The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1909-04-10
THE VERMONT DEER LAW
Writer in National Sportsman Dis
cusses New Law.

cusses New Law.
The following from the April num-
Der of the National Sportsman is writ
ten by a veteran deer hunter whose
opinion is at least as valuable as
some that have been expressed on the
subject
Editor National Sportsman:
In the February number of National
Sportsman is an article by some one
in Rutland, Vermont, signed Native"
This article is quite amusing to a
person who understands the situation
and knowc the true facts relating
thereto. 1t brings to ones mind the
old proverb, where ignorance is
bliss" etc.
have no doubt that the person who
wrote that TRADE of abuse and mud
singing over the representatives at
Montpelier, is sanguine in all that he
writes and actually believes he is on
the right track, but he was never
more mistaken in his life.
have hunted deer for a great
many years in various parts of the
country and being a close observer
of nature and interested in all wild
game that walks, flies or swims,
ought to have learned some things
about deer.
In the first place law that lega-
Lies the shooting of bucks only is a
deplorable one, whenever and where
ever it is passed as myself and hun
dreds of reputable gentlemen who
hunt deer and thoroughly understand
their habits, can testify. II is an ex-
terminating law in every sense of the
word, especially If continued for sew
eral years in succession. Even now
the people who go into Maine each
year after Moose land | have no
doubt the commissioners themselves)
are at their wits end TO know what
TO do with the moose law. They have
legalized the shooting of bulls only,
for few years, and then only bulls
past a certain age, and it is positive
fact that there are mighty few fully
matured bulls left in the State. Con-
sequently there are a great many
barren COWS
This is also true of the deer in Yer
mont. Not over one-half of the deer
in the section in which ! hunt (Which
by the way, is Rutland County,,
reared young last year, or, If they did,
they were not to be found during the
hunting season. In fact. | saw only
one fawns track during the fiye days
hunting and tramping over a large
territory in as good deer country
as the State affords, and | know like a
book every inch of Vermont's deer
territory. for | was born and lived
until of age in the midst of 1t, and
have tramped over a goodly part OF 1t
each year since.
This was not the case the first or
second year they had an open season
In Vermont, when one-half the tracks
one saw were made by fawns. NOW
there is just one way in which Maine
can regain its once good moose hunt
ing, and that is to put closed season
on all moose for time, and then
make shorter open season and allow
a person to shoot one moose regard
less of sex or age.
In this same February number OF
Sportsman the game commissioners
OF Maine have a report, and mention
is made of the large number OF fawns
that we're shot last fall, and that
law to protect fawns. hope that
the deep thinking people in Maine
and the men who make the laws. will
never pass such foolish law, think
ing it will protect the deer and per-
peuuate this noble game animal, for
there is little doubt that the hunters
who shot these fawns would have
hunted until they had killed the same
number of matured does and bucks II
there had been faws law last year,
and the Lord only knows how many
fawns they would have shot besides
and kept quiet about. II is almost
when a deer is running in
the woods TO tell whether It is
fawn or an old deer, a buck or doe.
lt is equally as hard to designate
them IL one can see only part
of their body when they are standing
in the thick brush Now ii those
same hunters who shot those fawns
had not shot them. but had hunted
until they knew positively bith its sex
of does or bucks, even if they we're
men who would never shoot "A deer
knew positively both its sex
and age. They would have done dou-
BILE the damage in eXterminating the
deer in Maine than they did by shoot
ing fawns that stood a much greater
chance of being killed by lynx and
bob cats. or by starving to death dur
ing the winter, than the full grown
deer; and besides, for propagating
the full grown deer are
twice as valuable.
Regarding one buck serving twenty
deer, that may be possible, though nos
probable, If the does were all yarded
up like domestic cattle, but when they
are scattered over a large territory,
it is simply impossible.
Native" also says. The idiotic con
tingent came near passing a bill to
shoot fawns." and no doubt throws up
his hands in horror at such a thought.
If they had passed a bill that way, it
woull have been far better for the deer
supply of the state. deer is deer,
ord ff a norcop ie entitled RI shoot