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Show ifBATTLE Creek Well sir, the frost is on the aspen once more; and the faint rumble heard in these parts late- ly will soon grow into a rever-brating rever-brating roar. That's right, the riflemen are lookin' to their shootin' irons in feverish anticipation antici-pation of the deer season which opens in Utah on Oct. 18. The gals with the I.B.M.'s have been doing a little figuring recently re-cently and have come up with a few interesting statistics anent those who will be stricken with duck, buck and pheasant tever this fall. To begin with, they predict that 146,000 gun toters will pursue pur-sue the Utah wild game before curfew sounds at season's end. This is about 14,000 times as many riflemen as Uncle Sam now has deployed in Lebanon in order to try and keep the Christians and Moslems avay from each ethers throats. In addition to men, the hunting hunt-ing hobby takes money. If the 1958 nimrod safaris equal those of 1957, Utah residents and the starngers within our gates will lay something over $46,000,000 on the line without a murmur. Tliis. in spite of inflation, isn't hay. In fact it equals about 75 per cent of what we will spend for public school education this year. It might be interesting to note how much our jovial free spenders spend-ers put up for the various tilings they deemed necessary for a successful suc-cessful and happy hunt. Heading the list of cash outlays out-lays is equipment, which includes guns, ammunition, trailers, tents, jeeps, camp equipment, binoculars binocul-ars and clothing. Eleven million will go for these items. Then tliere is transportation. Special oars, gasoline, oil, tires, horse hire and other milage will take ten million. Food and, pardon me, drink are expensive these daya and the hardy hunters are never ones to stint themselves. Just for thfc. eatin' and drinkin' that take place during the hunts will take five million. And to procure, feed and train hunting dogs and horses costs money one and one half-million to be exact. Then there's license fees, one million; trespass and guide fees, $200,000; lodging, $300,000 and so on. Just to make dates and reservations reser-vations and to keep in touch with things at home will take $31,000 in telephone and telegraph fees. Anyway you look at U, hunting hunt-ing costs aplenty: but at least it gets the greenbacks back into circulation and a lot of folks benefit thereby. In short, hunting hunt-ing in Utah is big business and the ceiling hasn't been reached yet. Best of all, it gets the old man out from under foot and takes the wind out of his sails when the Little Woman asks for a couple of C's for a new fall outfit. out-fit. So, in conclusion, this column says "Good Hunting, and may you all return safe and sound with nothing worse than a few cases of sunburn, sniffles or chilblains. chil-blains. Whether you get a deer or not. is only incidental." Gun fever will have abated for another year. So long 'til Thursday. |
