Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1909-12-22
TERMS
VERMONT DEER.

The following letter from the Man.
chester Journal will be of interest to
every man who hunted in Orleans
county this season. It is from q
source that ought to be reliable.
Editor Journal -
AS have had many requests from
friends of game protection In Man.
chester to make known my present
views on the deer question | desire to
do 80 publicly through the columns of
the Journal. First how has the doe
law worked? In my opinion it has
worked very satisfactorily and has
fully demonstrated the truth of the
assertion made by its advocates. In
the first place the slaughter Is about
what we expected-between a, 500 and
5000 deer. Now, what proportion
does this number bear to all the deer
inhabiting the State. over year
ago Senator E. G.. Orvis of Manches.
ter asked me if thought it possible
to get conservative idea of the num-
Der of deer in this county and State.
have worked on that problem stead
lily since and am now ready to give
my estimate. In the first place l
have studied the Virginia or white
tailed deer for over 20 years. have
consulted Cation, Roosevelt. Merriam,
Hornady and Van Dyke-the best au-
torities in this country who have writ
ten hooks on the subject. linen,
have studied the deer in several 20
illogical parks and for the past Sin
years observed them in the wllds OF
Vermont. By using the knowledge
thus acquired, / have made my census
principally from what | have seen O
deer and their signs on the snow al
over the county and from inquiries o
persons living close to our deer ter
ritory. In my opinion there is proba
bly, about 5000 deer in this Count.
and about $4,000 in the state at tn
present time. Using my census
Bennington County as basis for m
estimate of the total number In tn
State there are now about III deer lei
for every one that was shot durln
the past open season. What proper
tion was killed? Just about one-thlr
of the total increase for the year
En- other words there are two faWn
left for each deer killed. Now II w
have a mild winter and the dee
increase at the normal rat
next spring there will be Dor
close to 10000 fawns for 1910. Q
course hard winter will kill larg
number, dogs slaughter many NOR
and others are lost by being kille
unlawfully and by accident. ALLOW
ing for all this, the increase will be
least 10, 900 strong, healthy deer #
1910. Should the present law be T.
pealed? I think not. l have been
the woods constantly since the pre-
ent snow came on and / have four
signs of over three times as mar
deer as last winter even after tf
"dreadful slaughter" of October.
was sensible thing to protect tt
does when we first started to prop
gate deer in fact it was absolute
necessary to do s 1t is just Ill
one raising poultry. At the start
one would think of killing the hen
but after the yards are full 1T is II
material which sex is taken. So wi
our deer. We now have Vermont
througbIy stocked, the killing of t
does will not interfere much wi
keeping the number about up to whe
it is. Does seeing the horns prote
the hunter? In my opinion that the
ry is snare and delusion. | ha
searched the records of the differe
states and l find as many accider
have occurred in states where or
bucks are lawfully killed as whe
deer Of either sex are taken.
HARRY CHASE,
County Warden