UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
FOREST SERVICE 
WASHINGTON 
rihand Game 
Census - 1934                         May 30, 1925. 
Mr. Aldo Leopold, 
Forest Products Laboratory, 
Madison, Wisconsin. 
Dear Mr. Leopold: 
I am sure you will be interested in the enclosed 
tabulation showing by States the number of big game an- 
imals found on the Nation. Forests in 1924. These fig- 
ures of course are by no means absolute and are not grv- 
en out as such. They are estimates by Forest offioers, 
and thwough careful check are believed to be as relia- 
ble as such figures can be made where an actual count 
is not possible. 
We have previously sent out the same information 
for the years 1921 1922, and 1923. We are now start- 
ing a new period, 1924, 1935, and 1926. If you have the 
sheets of former years you will be able to look back 
and compare the figures and inform yourself as to the 
ebb and flow of the big game animals. Our men have now 
had a number of years of making such estimates and re- 
ports and some of the changes shown by the 1924 figures 
are undoubtedly the result of more careful estimates. 
This is especially the case because 1934 was a very dry 
season throughout the entire west, which resulted in 
unusual concentration of game animals around watering 
places and enabled our men to see more of them than in 
ordinary seasons. 
On a country wide basis antelope show a slight 
increase in nearly every National Forest. Nere and 
there herds have decreased from unknown causes. Pach - 
ers and predatory animals undoubtedly have played some 
part in this reduction.