Jan. i8 , 1913 
FOREST AND STREAM 
75 
The Buck Law. 
The Fur Seal Herd. 
BY GEO. BIRD GRINNELL. 
A CONDITION of the treaty with Great Britain, 
Russia and Japan, by which pelagic sealing was 
abolished, is that the United States shall turn 
over to Great Britain and to Japan, each, 15 per 
cent, of its land catch of.seals. When the-treaty 
was entered into, it was naturally supposed that 
a limited number of seals would be killed an¬ 
nually, as may be done without injury to the 
herd. On the other hand, an effort was made 
in Congress to practically repudiate the treaty 
by suspending all killing for the entire life of 
the treaty, which would have led to the resump¬ 
tion of pelagic sealing. The final compromise, 
providing for no killing for a period of five 
years, violates the spirit of the treaty, since it 
is impossible to justify such suspension to the 
other powers. 
It is believed that in 1913 there will be 
12,000 surplus bull seals, of which at least 6.000 
must be allowed to grow up. In five years this 
would make a total of 30,000 adult bulls. But 
in 1912 not more than i 500 bulls were needed, 
and in 1917 there will be no need for more than 
twice that number. For every bull required, 
therefore, there will be nine for which there is 
no place, and which will spend their time fight¬ 
ing through the rookeries and causing a great 
destruction of young pups. 
Unimportant from one point of view, and 
yet deserving of consideration, is the money loss 
which the preservation of these 30,000 unneeded 
bulls will entail. Each of these at three years 
old would produce a skin worth $40 to the Gov¬ 
ernment, but when the bull has passed the proper 
time for killing, his skin becomes valueless and 
he must live out his natural life. These 30000 
skins then will be lost; in other words, $1,200,- 
000 is to be thrown away. It is suggested also 
that the cutting off of the supply of seal skins 
for five years is likely to render this fur un¬ 
fashionable, and there will be little or no market 
for seal skins when the Government again be¬ 
comes a seller in igi8 and 1919. 
All expert authorities recognize that the sus¬ 
pension of land killing—which means the killing 
of the surplus males, since the females are never 
killed—can do only harm to the herd. It delays 
the re-establishment of the seal herd, it is waste¬ 
ful of money, it harms the United States and 
the other parties to the treaty, and it deprives 
mankind at large of a useful fur. The suspen¬ 
sion of killing brings with it no advantage of 
any sort. 
This provision of the law ought to be re¬ 
pealed. 
Bacon and Dumplings in Camp, p 
BY S. M. NEAL. 
For bacon and dumplings in camp, fill a 
hot frying-pan with sliced bacon and fry till 
crisp, then remove, add boiling water till the 
pan is half full. Make a stiff batter with two 
cups of flour, four teaspoons of baking powder, 
one tablespoon of grease, and water enough to 
make it the proper stiffness. Drop the batter 
into the bacon gravy and cook till done. After 
the dumplings are cooked, thicken the gravy a 
little with flour and serve with the crisp bacon. 
This has proved a very popular dish with camp¬ 
ing parties and takes but a short time to pre¬ 
pare. 
“Common sense, economy and public safety 
demand that the so-called ‘Buck Law,’ prohibit¬ 
ing the killing of female deer and fawns at all 
times, be enacted in every State where it is not 
now in force.” 
This statement was elicited from John B. 
Burnham, president of the American Game Pro¬ 
tective and Propagation Association of New 
York, in connection with the present agitation 
in favor of a buck law in Michigan, which 
George Shiras, 3d, one of the foremost natu¬ 
ralists of the country, has been advocating. 
“In connection with Dr. Fisher and Pro¬ 
fessor Beal, of the Biological Survey,’' Mr. Burn¬ 
ham continued: “Mr. Shiras has prepared a 
table which shows in a striking way the advan¬ 
tages of the buck law in increasing the number 
of deer which can properly be killed each year. 
These figures show that if twenty-four does and 
twenty-four bucks, age two years, be protected 
for ten years, allowing annually thereafter an 
average of one and one-half fawns per pair, 
there would be 1,560 of each sex, or a total of 
3,120 deer in the herd. Taking the same number 
to start with, and shooting 50 per cent, of each 
year’s bucks and does indiscriminately, the herd 
would be exterminated at the end of the same 
period, and only 155 deer would have been killed. 
If we shoot only 50 per cent, of the bucks, we 
will have killed 781 of them in ten years, a like 
number will remain, and there will be a breed¬ 
ing herd of 1,562 does. 
“These figures should convince even the 
game hogs of the advisability of protecting does. 
The only people who can be impervious to the 
argument which they present are those who 
would like to exterminate our deer immediately 
with no thought for the rights of future gener¬ 
ations, and the wishes of such persons should 
hardly be considered by legislative bodies. 
“To put the matter in a way with which 
everyone is familiar, our herds of deer present 
to the people who own them the same problems 
that owners of cattle have to face. In any one 
year a stockman could realize more heavily by 
killing and marketing all his cattle. However, 
as such a course would put him out of business 
or force him to lose his profit in the purchase 
of new animals, he keeps the greater part of 
his cows and disposes of most of the bulls. Any 
other method would be considered insane if 
followed by a private owner, yet there are still 
many States in which the public owners of deer 
pursue the disastrous course of killing the males 
and females alike. 
“Besides the figures given by Mr. Shiras 
in support of the buck law, we have the practical 
experience of more than half the deer hunting 
States of the Union, in which it is now in force, 
and in every case this tends to establish the 
accuracy of the theoretical estimate. When the 
law was enacted in Vermont, the deer had been 
practically exterminated in that State, and it was 
necessary to import them. At the present time 
more deer are killed in Vermont than in any 
area of similar size in North America, and that 
this is so is due entirely to the protection of does. 
“But it is not only for economic reasons 
ELK IN Jackson’s hole. 
