6 BULLETIN 1049, U. S. DEPARTMENT OE AGRICULTURE. 



Moose hunting on such a scale has been made possible by pro- 

 tection. Calves are protected throughout the area, and cows like- 

 wise have been protected, except in Nova Scotia prior to 1909. 

 With this exception the limit has been one bull a year. The hunt- 

 ing season has varied in length from 3 months down to 10 days, 

 and in 1920 it was open 10 clays in Maine, 2^ months in New Bruns- 

 wick, and H months in Nova Scotia. 2 In 1907 Nova Scotia required 

 that every moose killed should be reported, and about 1908 New 

 Brunswick adopted the same requirement, so it is now possible to 

 ascertain approximately the number killed in each Province. 



SMALL GAME. 



Rabbits probably constitute the largest, cheapest, and most gen- 

 erally available supply of game in the United States. Abundant 

 almost everywhere, shot for sport and market, and free from non- 

 sale restrictions in many States, they form an important item of 

 food supply. The jack rabbits of the West, which are a serious pest 

 in some States, are destroyed in enormous numbers — sometimes as 

 many as 10,000 in a single drive — but only a relatively small number 

 are placed on the market and find their way to eastern States. Cot- 

 tontails, however, are found in every State in the Union and during 

 the autumn and winter are hunted almost everywhere. In 23 States, 

 comprising all those east of the Mississippi Elver and north of 

 latitude 36°, and in addition California, Louisiana. Minnesota, and 

 South Carolina, there are close seasons and other regulations, but in 

 the other States there is. at present, no restriction on hunting (see 

 map, fig. 3, p. IT.) 



The Conservation Commission of New York estimated that about 

 465,000 cottontails were killed. in 1918 in New York: the Game 

 Commission of Pennsjdvania estimated that in the open season of 

 1919 about 2,700,000 rabbits were killed in that State; and a game 

 survey of Virginia for 1920 shows 293,625 killed in that State. Sta- 

 tistics or even estimates of the numbers killed or sold in most other 

 States are not available. Perhaps it is not too much to assume that 

 the total number of rabbits killed annually in the United States is not 

 less than four for each hunter, or a total of about 25,000,000. Ordi- 

 narily rabbits are sold at from 10 to 30 cents apiece, but in the 

 autumn of 1920 they retailed for as much as 50 or even 75 cents 

 each. At an average of only 20 cents each the value of this supply 

 of meat would be not less than $5,000,000 annually, but more im- 



- Maine, 1905-1913, 6 weeks ; 1913-14, 1 month ; 1915-191S, closed ; 1919-20, 10 days. 

 New Brunswick. 1905-1920, 21 months. Nova Scotia, 1905-6, 3 months: 1907-1914. J 

 months: 1915-1918, 21 months: 1919, 2 months; 1920, li months. 



