The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1921-04-04

"A Nelu Meat Supply.

Ane Wnite-taat oeer, which In n.
BEST and most widely distributes =
the American deer, lives vhoi,s
twigs and leaves. The mooss x..
on the bark Of trees. Neiths, =. !
them Injuries the forest for timas
purposes. Neither Of them t.s.
an ounce Of food away from ~
cattle and sheep which NAV ~.
there. In other words, ii ali Of -
timber lands were stocked Ia -.
! racity with deer and moose ~
would be just that much ADJ -
the nations meat supply Vithos.
cutting down any other SUNNY =
anything. and without any erns,ss
except that Of affording the as,
mails the necessary protection Ts A
would not be nearly as ere., :.
the expense Of raising cattle a.
sheep. saa
! This plan is no pipe dream /,
many parts Of Europe deer h.,.
long been kept at the highest ro.
sible state Of abundance for n.
sake OF the meat supply. But i
Europe the wooded areas are a
small in proportion to the ronut,
tioh that this meat supply does NJ.
amount 10 much. In the midsi.
ages. when the population Of 81.
rope was much smaller, yeniso,
was both cheaper and more Com
mon than beef and mutton, as N.
late David Z. Lantz of the biolosi
cal survey pointed out in his hulIs.
tin on deer farming. In the United
States. the wooded areas are enor.
NOUS. and the american people ara
wasting an enormous potential
meat supply by not keeping them
stocked with the animals for which
they furnish natural range. This
was ally figured out long ago by tbs
well known naturalist, William +
Hornaday.
Hornaday's Opinion.
There are counties within 80
miles of New York City" he wro,a
that could, under adequate man.
agement, be made to yield annually
more pounds Of venison than q
beef or mutton, and this could be
accomplished by the state without
the expenditure of more than S per
cent of the value of the venison "
He goes on TO say that the wild
forest lands of the United States
could easily produce two million
deer a year. This would mean sew.
eral pounds Of meat for each In.
habitant of the country.
| And he deals presumably with the
deer alone. The much larger moose
has a more restricted range, but
thrives all over the northern hall
of the wooded country. The DO.
tential value of moose as Q source
of food is enormous" says Samuel
Merrill in his work on the subject.
These scientists do not suggest
that our wild woodlands be con-
verified into a great barnyard where
these animals would be halfdomes.
ticated. They do not propose per.
manently to stop hunting. Far from
it. The necessary steps are flint
to protect the animals for a-tern
of years until they have become ~
proximately as abundant 10 The
range warrants in any given local.
| ity. They would then be protected
in such way as to keep them at
this point of abundance. 1t is prob
able that setting aside small areas
as game sanctuaries, where no
hunting would be allowed at any
time, would be one of the best pto-
Elective measures, as it has already.
proved to be IN the Rockies. Their
would be 10 times as much hunting
, as now because there would be 10
times as much game. The scientists
are able to estimate accurately what
is the natural increase of the game
in a region, and they would know
, by the licenses how many hunIsfs
went out. Thus the annual killtg
could easily be limited TO the nat.
ural increase and the game kept
abundant. The citizen who wants
to go out and kill his own winter
, meat supply probably would b
| first taken care of. and if there VA
! surplus, this would be taken bJ
market hunters. THE time ma!
yet come when a resident Of New
, York City will be able to go hunt
; ing and lay in a winter supply o.
, jerked veRison Just as his pioneer
. ing forefathers did.