The Somerset reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1868-1909, 1906-03-22
Corbin Park Game.
Stories Of Their Slaughter Have Ma
Foundation.


AS one who liyrs within half stones
throw of Corbin Park, the writer has
been somewhat amused but more dis
gusted At he sensational stories which
have recently been published concern.
ing the alleged daughter Of deer. elk
and buffalo On thls gieat New Hamp-
shire ptesefee These widely circulated
stories all agreed on the man point,
which was tai the Gorbins y, Re killing
of their game by wholesale, 10 avoid
the exense Of winter feeding
The accounts varied from ale green
color to bright yellow, to harmonic
with the particular papers in which they
were published, but IN one particular
they we're exactly alike-;hey were AL
utterly false And what Is more there
was no excuse for these falseh3ods, As
the truth Wa accessible to any one who
cared to PRINT it And the truth, IN a
nut-shell, Is thu; There was less game
killed in Corbin Park this winter than
bias been killed there during any pre-
vious winter for several years back. I he
writer knows all the protest. ona hunters,
gun IN the preserve this season; he
knows tx ictly the number Of deer, elk
aud wild boar which have been shipped,
and that fewer were shipped this winter
than last, for instance
The aforementioned stories would
have been trlfs more plauible had
they been circulated last year or the
years before This is the mildest winter
10 Yah IT, h1a "a Inn
time. There WAS practically no snow in
COrkin park until the 9th of February,
and consequently the animals, with the
exceptions o. the bnffaloes, have re
quired much less feeding than has been
necessary in previous years But even
had the winter been a severe one, the
extensive operations in scientific lum-
bering now goiDg on in the preserve, in.
sures the elk and deer an enormous
amount of browse at no expense to the
owners.
OF course there has been large
amount of game shipped from the park
this winter, as usual Any one who
gives auf thought TO the subject must
realize that given area contains just 80
much grass aud SO many trees and hrubs
for food If greater number were al
would be eaten faster than it is pro-
duced, and the final result of such folly
would be starvation for all the animals
This is as true of twenty four thousond
acres as of one, 80 every year the sur
plus animals in Corbin park are removed,
to make room for those to be born the
following spring
This Ginning OUT is not done hap
haZ nj
= Vlles, is himself a professional for
forester, and we'll informed as to the
amount of available browse in the pre-
serve each year He supplements his
own knowledge with expert advice as 70
the number of animals the park will
support under existing conditions, and
then he goes ahead. First of all he
makes arrangements to fill the numerous
orders which have beer received for
live animals required for the stocking Of
other parks and game preserves Many
deer, elk and wild boar are driven or
coaxed from the main park into smaller
Enclosures, where they are kept until
they are needed then they are put into
crates and shipped to different parts
of the country.
But besides these there are alwa
ton, New York, and elsew here, and
such orders are filled by professional
hunters, who shoot and bring in the
game as it IS needed These men are
expert marksmen, kill almost every
thing they fire at. usually with little
or no pain to the animals themselves
l sometimes accompany these men on
their bunting trips and | can testify
h,; l. II h.
they should be skillful since they get
more practice on big game that almost
any other men in America One of them
has a record of about two hundred deer
in season, besides The ELK and boar
which fell 10 his gun | went out with
this man one day, and saw him shoot
seven deer between daybreak and dark.
OF these only one had any suffering to
speak of; the others all died within half
minute of the time they were hit, and
three of them were dead literally Eat
the crack of the gun | make this
statement here because | have had no
time to reply directly TO a little maya
zine concerning this thinning OUT
process in the name of humanity, and
which incidentally criticized me for be-
| ing in favor of shooting made necessary
| by the Ghplu lutIbdee OF animals on
game preserve.
1t is hardly necessary. | think, to
argue in favor of the desirablity OF
| game protection in this country, or t.
/ state that it is desirable that we have
/ fenced game reservations. Generally
speaking, the more successful the
/ game preserve, the faster the animals
/ increase and the more they have to be
thinned out CorbIn Park is the largest
/ game preserve in America. and the
shooting of the surplus stock which is
not shipped alive is one of the practices
which tend TO make it successful
That it does cost money, and lots of il
to feed great numbers of boar and but
falo, in winter, cannot be dt MED, but
there is no connection between this ex
peuse and the killing of the animals
( The biggest expense, by long odds, j,
entailed by the maintaintance of the
great buffalo herd. yet not single buf
falo has been killed at Gorbin Park thii
winter Some newspapers cannot helI
lying but they might at least try 10 tel
reasonable lies.
ERNEST HAROLD BAYNEs
In New Bedford Stan lard. Feb "A, 'O6