898 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Dec. 3, 1910. 
The Massachusetts Deer Season. 
Boston, Mass., Nov. 26 .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: The six days’ open season on deer in 
Massachusetts closed at sunset to-night, bring¬ 
ing relief to many who have lived in dread of 
the sacrifice of human lives and to not a few 
who have been distressed by the killing of 
fawns and does. The tally of deer reported 
killed on Friday afternoon, as given by the 
clerk of the Fish and Game Commission, was 
668, and it is believed that further reports will 
increase the number to 1,000 for the season. 
It is estimated that Worcester county will be 
found to lead the enrollment with about 260. 
and Franklin county will prove a very close 
second. Hampden, Hampshire and Berkshire 
will show about 150 each. 
So far as known, no hunter has lost his life 
during the week. E. A. Murray, while in the 
woods in Otis, met with serious injury to one 
of his hands by the explosion of his gun, and a 
young man named Sullivan, of Palmer, shot 
himself in the foot. Ralph Gardner, of Lanes- 
boro, was charged by a buck at which he had 
fired and missed. He saved his life by the pro¬ 
tection of a fallen tree. When found, he was 
unconscious but not seriously injured. In 
Templeton eleven deer were killed; in Harvard 
twenty-nine. In the region about Clinton eighty 
were killed, but it is reported that there are 
several large herds left. 
The farmers in that section complain that 
the hunters did as much damage the past week 
as the deer ever did, and they say they will 
wait some years before making a move for an¬ 
other open season. 
Deputy A. M. Nichols, of North Adams, has 
reported sixty to the State Commission. In 
that section it is reported that many wounded 
deer have escaped to the woods. Other animals 
have been shot, among them a wild steer, which 
was shot on Florida Mountain. 
Williamstown hunters got a score, and prob¬ 
ably the largest one killed in that State was 
shot by Harry Beebe in the college town. It 
weighed more than 300 pounds. The open sea¬ 
son on deer has given the clerks in the western 
towns busy times issuing licenses, and probably 
the amount of money derived by the State from 
the sale of licenses wnl be about double what 
it was last year. 
Many sportsmen believe that money derived 
from this source should be expended in a way 
to increase the game. The greatest stumbling 
block in the way is the uncertainty felt by many 
as to how that end may be best secured. One 
thing is sure, the majority of the sportsmen are 
not anxious for an increase of pheasants, nor 
have they as yet become convinced that the 
Hungarian partridge is to prove a desirable ad¬ 
dition to our game birds. The one bird they 
want above all others is the ruffed grouse for all 
sections of the State, and the bobwhite for the 
southern half of the western section and the 
whole of the eastern portion of the State. 
Twenty years ago many of our legislators were 
inclined to regard hunting for game as a fad 
of certain men of means rather than as a means 
of recreation for the over-worked clerks and 
other indoor men. In most of the States, 
owing to the many educational influences that 
have been doing their work, a great change has 
been wrought, and in Massachusetts the Legis¬ 
lature has stood ready for several years to 
make such appropriations as were needed to 
improve the supply of food and game fish and 
to increase the numbers of all useful birds. It 
has cost the State large sums of money to pro¬ 
tect her deer during the last dozen years. This 
money has come out of the pockets of all tax¬ 
payers, and the sustenance of the animals has 
been derived from the farms. 
Everybody has an interest in these animals. 
There is no doubt but that from one-third to 
one-half as many wounded deer are now suffer¬ 
ing in the woods as have been killed. No 
wonder many people are distressed by this state 
of things—just as they were last fall in South¬ 
ern New Hampshire, after the close of the open 
season. This experiment of a brief open sea¬ 
son was established in response to the de¬ 
mands of the farmers. If the farmers must be 
relieved of the so-called nuisance of deer, they 
should find some way by which the deer may 
be exterminated in a way fair to the general 
public and not calculated to distress people 
who are humane 'in their feelings toward the 
brute creation. It is up to the officials and the 
farmers to revise our game laws, so far as they 
relate to deer. H. H. Kimball. 
Game Abundant. 
Raleigh, N. C., Nov. 25 .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: In early October I assured the hunt¬ 
ing folk that there was an unusually large 
amount of game. The shooting since the season 
opened shows the accuracy of the statement. 
This is the result of better enforcement of the 
laws regulating shooting, and to a greater 
amount of public opinion in favor of it in many 
counties. Take this (Wake) county, for ex¬ 
ample. The season for quail did not open until 
Nov. 15, and very little was done in violation 
of the law. Here no hunting with gun or dog 
is allowed in the closed season. The result is 
a wonderful increase in the number of quail, rab¬ 
bits, squirrels, opossums, etc. One hunter got 
eight possums one night, but one in Rockingham 
county went him three better. The fact that 
game has increased so notably has arrested the 
attention even of the pot-hunter. 
Many sportsmen from the North are now in 
the State. Over one hundred of them have shoot¬ 
ing places. Some own quite a large acreage; 
others have small places, but lease privileges of 
shooting over farms, usually paying the State 
tax on such farm lands which are then preserved 
for them. In such counties as Granville, Pear¬ 
son, Caswell, Guilford, Chatham, Alamance, 
Rowan, Iredell. Cumberland, Moore, Richmond, 
Lincoln, Catawba and Cleveland, this has been 
quite a custom for a number ef years. The 
State shellfish commission, just in from a tour 
through the North Carolina sounds, says it finds 
oysters more abundant this season than usual, 
and that the early shooting for ducks, brant and 
geese is quite good. As yet there has been no 
cold weather. There have been some frosty 
mornings and twice a little ice formed, but many 
flowers are yet in bloom. Fred A. Olds. 
Norristown Fish and Game Association. 
The annual meeting and banquet of this club 
was held in the house of the Norristown Auto¬ 
mobile Club in Jeffersonville, Pa., last night. 
Hunting Casualties 
Sportsmen generally will be interested in the 
table here printed, showing the accidents to hun¬ 
ters which have been recorded in New York 
State during the past six years. The figures are 
furnished by the Forest, Fish and Game Com¬ 
mission, which annually collects them for its re¬ 
port. 
♦Mistaken 
for Deer. 
..x 
iThro’ Carelessness 
or Accident. 
r- --—;- c. -- -1 Other 
1 ear. Killed. Injured. Killed. Injured. Causes. Total. 
1905 . 5 1 4 4 ' 3 
1906 . 2 1 3 3 0 
1907 . 5 3 8 3 0 
1908 . 0 1 3 3 0 
1909 . 1 1 4 7 0 
1910 . 3 3 13 6 0 
17 
9 
19 
7 
13 
25 
Total. 16 
10 
35 
26 
90 
*In the Adirondack region. 
|A11 over the State, chiefly bird and rabbit hunting. 
It will be noticed that the number of hunters 
killed or injured is very small in proportion to 
the great number of those who annually go a- 
field. Particularly is this true as to deer hunt¬ 
ing. In fact, it might well be said that these 
accidents form a negligible quantity in any argu¬ 
ment that may arise as to this particular form 
of sport. Those who have been advocating a 
return to hounding as a necessary preventive of 
deer accidents will scarcely be able to base their 
plea on the official figures. Indeed, it does not 
appear that the annual outcry as to deer hunting 
accidents has been justified, as it is very appar¬ 
ent that the popular idea as to the number of 
hunters killed or injured in any one year in 
this form of sport has been greatly exaggerated. 
The figures further show that by far the 
greater number of accidents occur among hun¬ 
ters of birds, duck, rabbits or other small game. 
1 hirteen were killed and six injured during the 
past season in this wing of the army of sports¬ 
men. Many of those who lost their lives were 
killed by the careless handling of their own fire¬ 
arms. Altogether the record is a valuable one 
and well worth the consideration of every sports¬ 
man with a view to improving the conditions on 
the danger line. 
Gone Away. 
“Somebody,” declares the Perth Amboy (N. 
J.) Chronicle, “should seek an injunction to pre¬ 
vent the purchase by the State of any more 
Hungarian partridge. Five thousand of these 
imported birds were liberated several years ago, 
and it is safe to say without fear of contradic¬ 
tion that not two dozen were ever killed. If 
the authorities want to know what became of 
those birds, let them ask some of the Virginia 
game wardens and they will tell how they found 
strange specimens of quail in the fields that were 
more domesticated than native quail, but looked 
something like them. They are the Hungarian 
partridge that the State of New Jersey paid for 
and which migrated as soon as the first cold 
snap came on. 
“If we have too much money in the State 
Treasury that belongs to the fish and game fund, 
raise the wages of the wardens to a living scale 
instead of buying birds that will not become 
acclimated. No less an authority than Henry 
Oldys, of the Bureau of Biological Survey says 
attempts to acclimate foreign birds have always 
been unsuccessful and that they all disappear 
with the autumnal migration.” 
