From Booklist
Trout follows wildlife management--as opposed to animal rights--thinking in referring to whitetails as a crop that yields an annual "harvest"; the big states in this regard are Pennsylvania, Texas, and Missouri. Trout doesn't treat the Far West, an area dominated by mule deer, but notes that in the Midwest, the South, the East, and in several Canadian provinces, the whitetail population has doubled in the past decade or so. That means that many conservation departments must sponsor kills in order to protect another sort of harvest: corn, wheat, and soybeans. Trout worries about threats to hunting: too many hunters; too few public lands; animal rights activists; and sprawling suburbs. Otherwise, he talks about negotiating with landowners (leases are increasingly necessary), scouting out foraging areas before the season begins (whitetails love persimmons), and hunting itself: calls and scents, rubs and scrapes (signs bucks leave with their antlers), and cold weather techniques. Finally, Trout offers a section on photography. An excellent guide for the close-to-home hunter with little money to spend; the emphasis on lands that are partly agricultural, partly wooded, is unusual. John Mort
