The Forrest City times., 1906-03-16
C0RB|N PARK GAME
SENSATIONAL TALES CIRSULAT-
 ED ARE UNTRUE.
Professional Forester Superintendent of the Great Preserve-Many Ami mals Shipped to Other Parks
 Skilled Hunters.

I
 As one who lives within half stones throw of Corbin Park. the writer has been somewhat amused but more disgusted at the sensational s:o-- ies which have recently been pub- lished concerning the alleged slaughter of deer. elk and buffalo on this great | New hampshire preserve. These widely circulated stories all agreed ca the main point. which was that the Corbins were killing off their game by wholesale to avoid the expense Of win ter feeding.
 The accounts varied from pale green color to bright yellow, 10 harmonize with tine particular papers in which they were published, but in one par ticular they were exactly alike-they were all utterly false. And what is more there Was no excuse for thes1 fal9ehoods, as the truth was accessi- ble to anyone who cared to print It. And the truth, in q nutshell. is this. | There was less game killed in Corbin 1 Park this winter than has been killed there during any previous winter f0. several years back. The writer knows 1 all the professional hunters and prac- 1 tically every man who has fired gun in the preserve this season; he knows exactly the number of deer, elk and wild boar which have been shipped. and that fewer were shipped this win ter than last, for instance.
 The aforementioned stories woul have been a trifte more plausible had they been circulated last year or the years before This is the mildest win 1 ter New Hampshire has known for q long time. There was practically no snow i'll Corbin Park until the 9th of l February. and consequently the ami, mals. with the exception of the but 1 faloes, have required much less feed l ing than has been necessary in pre- vious years. But even had the winter been severe one, the extensive oper- ations in scientific numbering now 1 going on in the preserve insures the 1 elk and deer an enormous amount 0: browse at no expense to the owners
 Of course there has been a large amount of game shipped from tho 1 park this winter, as usual. Anyone who gives any thought to the subject must realize that given area con- tains just so much grass and so many trees and shrubs and no more, and that. consequently, it will support just so many deer or other animals which rely on the grass and trees aud shrub. for food
 This thinning out" is not done hap. hazard. The superintendent, Mir Blaine s. Viles, is himself profes- sional forester, and well-informed as to the amount of available browse in the preserve each year. He supple ments his own knowledge with ex- pert advice as to the number of ami mals the park will support under exist ing conditions. and then he goes ahead First of all. he makes arrangements to fill the numerous orders which have been 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 in closures, where they are kept until they are needed; then they are put into crates and shipped to direren. parts of the country
 But besides these there are always large orders from the markets in Bos- ton, New York and elsewhere. and such orders are filled by professional hunters, who shoot and bring in th9 game as 1t is needed. These men are expert marksmen, kill almost every thing they fire at, usually with little or no pain 10 the animals themselves l sometimes accompany these men on their hunting trips, and l can testify to their skill with rifle. and in truth they should be sktllul since they get more practice on big game than aImost any other men in America.
 Corbin Park is the largest game pre- serve iE America, and the shooting of the surplus stock which k not shinped alive is one of the practices which tend to make il successful. That i. does cost money. and lot of il. To feel great numbers of boar and buffalo in winter cannot be denied. but there js no connection between this exneosa and the killing of the animals. The biggest expense, by long odds. is ea tailed by the maintenance of the great buffalo herd, yet not a single buffalo has been killed at Corbin Park thi; winter. Some newspapers cannot helo lying, but they mish, at least try to l tell reasonable lies
 ERNEST HAROLD BAYNES
 A Theory Confirmed