This unusually large issuance of licenses in Pennsylvania this year 
is directly attributable to improved game conditions generally and 
to the return of our boys from federal service who had been in the 
habit of hunting as well as hundreds of young men who during fed¬ 
eral service for the first time became interested in the use of firearms. 
In addition to these, the ever-growing trend to out door sports, the. 
coal strike in the bituminous regions of the State, etc., added mate¬ 
rially to the number of hunters,, and I feel confident that as the work 
of the Department is brought more and more prominently before the 
people of the State and game conditions are gradually improved, the 
number of licenses to hunt in Pennsylvania will likewise increase. 
ft v 
In order to avoid delays in having additional licenses printed for 
such counties as may exhaust their original quota, I propose issuing 
a goodly supply to each County Treasurer for 1920, and then have 
printed in consecutive numerical order an additional number of thou¬ 
sands to be held at the office in Harrisburg and sent out quickly to 
such counties as may need same. This extra issuance of license tags 
will not bear a county number, but will instead bear the words 
“Special Issue” and the numbers sent each county necessary will be 
properly recorded in the office at Harrisburg for reference at any 
future time. 
In the addendum to this report we hope to give figures on the li¬ 
censes issued this year. 
HUNTING ACCIDENTS. 
I regret to say that from early reports reaching us it is apparent 
that the number of hunting accidents, both fatal and non-fatal, will 
run considerably higher this year than heretofore. It is of course 
to be expected that because of the larger number of hunters there 
will likely be more accidents, but early reports indicate an unusually 
high percentage this season. The only way I can account for this 
condition is because more inexperienced boys and men are hunting 
than ever before. See addendum for final figures. 
In this connection I would say that many sportsmen throughout 
the Commonwealth agree absolutely with the provisions of a bill in¬ 
troduced in the 1915 Session of the Legislature by Hon, J. G. Dell of 
Huntingdon County providing that whenever a man kills another in 
mistake for game he should be indictable for manslaughter and pro¬ 
secuted accordingly, and I am of the opinion that an act of this sort 
if given plenty of publicity would mean much to the sportsmen of 
the State, as there is positively no excuse for any man to shoot mi- 
other in mistake for game of any kind if reasonable care is exercised. 
GAME PRESERVES. 
The Pennsylvania Game Preserve system continues finding favor 
wherever the plan is presented, while other States are gradually tak¬ 
ing up this method of increasing their native game supply rather than 
depending upon game farms. Up to this time the only worth while 
results have been attained with the ring-neck pheasants, which, from 
the true sportsman’s viewpoint, cannot be compared with any of our 
native game birds. In the territory surrounding each of our Game 
Preserves game conditions are gradually improving, this being es¬ 
25 
pecially true relative to deer, wild turkeys, ruffed grouse, squirrels, 
etc., the increase in many cases being so phenomenal that persons 
who have not.actually examined into conditions are inclined to doubt 
the statements made relative thereto. On various occasions when ad¬ 
dressing sportsmen I have referred to the increase of deer surrounding 
the Mont Alto Game Preserve, and I have told my audiences that in 
the fall of 1906 but four deer of both sexes and all ages were killed 
in that territory, that during the summer of 1907 the preserve was 
created and stocked during the following winter with twenty-five deer, 
twenty-two does and three bucks, that each year since 1915 the kill of 
legal male deer in that surrounding territory has been approximately 
250 bucks, and that this season will undoubtedly be about 300 to 325 
legal deer. I have noticed sportsmen assume a nonchalant air in¬ 
dicative of “you must show me.” Just as the deer have increased at 
this preserve, so they are increasing at practically every preserve in 
the State. 
During the past year no new sanctuaries of the regular type were 
created, largely because of difficulties experienced in securing proper 
lands under conditions that would justify such action. In the western 
part of the State we have been experiencing practically everything of 
an adverse nature imaginable and since there were no State forest 
lands worth while the only hope of getting preserves in that section 
seemed to lie in either renting or purchasing the necessary lands. 
When the bill authorizing the Game Commission to purchase suitable 
lands out of the Resident Hunters’ License Fund to be set aside and 
used perpetually for Game Preserves was introduced the sportsmen 
of the State at once got behind the proposition and the bill went 
through the Legislature without opposition. Since that time con¬ 
siderable trouble has been experienced in locating the various owners 
of lands that would be suitable for our purpose, or if located it has 
frequently taken many weeks for them to decide upon a price for 
their holdings. Some of them first want to test for oil or gas or 
minerals, so that getting suitable tracts rounded up for purchase has 
proved to be a slow proposition. The death of our* Chief, Dr. Kalbfus, 
who at that very time was going over suitable lands to be purchased 
for this purpose, has also considerably delayed matters along this 
line, but indications now are that two or three suitable tracts can be 
closed up definitely in the near future and several of the tracts now 
under lease can be purchased outright at nominal figures. 
With the twenty-four regular preserves we now have and the ad¬ 
ditional sanctuaries that can I believe be established in portions of 
the Commonwealth where suitable lands are available I see no reason 
why we should not during the coming year increase our sanctuaries 
to a total of forty. 
In addition to these regular game preserves each in charge of an 
officer we now have six Auxiliary State Game Preserves, which tracts 
vary in size from five hundred acres to two thousand acres, and fre¬ 
quently include agricultural as well as brush and forest lands. These 
smaller sanctuaries are especially adapted to preserve and increase 
small game of all kinds and if advantageously placed I am sure will 
very materially assist in solving the question of perpetuating and 
increasing the ruffed grouse, wild turkey, etc. in the portions of the 
Commonwealth where situated. Under the new Auxiliary State 
ft 
