222 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF 



On all the game preserves there is no doubt but that the deer are getting a fair 

 chance and are being well protected. The cutting of the old growth of forest is 

 allowing the young growth to start up, which makes feed for deer, and with proper 

 protection there can be in five years an unlimited quantity of deer in the Adirondacks 

 for sportsmen. The total Adirondack area is able to sustain a sufficient number 

 of deer to supply all the hunters and sportsmen that will go there. 



Moose and caribou are increasing very fast in the State of Maine at the present 

 time. Would it not be a good policy to import a quantity into the Adirondacks and 

 so stock that forest? 



Mr. Julius Burres, New Russia, Essex County, A T . Y. — If there is any change in the 

 law the hounding ought to be a little later in the season, as now the does stay in the 

 edge of the forest. If it were later there would be more bucks killed. It would be 

 better to stop hounding for five years at least; then the deer would have a chance to 

 increase instead of decreasing as now. 



If it were not for the Adirondack Mountain Reserve, where deer are not killed at 

 all, there would be scarcely any deer in these parts. 



Mr. James Weeks, 18 Wall Street, New York {President Adirondack Preserve Club!) 

 — The Adirondack Club controls about 100,000 acres in Essex county. The number 

 of deer killed there annually is small as compared with the acreage. Our membership 

 is small, and the laws of the State are rigidly adhered to. The number of deer on the 

 tract has increased enormously in the last twenty years. In the spring, when members 

 are at the club for fishing, numbers of deer are seen both on the roads and around the 

 clearings, lakes and ponds. The writer has been familiar with the territory for over 

 forty years, and can safely say the deer are much more plentiful than they were back 

 in the fifties. Have no suggestion to make as to the game laws. If the laws as they 

 stand are lived up to, there will be no trouble about deer. 



Mr. H. L. Ives, Potsdam, St. Lawrence Comity, N. Y [President Raquettc Club.) — 

 My experience covering more than forty years in the Adirondacks, is that dead deer 

 are liable to be found in the spring in the vicinity of where hounding has been done 

 the fall before. This no doubt is a new idea to many ; but a correct one, nevertheless. 

 Deer that have been run by hounds and not killed by the hunter are in a poor con- 

 dition to stand the winter, and in many cases they will die before spring. The same 

 is true of sheep. If dogs chase a flock of sheep late in the fall, in most cases half the 

 flock will die before spring. In the vicinity of the Raquette Club's grounds every 

 lumber camp we have ever had near us has slaughtered our deer badly, and the only 

 thing that has saved them from total annihilation is the fact that the log choppers 

 remain only one winter in the same vicinity. When the logs are all cut the loggers 

 are gone, and that has saved our deer. 



