The article below, was written in the same time frame as above which suggests the exact opposite(in the title)

White-Tailed Deer Overpopulation in the United States

http://www.koryoswrites.com/nonfiction/white-tailed-deer-overpopulation-in-the-united-states/

In 1930 the US white-tailed deer population was down to about 300,000. Today, estimates of how many there are range as high as about 30 million. That’s a 1,000-fold increase in less than 100 years.

What would an ideal number of white-tailed deer be in the US? Scientists estimate the average carrying capacity is about 8 deer per kilometer. The current average? Up to 100 deer per kilometer.

The shift in the white-tailed deer population can be attributed to many factors. In the 1920s the species was actually nearing extinction due to overhunting before government protection programs and national parks sought to save it. You could say that they succeeded. Unfortunately, a number of factors are now leading the deer population to spiral out of control. These include:

• No predators. Wolves, cougars, and grizzlies, which all once preyed on old, sick, and newborn deer, are now extinct in most states, and much of their former habitat is gone. However, the increase in human population will not stop the deer because…
• Deforestation actually helps the deer. The white-tailed deer is a species that flourishes in “edge” habitats: that is, habitats along the edges of forests and roadways, as well as newly-planted lawns. This is why they have been so explosively successful in the suburbs. Which also means…
• Hunting rates are going down. On average, about 6 million deer are killed each year by hunters, though this number is decreasing. By contrast, the deer population will double every other year under ideal conditions; the latest estimate suggests that 12 million fawns were born after the last hunting season. And this number will keep increasing because…
• Due to the fact that they preferentially graze on disturbed or edge habitats, white-tailed deer populations naturally fluctuate. As such, they have evolved few methods of self-regulation (such as birthing fewer fawns in crowded conditions).

Deer in the US eat 15 million tons of vegetation each year, which costs about $248 million in damage to crops and landscaping in the Northeast alone. About 150 people per year are actually killed due to car collisions with deer. Furthermore, deer carry deer ticks, which can transmit lyme disease to humans.

But the impacts are not limited to us. Native ecosystems are bearing the brunt of the damage. A study on one forest in Pennsylvania found that over half of all plant species diversity had vanished thanks to hungry deer. Other studies suggest that deer prefer eating native to exotic plant species, which facilitates the spread of invasive plants.

I totaled a rental car, 1,000 miles from our Indiana home, in Colorado on Christmas last year by hitting a deer.

We've had dozens of hasta's destroyed from the local deer, which eat other landscaping plants too.

When I had a big garden in the backyard, they chowed down on several types of plants.

They are very brave. I would be pulling weeds on one side of the garden and a deer would be on the other side eating the leaves of plants.

One time, when I threw dirt clods at the deer, instead of running off, it went to where the dirt clods landed and sniffed at it............obviously conditioned to people throwing food to it.

Before I build a 9 foot fence to surround the garden, to keep the deer out, I tried Christmas lights and a boom box playing rock music all night, located in the center of the garden. 

After the first and only night that I did that, I found the 3 plants closest to the boom box completely devoured.

The agricultural agent, who's a friend of mine, when he heard that, laughed and said that I was providing dinner music.

I'd heard that peeing around the perimeter of the garden would keep them out.....as they will pick up the human scent and be leery..........that didn't work.

Way back, when I worked on the rocket engines for Apollo, I got to see the engines being test fired.  The sound was almost deafening, even inside the bunker hundreds of feet away. While the test was being done they sprayed water into the flame bucket to cool it down. I noticed in the middle of the tests deer would come down to drink the run-off from the flame bucket, amazing close to the flame itself. Apparently they had become acclimated to the din... or maybe had become deaf? 

You aint seen whitetails untill youve visited the Jersey suburbs!

Ive got 6,8and occasional 10 pointers roaming and feeding 50 ft -30 yds from the back of my house this time of year.

With a doe compliment along.

 Rest of year there are practically herds of dear and im in a 55 and older community.

Very residential.