The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1909-12-18
APPROVES PRESENT LAW
Game Warden Chase Thinks There
Are $4,000 Deer in Vermont.

ARE OOgUUU OecF III vermont
County Game Warden Harry Chase
has written a letter to the Manches-
ter Journal as follows:
Editor Journal: AS have had
many requests from friends of game
protection in Manchester to make
known my present views on the deer
question | desire to do so publicly
through the columns of the Journal.
First, how has the doe law worked?
In my opinion it has worked very sat
isfactorily and has fully demonstrate
ed the truth of the assertions made
by its advocates. In the first place
the slaughter is about what we eX-
pected-between $500 and 5000 deer.
Now, what proportion does this num-
Der bear to all the deer inhabiting
the state. Over a year ago Senator
r. c. Orvis of Manchester asked me
if | thought it possible to get con
servatiye idea of the number of deer
in this County and State | have
worked on that problem steadily
since and am now ready to give my
estimate. In the first place | have
studied the Virginia or white tailed
deer for over 90 years | have con-
suited Cation. Roosevelt, Merriam,
Hornady and Dyke-the best au-
thorities in this country who have
written books on the subject Then,
have studied the deer in several
geological parks and for the past six
years observed them in the wilds of
Vermont. BY using the knowledge
thus acquired, / have made my cen
"a
seen OF deer and their signs on the
snow all over the county and from
inquiries of persons living close to
our deer territory. In my opinion
there is probably about 5000 deer in
this County and about $4,000 in the
State at the present time Using my
census of Bennington County as
basis for my estimate of the total
number in the State there are now
about 10 deer left for every one that
was shot during the past open sea
son. What proportion was killed?
Just about one-third of the total in
crease for the year-in other words
there are TWO fawns left for each
deer killed. Now, IL we have mild
winter and the deer increase at the
normal rate next spring there will be
| born close to 10000 fawns for 1910.
OF course. a hard winter will kill a
| large number dogs slaughter many
more and others are lost by being
| killed unlawfully and by accident.
/ Allowing for all this, the increase
/ will be at least 10000 strong, healthy
deer for 1910. Should the present
law be repealed? / think not. I
! have been in the woods constantly
since the present snow came on and
have found signs of over three
/ times as many deer as last winter
| even after the dreadful slaughter
| of October II was a sensible thing
/ to protect the does when we first
! started to propagate deer-in fact it
was absolutely necessary to do so. II
| is just like one raising poultry At
| the start no one would think of kill
! ing the hens. but after the yards
! are full il is immaterial which sex is
! taken. So with our deer We now
| have Vermont so thoroughly stocked.
the killing of the does viii not inter-
! fere much with keeping the number
| about up to where it is. Does seeing
| the horns protect the hunter? In my
! opinion that theory is snare and
! delusion / have searched the records
/ of the different states and | find as
many accidents have occurred in
! killed as where deer Of either sex are
/ taken.
Harry Chase, County Warden