people.

The trouble is,--the greedy habitants _could not_ be induced to kill
only the three-year-old-males, in the fall, and let the cows, calves and
breeding bulls alone! By sensible management the Rocky Mountains, the
Sierra Nevadas and the Coast Range would support enough wild elk to feed
a million people. But we Americans seem utterly incapable of maintaining
anywhere from decade to decade a large and really valuable supply of
wild game. Outside the Yellowstone Park and northwestern Wyoming, the
American elk exists only in small bands--mere remnants and samples of
the millions we could and should have.

_If_ they could be protected, and the surplus presently killed according
to some rational, working system, then _every national forest in the
United States should be stocked with elk_! In view of the awful cost of
beef (to-day 10-1/2 cents per pound in Chicago _on the hoof_!), it is
high time that we should consider the raising of game on the public
domain on such lines that it would form a valuable food supply without
diminishing the value of the forests.

Just now (1912) the American people are sorely puzzled by a remarkable
elk problem that each winter is presented for solution in the Jackson
Hole country, Wyoming. Driven southward by the deep snows of winter, the
elk thousands that in summer graze and grow fat in the Yellowstone Park
march down into Jackson Hole, to find in those valleys less snow and
more food. Now, it happens that the best and most of the former winter
grazing grounds of the elk are covered by fenced ranches! As a result,
the elk that strive to winter there, about fifteen thousand head, are
each winter threatened with starvation; and during three or four winters
of recent date, an aggregate of several thousand calves, weak yearlings
and weakened cows perished of hunger. The winters of 1908, 1909 and 1910
were progressively more and more severe; and 1911 saw about 2500 deaths,
(S.N. Leek).

In 1909-10, the State of Wyoming spent $7,000 for hay, and fed it to the
starving elk. In 1911, Wyoming spent $5,000 more, and appealed to
Congress for help. Thanks to the efforts of Senator Lodge and others,
Congress instantly responded with a splendid emergency appropriation of
$20,000, partly for the purpose of feeding the elk, and also to meet the
cost of transporting elsewhere as many of the elk as it might seem best
to move. The starving of the elk ceased with 1911.

_Outdoor Life_ magazine (Denve