DEER FARMING IN THE UNITED STATES 



275 



greedily, but waste the other parts. In 

 winter feeding is necessary everywhere, 

 and in the northern half of the United 

 States shelter of some kind should be 

 provided. 



V^ILD DEER IN PRIVATE GAME PRESERVES 



Individual owners, as well as associ- 

 ations, have established large private 

 preserves in many parts of the country 

 and stocked them with deer and other 

 big game. The objects have been to pre- 

 serve the animals and to provide sport 

 for the owners. In the free life under 

 the protected conditions generally pro- 

 vided, deer do remarkably well, the in- 

 crease being even more rapid than in 

 small parks. 



Deer in Buckwood Park, a New Jersey 

 preserve of 4.000 acres, belonging to 

 Charles S. Worthington, increased in the 

 ten years between 1892 and 1903 from 19 

 to about 400 head, and the number was 

 then lessened because it was thought too 

 large for the permanent sustaining ca- 

 pacity of the park. The St. Louis Park 

 and Agricultural Company have about 

 1,000 deer and 400 elk in their 5,000- 

 acre preserve in Taney County, Mo. The 

 Otzinachson Rod and Gun Club six years 

 ago placed about 90 deer, mostly does, 

 in their 4,000 - acre park in Clinton 

 County, Pa. These have multiplied to 

 nearly 3,000 head. 



The good effect of such preserves on 

 the supply of game in the State should 

 not be overlooked. While they may tem- 

 porarily restrict the hunting privileges of 

 a few citizens, they ultimately become a 

 source of game supply secondary in im- 

 portance only to State preserves or game 

 refuges. Already a number of private 

 reserves have become overstocked, and 

 game has escaped or been turned over 

 to the State to become the property of 

 the people. The success of private enter- 

 prise in propagating large game in in- 

 closures has thus become an object lesson 

 for State game commissioners and others, 

 and suggests the feasibility of the State's 

 undertaking a similar work for the 

 people. 



GAME EAWS RESTRICT DEER FARMING 



The chief obstacle to profitable propa- 

 gation of deer in the United States is the 

 restrictive character of State laws gov- 

 erning the killing, sale, and transporta- 

 tion of game. Many of the States, fol- 

 lowing precedent, lay down the broad 

 rule that all the game animals in the 

 State, whether resident or migratory, are 

 the property of the State. A^ few States 

 except game animals that are "under pri- 

 vate ownership legally acquired." A few 

 others encourage private ownership by 

 providing a way in which wild animals — 

 deer and the like — may be captured for 

 domestication. Generally, when private 

 ownership of game is recognized by law, 

 the right to kill such game is granted, 

 but the owner is hampered by the same 

 regulations as to season, sale, and ship- 

 ment that apply to wild game. One by 

 one. however. State legislatures are com- 

 ing to recognize the interests of game 

 propagators, and game laws are gradu- 

 ally being modified in accordance with 

 the change of view. 



The chief source from which deer and 

 elk may be obtained for stocking pre- 

 serves is from animals already in cap- 

 tivity. These must be transported from 

 place to place or there can be no com- 

 merce in them, yet the laws of many 

 States absolutely forbid their shipment. 

 The laws as to possession and transpor- 

 tation of deer carcasses make the ship- 

 ping of venison also illegal. General 

 export of venison is legal from only six 

 of the States, and three of these have no 

 wild deer left to protect. 



The laws concerning the season for 

 killing and the sale of deer are often 

 equally embarrassing to those who would 

 produce venison for profit. The owner 

 of domesticated deer cannot legally kill 

 his animals except in open season. 

 Owners of private preserves are simi- 

 larly restricted and are limited to the 

 killing of one or two animals in a season. 

 More than half the States and Territories 

 absolutely forbid the sale of venison. A 

 few forbid the sale of venison produced 

 within the State, but permit the sale of 



