48 BULLETIN 1049, r. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



going pages reference has been made to some of the experi- 

 ments of this kind which have been tried in various States. Thus in 

 the New England States provision has been made for appraising 

 and paying for damage done to crops by deer and for ascertaining 

 the number of deer killed in this connection. In the Eocky Moun- 

 tain States of Montana, Colorado, and Wyoming, and in four of the 

 Canadian Provinces, where guides are commonly employed, they are 

 required to make reports of the amount of game killed by the persons 

 employing them. In several States efforts have been made to ob- 

 tain statistics of the number of deer killed during the hunting season, 

 and in one or two instances estimates have been made of the total 

 number of deer in a State. 



A simple means of obtaining much of the desired information is 

 already provided under the existing system of hunting licenses. vState 

 officers report with much detail the number of licenses issued, the 

 amount of mone}" collected for game protection, and the number of 

 arrests made. More attention might be devoted to ascertaining the 

 extent of the stock of game, which is the central point of interest of 

 the whole game-protective machinery of the State. The following 

 modifications of present methods of collecting data would furnish 

 facts of the highest importance : 



(1) Publishing in addition to the number of licenses issued an 

 estimate of the number of persons hunting without license on their 

 own lands or under exemptions allowed by law (an estimate which a 

 State game commission could readily make) would furnish approxi- 

 mately the total number of persons hunting in the State. 



(2) Eequiring each big-game hunter to make a return of the re- 

 sults of his activities under his license, as is now done in several 

 States and Canadian Provinces, would give accurate figures of the 

 total number of deer and other big game annuallv killed. 



(3) Requiring licensees to report the number of game birds 

 actuallj^ killed would furnish returns similar to those needed in the 

 case of big game, and while they w^ould be much more difficult to ob- 

 tain, yet with the necessary legislation and the cooperation of 

 sportsmen's associations, local clubs, and the sport,smen themselves 

 the}' could be collected, as shoAvn by the results already accomplished. 



(4) Requiring game farms to report the number of birds raised, 

 disposed of for propagation, or sold for market would show the an- 

 nual results of efforts to domesticate game. 



(5) Estimating the total amount of each kind of game in the 

 State would make it possible, by revising and comparing the esti- 

 mates from year to year, to tell whether the stock is increasing oi- 

 Avhether the total number killed exceeds the annual increase. 



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