54 RAISING DEER IN THE UNITED STATES. 



He is restricted to a very short open season at a time when, on account 

 of the rut, the animals are least desirable for food. If permitted 

 to sell the venison, even in his own State or county, he must do it 

 during the same limited period, when, owing to the presence of wild 

 game in the market, he may be compelled to accept an extremely low 

 price. To make the business of growing venison profitable, the 

 grower must be able to choose his own time for marketing the 

 product, as in case of beef or pork. 



SALE OF VENISON. 



In more than half the States and Territories the sale of venison 

 from private preserves is illegal at all times, and until recently the 

 sale was illegal in nearly all the States. Several States now forbid 

 the sale of venison produced within them, but permit the sale of that 

 imported from other States, a most unjust discrimination against 

 home industry. 



A recent experience in Pottawattamie County, Iowa, illustrates 

 how the law sometimes affects private ownership of deer. The facts 

 are gathered from newspapers, but in the main have been verified by 

 correspondence. J. Cuppy, of Avoca, owned a herd of 20 deer, but 

 died a few years ago without direct heirs and without having made 

 provision for the deer, which had escaped from their inclosure. The 

 administrators could not catch the animals nor lawfully kill them. 

 The herd has increased to nearly 200 head of partly wild deer. They 

 forage on the farms and gardens of the neighborhood, doing some 

 damage, especially to stacks of alfalfa and corn shocks. No one may 

 legally kill them, and prosecutions promptly followed when the county 

 officials learned that a few of them had been shot and converted into 

 venison. 



The decision in the case of the State of Missouri v. Weber (102 

 S. W., 955) further illustrates the tendency of courts to give a 

 literal interpretation to laws in order to uphold police regulations 

 concerning game. Eight deer, from which the evidences of sex had 

 been removed, were exposed for sale in the Kansas City market. 

 They had been raised on a stock farm in Henry County, and came 

 from a tame herd which had been in possession of the owner for 

 twenty-five years. They were kept with cattle in a pasture sur- 

 rounded by a high fence. The animals were never hunted, but the 

 owner had been accustomed to kill several of them every year for 

 sale in the Kansas City market. Defendant Weber was arrested and 

 tried in the Jackson County criminal court in December, 1906. The 

 defense was that the law did not refer to tame but to wild deer. The 

 defendant was found guilty, and appealed his case. It was trans- 

 ferred from the court of appeals to the supreme court, which in its 

 decision upheld the lower court. The court held that the law applied 



