54 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Jan. 9, 1909. 
Deer Protection. 
Norwich, N. Y., Jan. 2 .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: It was my intention to offer the fol¬ 
lowing for consideration at the annual meeting 
of the Fish, Game and Forest League, on the 
loth and nth of the present month, but I was 
unable to be in Syracuse on those days. 
One looks in vain through the splendid pro¬ 
gramme of this convention and through the page 
of questions and suggestions which accompany 
it for even a mention of the only large game 
hunted in this State, and the last we ever will 
have in the Adirondacks. 
It is over forty years since I hung up my first 
deer, and I have been more or less active each 
year since in trying to protect and preserve 
them. I had the pleasure of working with four 
others until the use of dogs for hunting deer 
was made illegal. That helped, and for a time 
deer increased, but it is now claimed by some 
that they are decreasing again. I now beg to 
offer three suggestions for consideration by our 
legislative and law committee of the League: 
First: That the open season for deer in the 
Adirondacks be extended two weeks; namely, 
from the 31st of October until the 15th of 
November; provided, however, that only deer 
with horns on them may be killed after the 31st 
of October. On the face of it that does not 
sound like protection and preservation; let us 
consider and compare actual results. 
In six years’ hunting, beginning with 1879 and 
ending with 1884, four hunters during the last 
three weeks of November in those years killed 
fifty-five deer, of which forty-six were bucks and 
nine does, with only seven small deer in the 
whole fifty-five. Last October seven hunters in 
two weeks on the same ground killed ten deer, 
of which seven were does, and there was only 
one fair sized deer in the ten, he weighing only 
160 pounds, not a large deer. 
I know these statements are true, as I was 
one of the hunters and kept the records. 
For 1907 the Forest, Fish and Game Commis¬ 
sion reports 2,093 deer shipped out of the Adi¬ 
rondacks and gives a list of what is termed 
“notable shipments”; that is, of large deer 
weighing over 200 pounds. How many do you 
guess? Only thirty large deer in all. Why were 
so many large deer killed years ago and so many 
small ones now? The reasons are easy to find. 
When hunting was allowed in November on the 
snow, only large deer were hunted. A glance 
at a track in the snow tells at once whether it 
was made by a large or small deer and whether 
’oy a buck or doe. Hunters much prefer to 
follow the larger track and shoot a buck. 
Another important reason is that the bucks are 
not moving about in October, but lie on the high¬ 
lands and in open woods where they cannot be 
successfully hunted. The does and fawns and 
other small deer are then in the lowlands and 
can be killed by still-hunting or by driving. 
There is a growing sentiment or public opinion 
against “driving” as now practiced; namely, by 
putting a number of hunters at different places 
where deer are liable to pass and then sending 
two or more so-called guides to bark like dogs, 
shout, pound trees with clubs and make other 
noises to start the deer running in hopes those 
who are watching may get shots. This method 
of hunting should be made illegal, especially if 
the open season be extended to the 15th of 
November. In November, which is the rutting 
time, the bucks and large does are almost con¬ 
stantly running and can be hunted to the ex¬ 
clusion of small deer. 
Nearly every guide and hunter wishes a large 
buck at the close of the season for use in his 
family. It is better for him and much better 
to kill off the large bucks and leave the small 
deer and does to grow and replenish the moun¬ 
tains with deer. 
This brings us to the second suggestion: That 
any person in this State who has legally taken 
venison at the end of the open season may file 
a proper statement and keep the venison for use 
in his private family. Something as follows 
might answer: 
Provided, however, that any person residing 
in this State who shall lawfully posses any deer 
or part of a deer, may keep and consume the 
meat thereof in his or her own family by serv¬ 
ing a written notice on the nearest game pro¬ 
tector, or assistant game protector, or on the 
town or county clerk of the town or county in 
which he or she resides on or before the last 
day of the open season for killing deer, which 
notice shall state as nearly as may be when and 
where said deer was killed, the sex thereof, and 
the number of pounds of venison then in his or 
her possession, and that the same is to be kept 
and used in his or her own family. 
Game may be held by dealers in the close sea¬ 
son by giving bond as provided by law against 
its sale. Why not let the man who kills a deer 
keep the meat thereof for use in his family? 
Other States with rigid game laws allow it. If 
we sell a man a license to kill a deer and he 
does so on the last day of the open season, is 
it just or right or constitutional to fine him $100 
if he has any of the venison in his home six 
days later? He should have the legal right to 
keep and use it for the support of his family. 
Venison is at its best in November and yet 
should not be used until a week or ten days 
after it is killed. Many men do keep legally- 
taken venison, even later than Christmas time, 
for use in their families, and game protectors 
know of it. Why not make it legal for them 
to do so? 
The third suggestion is: It should be made 
unlawful to have firearms of any kind in pos¬ 
session in the Adirondack Park and adjoining 
counties during the close season for deer; pro¬ 
vided, however, that a citizen may have fire¬ 
arms of his or her own in his or her own per¬ 
manent house or residence, but not in lumber 
camps or camps of any kind, nor in temporary 
lodges, tents or buildings of resort for hunters, 
campers, fishermen, lumbermen, or any other 
persons, nor in the fields or woods, or on the 
waters within the Adirondack Park and adjoin¬ 
ing counties. 
(a) A law making it unlawful to have guns 
in the Adirondack Park and adjoining counties 
should specifically cover every place, aside from 
the permanent house in which the owner of a 
gun or guns resides. It is thought our State 
laws define a permanent house as one built on 
a wall or underpinning in a permanent man¬ 
ner. (?) 
(b) The open season for deer, foxes, rab¬ 
bits and other game; for grouse, woodcock, 
ducks and other game birds should be at one 
and the same time, in order to have no excuse 
for having a gun outside a permanent house 
or residence during the close season for deer. 
(c) It is highly important that the game pro¬ 
tectors be given absolute authority to seize any 
and all rifles, shotguns, revolvers, pistols or fire¬ 
arms of any and all kinds or make found out¬ 
side of the permanent house in which the citizen 
—and this bars out aliens—who owns the guns 
resides; and that full and definite provision be 
made for confiscating all firearms so seized, be¬ 
sides which the person offending, upon convic¬ 
tion, shall be made to pay a fine and costs of 
prosecution or imprisoned; and the having in 
possession of any firearm outside of the owner’s 
permanent house or residence, during the close 
season for deer, within the Adirondack Park 
and adjoining counties, shall be prima facie evi¬ 
dence against the person in whose possession 
such firearms may be found of an unlawful act. 
(d) A like law, covering the whole year, 
might be enacted against jacklights, other arti¬ 
ficial lights, snares and traps. 
Twenty-five or more years ago deer were 
scarce in Maine. Now that State has more deer 
than all the other Northern States east of the 
Mississippi combined and allows hunting from 
the ist of October until the 15th of December, 
eleven weeks on snow. 
Thirty-three years ago the Adirondacks were 
well stocked with deer. Now they are scarce 
and the hunting season is only six weeks on bare 
ground. Why this great difference? Because 
deer are protected in Maine and not in New 
York. If they were, and all illegal killing was 
stopped, we should soon have more deer than 
needed for all legal hunting if our hunting sea¬ 
son lasted three months. 
Since lumbering began in the Adirondacks, 
deer have been killed at will to furnish camps 
with meat. Formerly it was only in the winter; 
now lumbermen are in the mountains every day 
of the year and kill deer all the year round. 
When venison gets strong and rank from balsam 
and spruce eaten by the deer when the snow is 
deep, it is ground up with pork and beef, highly 
seasoned and fed to the men as sausages. Some 
lumber camps are furnished with hunters to 
kill deer, but this is not as common as formerly 
because most men who now work at lumbering 
have guns with them and know how to hunt. 
The Forest, Fish and Game Commission costs in 
salaries and expenses, nearly if not quite, $200,000 
per year. We have eighty-two game protectors 
and sixteen of them are in Adirondack counties 
where our deer are, yet the deer are not pro¬ 
tected as they should be. It is an open secret 
that deer are killed all the year round; that 
wherever lumbering is carried on summer and 
winter the deer are nearly exterminated; that 
the game protectors could stop this if there was 
an earnest desire to do so; and that if not stop¬ 
ped in the near future our stock of deer will 
be nearly used up. 
There are men in the Adirondacks who have 
never giyen up hounding deer, and who have 
fine packs of hounds to-day. There are others 
in that region who serve venison out of season 
on hotel tables under the names of “Mt. Marcy 
veal” and “mountain lamb” and defy our game 
department. Men within hearing of my voice 
know this is true, and some of them could name 
the men who year after year openly defy the 
protectors and ask them what they can or will 
do about it, adding that they have money and 
influence and will fight any effort made to stop 
