New York, 

 within fifty miles of New York City, that could 

 under adequate management be made to yield annu- 

 ally more pounds of venison than of beef and 

 mutton, and this could be accomplished without the 



