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                          DEER, DEER; WHAT TO DO! 
 
            You'd hate to shoot a doe. So would the rest of us. But 
 just for a moment, let's lay aside prejudices we have, you and I, and 
 face hard facts. 
 
            With the buck law, we have saved the she-stock of our deer 
herds. We do it each year. About half the fawn crop is females. So 
long as there are sufficient bucks to service the does, the annual crop 
depends on the number of does in any herd. And again, half that crop is 
does; protected to maturity and production for all their fertile years. 
 
            Generally, there are enough bucks for sires. New York esti- 
mates that in whitetails, a ratio of one buck to seventeen does is 
adequate. Sex-age censuses made in Colorado indicate there is a buck-doe

ratio of 1 to 3 to 1 to five or six. 
 
            There isn't an outdoorsman who hasn't a well planted sentiment

within him against shooting does. But AS A CONTROL MEASURE, we will have

to face the fact that the female portion of our herds is the crop produc-

ing segment; and if we keep on pyramiding that section, without control 
of any sort, we head toward over population of ranges, trouble, destruc-

tion. Laying all sentiment aside, then, AS A CONTROL MEASURE, we must 
consider the absolute necessity for keeping the herd within bounds by 
limiting the producing portion, the does, on any given range. Disaster 
for the game is ahead if over population is allowed to go on without good,

sound planning, reasonable control, herd management just as any livestock

handler would balance his herd with range available. 
 
            The history of the Utah deer herd so closely parallels that 
 of Colorado, that we herewith print, with permission of author the record

 of what has happened in our sister state. 
 
 
                              UTAH DEER HISTORY 
 
            1. From about 1890 to 1915 Utah had a decided scarcity of 
deer. Seeing one rated headlines in local newspapers. 
 
            2. Had closed seasons in early part of 1900. 
 
            3. Buck law enacted in 1913. 
 
            4. About 1912 the creation of state game preserves took 
hold--chiefly within the National Forests. 
 
            5. Conservationists and sportsmen groups, including Forest 
officers, preached "save the doe." She became something holy and
sacred.