. the owner of the land a more direct interest in the 

 beaver occupying it there would be an incentive for 

 better protection. It would be a calamity to provide 

 an open season for trapping beaver in the old fash- 

 ioned way. The animal would simply be extermin- 

 ated wherever trapping was allowed, since there is 

 no longer that isolation which permitted a few speci- 

 mens to survive up to the beginning of the closed 

 season some twenty years ago. Beaver are easily 

 located and destroyed by even amateur trappers. The 

 lessons learned in Itasca Park should not be over- 

 looked when further legislation is considered affect- 

 ing- the beaver. One may "cultivate" muskrats in 

 any marshy lake until they are numerous enough to 

 pay well for the area occupied and the care devoted 

 to their food supply and protection. 



With muskrat skins selling for two dollars and 

 beaver skins for twenty-five dollars each, it is as- 

 tounding to contemplate the revenue which might be 

 derived by land owners from these two fur bearing 

 animals alone if they were given the serious attention 

 they deserve. 



It is marvelous how deer have persisted in the 

 country south of a line drawn westward from Duluth. 

 Each year hunters havye fairly swarmed in this 

 country. It will be difficult however for the deer 

 much longer to survive, and impossible for them to 

 extend farther southward unless additional measures 

 are provided for their protection. I would suggest 

 that for five or six years no deer hunting be per- 

 mitted south of the Great Northern Railroad running 

 from Duluth to Fosston. By some such means deer 



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