60 SECOND BIENNIAL EEPOET [W. VA. 



remunerative investment for those interested, and at 'the same time be of 

 much value in assisting to rehabitate our state with big game, as well as pro- 

 tect our native game and fish. 



EAISING OF BIG GAME IN WEST VIRGINIA 



Can the raising of big game be made a success in West Virginia? If this 

 question was answered in the affirmative, without giving some reasons why, 

 but few would believe that the adventure would be profitable. 



The raising of domesticated deer, in the United States has never been at- 

 tempted on a large scale, but sufficient tests have been made to ascertain that 

 it can be made a success, as well as the raising of cattle and sheep. If this 

 can be made a success in the states that have tried it, there is no reason why it 

 cannot be done in West Virginia, 



Possibly three-fourths of the states have embarked in the raising of do- 

 mesticated and semi-domesticated deer, and the wonderful increase made in 

 many of the parks and game preserves is significant and encouraging. 



In ten years, between 1892 and 1902, deer in Buckland Park, the Warren 

 county (New Jersey) preserve, belonging to Chas. C. Worthington, increased 

 from nineteen to -about four hundred head. About six years ago the Otzinach- 

 son. Eod and Gun Club of Clinton county, Pennsylvania, placed about ninety 

 deer, mostly does, in their 4,000 acre park. These had multiplied, in the year 

 1908, to nearly two thousand head. 



At Pollon, Cambria county, Pennsylvania, a private game preserve of 

 5,000 acres, contains, approximately, 5,000 deer. This land is fenced with a 

 wire fence eight feet high, strung on posts some twenty feet apart, the posts 

 being from six to ten inches in diameter, with twenty barbed wires strung on 

 same, with upright wires every two feet, fastened with clamps. With this 

 large number of deer, averaging one deer to each acre of land, not a single deer 

 has ever escaped from the enclosure. This preserve was started only a few 

 years ago, with a few tame deer bought from different localities, and have 

 lived entirely from the shrubbery and food furnished by the forests, and have 

 not been fed during either the summer or winter. 



At the age of about seventeen months, the doe bears her first young, usually 

 only one fawn; after that, however, they are almost certain to bear twins, and 

 often triplets. The increase per year, is rated at one and one-half, and you 

 can conservatively figure on your stock doubling every year. 



Suppose we then start with one hundred deer, and double the number every 

 year for ten years. It is interesting to note that our herd would number 

 more than 100,000 head. It is estimated, by the United States Agricultural 

 Department that there are 250,000,000 acres of untillable land in the United 

 States, that is not even suitable for raising horses, cattle or sheep, but which 

 could be utilized for raising Angora goats or deer. 



There is no qestion but that West Virginia has a comparative large portion 

 of such land, and might be turned into excellent use for these purposes. 



If thousands of acres of our wild mountain land, from which the timber has 

 been cut, making it entirely useless for any other purpose, were stocked with 

 deer, in a few years we would not only again have an abundance of these ani- 

 mals, but they could help clear the underbrush, and make our mountain land 



