1910] FOREST, GAME AND FISH WARDEN. 61 



suitable for sheep and cattle grazing. The deer will do more in helping to 

 keep the filth and small growth down on wooded lands than the Augora goat. 

 They will eat the brush as low and twice as high. 



The flesh of the deer is very valuable for food, while the antlers and the 

 skins are important articles of commerce; the antlers not only being used as 

 curiosities, for decorations, but are also used extensively in the manufacture 

 of hanflles for knives, forks and other instruments. The dietic value of the 

 flesh of the deer is greatly enhanced, for the reason that it is easier to digest 

 than any other meat, and is especially adapted to invalids who require a 

 nourishing, yet an easily digested food. 



In a recent published table in the ' ' Scientific American ' ' showing the 

 time required to digest certain kinds of food, it is shown that grilled venison 

 only requires one hour for complete digestion, while beef steak and mutton, pre- 

 pared in the same manner, requires three hours, and veal and pork requires more 

 than five hours. 



The market price quoted on venison, in New York City, in the year 1910, 

 was from thirty to thirty-five cents per pound, while the maximum price for 

 a whole deer, was $43.75 wholesale. 



West Virginia is the natural home of the deer, and it can be raised here as 

 easily, and with less expense than sheep, and will multiply as fast; and from 

 a commercial stand point, bring five times as much. 



So I unhesitatingly say that deer can be successfully raised here, not 

 only from the stand point of the hunter and sportsman, but from a commercial 

 stand-point. 



The raising of elk and other large game can also be made a success, and 

 fifteen head of these animals were brought into the state during the present 

 year by the Allegheny Sportsmen's Association, and are doing fine in their 

 new home in Pocahontas county. Negotiations are already being made with 

 the United States to secure a few car loads of these animals from Jackson 's 

 Hole, or Yellow Stone National Park, during the coming winter. 



NATIONAL FOREST EESEEVES IN WEST VIRGINIA. 



On account of the peculiar location of the State of West Virginia, perhaps no 

 state in the Union needs a larger forest reserve, but no action has yet been 

 taken by the state to purchase or control any forest lands, neither has any 

 law been passed controlling the cutting of timber so that our cut-over lands 

 may again be reforested. 



This is a deplorable condition, but nevertheless true, and the effects may 

 be seen by traveling over many railroads of the state and looking at the cut- 

 over areas, that are almost depleted of vegetation and practically useless for 

 all time to come. 



However the national government, having made a careful study of these 

 conditions and realizing, especially, the great danger that we are facing 

 on account of the drying up of the fountain heads of our great commercial 

 streams, sometime ago under the Weeks Law, made an appropriation for the 

 purpose of making investigations looking to the purchase of large areas of 

 wooded lands in several states. 



Among the states that have properly qualified or passed laws, allowing the 



