Report of the Forest Commission. 7 



ply bill for the maintenance of the Catskill deer parks, the care 

 and management of which devolves by law on the Forest Com- 

 mission. This item appropriates "for the maintenance of the 

 Catskill deer park, as provided in chapter 5 62, Laws of 1887, 

 including the purchase of live deer and other game, $2,750, of 

 which sum an amount not exceeding $250 may be expended by 

 .the Commission in completing the public path leading to the 

 summit of Slide mountain included within the Preserve; and for 

 inclosing with wire fence such number of additional acres as may 

 be deemed necessary by the Forest Commission for the use of 

 said park, $1,500, or so much thereof as may be necessary." 



At the beginning of the fiscal year — October 1, 1893 — there 

 was standing to the credit of the deer park account the sum of 

 $3,724.36, not including the $1,500 appropriated for the erection 

 of wire fences which were not built, any further enlargement of 

 the deer park being deemed unnecessary. Of this $3,724.36, 

 there was expended during the fiscal year of 1893-94, the sum 

 of $2,492.29, part of which was expended in capturing live deer 

 in the Adirondacks with which the park is mostly stocked. 

 These deer were taken alive by the Superintendent and Foresters 

 acting under his instructions, the cost of each animal thus ob- 

 tained being much less than when purchased, as had been done 

 previously. At present there is a herd of fifty-three deer in the 

 park, the greater number of which are does. All of them will 

 be taken out of the park and turned loose in May, or as soon as 

 there is enough "browse" in the woods to furnish them with 

 food. 



This expenditure of $2,492.29 includes, also, the salary of the 

 deer keeper, who receives $35 per month and house rent, a 

 keeper's lodge having been built in 1888 for that purpose ; 

 the purchase of grain for feeding the herd during the winter ; 

 and the sum of $116.71 which was expended on the bridle path 

 leading from the park through the Forest Preserve to the sum- 



