164 WILD LIFE PROTECTION FUND 



si oner of Forestry, to establish Game Preserves or sanc- 

 tuaries upon the State forest lands. The Legislature of 

 1907 limited the area of these Preserves to nine miles in 

 circumference, while those of 1911 and 1915 increased their 

 size and provided that the greatest transverse dimension 

 should not exceed ten miles, nor should the area of the Pre- 

 serve exceed one-half of the total area of the tract of land 

 of the forestry reservation upon which the Preserve was 

 located. In 1919 an act was passed, backed by the sports- 

 men, authorizing the Game Commission to purchase with 

 the surplus from the Resident Hunters License Fund, lands 

 near our large centers of population, where the Forestry 

 Commission did not already possess lands, for the purpose 

 of establishing game sanctuaries and hunting grounds 

 similar to those on state lands. Also an act allowing the 

 Game Commission to provide auxiliary game preserves of 

 not less than 250 acres or more than 4,000 acres through 

 the consent of the owners or by lease. These auxiliary 

 preserves may consists of farm lands. 



These wild lands, although in the main unsuitable for 

 agriculture, are the natural home of the game it was de- 

 sired to attract and propagate, and possess the necessary 

 summer and winter feed, streams and cover for our birds, 

 bear, deer, squirrels, rabbits, etc. Chestnuts, beechnuts, 

 acorns and many other nuts, wild grapes, haws and other 

 fruits are abundant, together with an almost endless variety 

 of berries. So long as the ground remained bare feed would 

 be plentiful, and with the coming of the snows and ice 

 many of the birds could feed upon the buds of the beech, 

 birch and other trees, and if necessary, could be fed by the 

 preserve keepers. Besides some of the tracts possessed 

 waters upon which wild water fowl might find a resting 

 place, at least in their migratory flight. 



Rather than establish a few preserves of large dimensions, 

 it was deemed advisable to create numerous small ones of 

 about 3,000 acres each in extent and to locate them, as 

 nearly as possible, in the center of the forest reserves in 

 different counties. The purpose of so locating the sanc- 

 tuaries was to make sure that the game propagated therein 

 would first spread to the state land rather than to the prop- 

 erty of any individual or organization which might be posted 

 to prohibit hunting. In this way the Game Preserve would 

 produce an unending supply of game which would naturally 



