St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1877-09-14
The Maine Bear Crop.
IFrOm the N. Y. Times.l

Last year the state of Maine paid
81, ,725 for bears. AS five dollars was
paid for each bear, almost any one who
has a moderate command of slate can
ascertain that $40 bears were paid for.
Whether the state required any more
bears, or whether the supply fell short,
we are not informed, but it is probable
that if enough additional bears to make
up the number to round six hundred
had been offered they would have been
accepted.
There exists, even among very intel
ligent men, an extraordinary miscon-
ception of the object of the so-called
bounty law, under which the state of
Maine pays five dollars for every bear,
which is brought to the chief of the bear
bureau. 1t is actually believed by these
misguided persons that the aim of the
law is to extirpate bears. 1t is only
necessary, however, to study the effect
of the statute in order to fully compre-
hend its true object. 1t is designed to
protect and foster bear culture, and its
influence in this direction is far more
efficient than that of any game law
couched in the usual manner could pos
sibly be. Why Maine takes so warm
an interest in her local bears is matter
of conjecture. Whatever may be the
reason, however, it is very certain that
so long as the bounty law is enforced
the production of bears will be one of
the leading industries of the state.
Had the Maine statesmen, in order to
preserve bears from rapid destruction,
passed law forbidding the slaughter
of the animals except at certain speci-
fed seasons, we all know what the re-
suit would have been. The law would
have had no terrors for the Indians and
hunters of the wilderness, while the
urban sportsman who, instigated by
the Rev. Mr.. Murray and other profes
sors of sylvan mysteries, visits the
Maine woods in summer, would have
shot at bears and disturbed their nerv-
Gus systems all the more gladly if to
poor shooting were added the zest of IA
safe violation of law. Thus the bears
would gradually have been shot and
annoyed out of existence, and in few
years would have become as scarce as
the moose and cribou that once roamed
the Adirondack woods.
Determined to protect their bears,
the astute Maine lawn makers devised ii
plan of attaining their object by means
of bounty law, which, while ostensi-
bly, offering a reward for the extermina-
ton of bears, would actually stimulate
their production. A law was made
which offered reward for the scalp of
every bear killed within the limits of
the state. Mark the result. The Maine
farmer soon perceived that to raise
bears for the government would be far
more profitable than to raise any other
crop, whether of vegetable or porciue
nature. The man who raises corn or
pigs makes fair profit when he sells
them, but he cannot be sure of pur-
chaser, and when he does find one he
must necessarily part with his crops
before he receives his money. On the
other hand, the bear cultivatOr is al
ways certain that the state will pay five
dollars for every bear scalp, and that,
in addition, he will retain possession of
| the skin and flesh of the animal. Thus
there is much larger percentage of
profit in bear-raising than there is in
any other branch of agriculture, or OF
stock breeding. Moreover, the bear is
a safe and easy crop. A single pair of
bears will average three cubs yearly,
and are never mOlested by the potato
bug, blasted by prolonged drought or
mildewed by dampness. 1t is not
strange that as soon as the true purport
of the bounty law was grasped by the
Maine farmer he earnestly set about the
cultivation of bears. Owing to that
innate delicacy which renders the New
England farmer so prOverbially shy and
modest, he built his bear pens in Sc
cluded places and kept his own counsel
as to the business until he was ready to
carry his bears to market. While near
ly every really enterprising farmer is
now generally understood to raise at
least one annual bear, it is alleged that
in remote counties men having the
command of capital have established
large bear nurseries, which turn out a
score or two of bears every year. Thus,
although in New York, Vermont and