The Oregon daily journal., October 18, 1908, Page 40, Image 40

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THE OREGON SUNDAY JOURNAL. .' PORTLAND ' SUNDAY ' HORNING, OCTOBER
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v V"; , - , vWfjLT.: r 'i 1 A:!0 , , browse KkIj
Industry That the Gov-: 1
emmenf
Boom
j recent bulletin from the 'depart.
went he called attention to the growing
" , scarcity - of game animals in this country
'' and offered suggestions to increase the
supply. ...
, "For instance, the bulletin stated,
quate to the demand, and the time seems
opportune for developing the industry of
i'deer farming, which may be made profit'
able, alike to the state and to the indlvid-
uals enrared therein,
x m. j t i l ing-. mutton rauier tJian beet. My many it is
of using io advantage muci i land that otherwise While the term "deer" is used here in its
would be unproductive. general sense, it includes both the ordinary deer
If yenison could be put on the market at nd the elk, these two species of: wild game be
something like the price of beef or mutton it is ". ing.best subjects for domestication among their
behered it would find favor in many households: kinds.'
Both a browsing and a grazing animal is
the elk. It eats grass freely; it has teen known
to subsist entirely upon the pasturage of cattle.
dui ii preiers a mixture ot browse and grass.
it is now known principally as an article of hotel
and club dining room menus.
Wherever the flesh of deer has beea. obtain
able in quantity it has ben a staple article of
diet, and it finds favor wherever used.
Ihe flavor of venison is distinctive, suggest'
vantage in forests and on rough, brushy
ground unfitted for either agriculture or
stock raising, thus utilizing for profit
much land that is now waste. An added
advantage is that the business is well
adapted to land owners of small means."
It is the effort of the Department of
'Agriculture to show that the raising of
xenhon' for 'market is- as legitimate and
practicable, a business as , producing beef or
mutton, if jarmers tatie up aeer raising as
hailed, in cold weather, with about the celight
that an epicure manifests in finding wild duck
on jus table rather than the domestic fowL
It is suggjesfcid to would-be raisers that an
overproduction of venison is improbable. The
supply rarely meets the demand now; if popu-
janzea ana tne supply enlarged, it is believed
a profitable
opened.
new field of production will be
COOKED IN MANY WAYS
Venison may be roasted, pan-broiled, b. Mled
or usea.in siews in Jact, may be treated as
tart, of their activities another solution of : heef is. To be found at its best, however, veni
the food problem 'would seem at hand: "F n,tek, should be eaten as
. . SOOn aS DOSBlblA ftr it la tnrArai
Its flesh, although somewhat coarse, is' said
to be superior in flavor to , most venison. It
should not be eaten soon after slaughter, but
should be left hanging for four or five days be-
fore being used. , ' - .
With few exceptions," states a recent pub
lication of the Department of Agriculture,
"early attempts to domes cate elk were made
by men wealthy enough to disregard all thought
of profit in, raising them. Soon the serious
problem of controlling them outweighed the
novelty of their possession,' and one by one . the
attempts at domestication were.' abandoned.,. .
"A desire to preserve' this important gam
, animal : has caused - a renewal of attempts to
breed. it in confinement, and1 at present there
are small herds under private ownership in
many-places in the United States.
Jl about a doeen successful breeders near- .
T HEBE' is. every reason why Uncle Sam,
the various states and individuals in the
states should take prompt steps to pre
vent the threatened extermination - of
game animals and birds.
K ot only can the progress toward extermi
nation be stopped, but it is beEercd that by
neans of intelligent game propagation, both by
states and by private enterprise, many of ourk
depleted ranges can be restocked.
. Investigations by government authorities
lead thcni to believe that when certain restric
tions now ire posed by state laws are removed the
tutiaeM of raising deer and elk for sale may be
rati aa. important and highly profitable indus
try. , -
This, eeciaTy. ceeaau It wH be th means
Experiments hae shown a number of spe- ly H r of opinion that raising elk for xoar-
cies.of the deer family to be susceptible to do
mestic rearing. Even at that, raising doer for
market does not imply that they must be en
tirely domesticated.
Some deer farmers keep them in large pre
serves, with surroundings as nearly natural as
possible, and do not attempt their domeatica
tion. Still, domestication is believed to b bet-
ket can be made remunerative if present laws as
to the sale of the meat are modified.
-One characteristic of the elk family com
mends it to raisers. It is that the elk adapts
itself readily to almost any environment. "Even
within th narrow confines of the paddocks of
the ordinary zoological park the animal does
well and increases, so that periodically the herds
ter, if the raiser is going into the business for "have to be reduced by sales.'
money.
When a farmer begins the business of deer
raising he must be careful as to the soarce of
his stock, He should not, as a general proposi
tion, transplant animals from arid to humid
sections of the country, or vice versa, if any
would-be pioneers in the business have ignored
this precsntion sad hart seen their plans re
sult in failure
A-farmer at Lasaka Serines. Ark- has a
herd of thirty-four elk." "They have range in the
Ozarks 'on, rough land covered with hardwood
forest and abundant undefgrowth. The animals
. improve the forest by clearing out part of the
thkket. They feed n. hods and leaves to a
height ef eight feet.
In clearing out underbrush from thickets
they are more useful than goats, since they.
,. ' i -
. As the two kinds of animals
together the farmer recommends
the use of both for clearing up brushy land and
fitting it for tamo grasses. . ' .
' - "The increase of elk tinder domestication
is equal to that of cattle. Fully 90 per cent,
of the - finales produce ' healthy young. An
adult male elk weighs from 700 to 1000 pounds;
a female from 600 to 800 pounds.;
"The percentage, of Creased meat is greater
than with cattle, but, owing to hostile game
laws, experience in marketing-it is very limited.
An offer of 40 cents a pound for dressed meat
' was received from St. Louis, but the law would
not permit its export." The Arkansas fanner
From In fact that a high as $19) per pound
na baen paid for thU meat In New-York city and -Canada,
and that th beat hotel and restaurants
pronounce It the flneat of all the meata of mam
mals, we are of the opinion that If laws were auch
that domesticated elk meat could be furnished IV
would be many jreara before the eupply would make
' IP Prc reasonable compared with other meats. -Elk
meat can be nroduced In manv actlnna at thla
. country at leaa coat per pound than beef, mutton or
' fporkv .
The Virginia, or whitetafl," deer is the com
mon deer of the United States and its adapta-
bility to nearly all sections of the cotmtry is
-acknowledged. The general experience of breed
ers, according to experts of the- Agricultural
Department, is that "with suitable range,' plenty
of good water and reasonable care 'in 'winter
raising this deer for stocking preserves or for
venison may be-made as profitable as any other
livestock industry. . - ...
w A BEAUTIFUL ANIMAL
Closely resembling, the European fallow deer
in nature, and of about the same size, the Vir
ginia deer is a beautiful animaL Its, color is
' brown in summer and grayish brown in winter: .
the fawns are spotted with white. The body of
the animal is from five to five and a half feet
long, and it is three to three and a half feet
high, weighing from 120 to 200 pounds.
Bj nature the deer is very timid; It files ,
from man with great speed, darting through the .
thickness of the forest almost as rapidly as in
the cpen.-
. Banning wild, ita food varies with the sea
son; in winter consisting of buds of various
ahr&bs, and in spring and summer the tender
grasses and berries. ' At times the deer makes
itself unpopular with a farmer by raiding young
wheat, oats, pea patches and cornfields.
Discussing the possibility of, domesticating
these animals and raising them for market, 'De
partment of Agriculture experts have this to
6 fly
"Not only, do deer thrive on land unsuited
for cattle. or. horses, but, like elk, they may be
raised to great advantage in brushy or timbered
pastures fully stocked wih cattle or horses, as
the food of deer rarely includes grasses.
"Advocates of the Angora goat industry
state that within the United States there are
250,000,000 acres of land not suited to tillage or
to the pasture of horses, cattle or Bheep . which
are well adapted to goats. Much of this land is
suited also to deer and elk, and can be utilized
for these animals with less injury to forest cover
than would result from Its browsing by goats.
"The propagation, of the Virginia deer haa
seldom been undertaken in a systematio way.
The animals have often been bred in parks for
pleasure or in large preserves for spojt, but the
economic possibilities in raising them have re
ceived little attention. Kecently breeders have
recognized the fact that they are profitable-under
proper management and would" be much more.
so were conditions zor mameung uve animaia
and venison more favorable. t
CAN FIND PLENTY OF FOOD
"While deer are chiefly browsing animals, in
captivity they eat nearly every, kind of vegeta
tion, including most kinds of garden stuff. They
are fond of acorns, beechnuts, chestnuts and
other mast. LUy pads, leaves, lichens and
mosses are freely eaten. .
"With plenty of range and an abundant va
riety of plants there needs,, be, therefore, flo
apprehension concerning the deer's food. A
good supply of running water must be provided
and the animals should have access to rock salt.
"If the browse and pasturage are scant, a small
ration of grain should be fed. , .
"Of the grains, 'corn ia generally recom- .
mended as food; there is no waste, as the deer
pick up every grain. Coarse hay full of weeds
is, preferable to timothy or other tame hays, ex
cept alfalfa. Of clover hay, deer usually eat the
blossom heads greedily, but waste the other
parts. In winter feeding is necessary every
where, and in the northern half of the United
States shelter of some kind should be pro
vided." One of the best-known deer and elk pre-
serves in the eastern part of the United States
is that of former Congressman Alexander Bill
meyer, in Montour county, Pennsylvania.
Mr. Billmeyer keeps deer and elk because
he loves the animals'. His fondness for the
creatures of forest and water is a natural result
of the experience and training of his boyhood
days. ...
Both as boy and young man , he wandered
through the woods with gun and rod and had
quite a reputation as a sportsman. As he has
grown older and accumulated wealth, he has
turned from slaying game to preserving it, and
he enjoys the new pleasure possibly more than
he did the old.
A MODEL GAME PRESERVE
The Billmeyer .farm, near 'Washingtonvilla,
Montour county, Fan is pointed out to travelers
passing that way. Its fields are laid out ia
Bquarcs, and the devastation of drought is pro
Tided against by a complete system of irrigating
ditches. . .
In his game preserve are a score or so of
elk, nearly fourscore ' deer, thousands of " gray
squirrels and a number of wild turkeys.
Hundreds of visitors from all parts of the
country 'have inspected Mr. Billmeyer's deer and
elk herds and have learned much of his system
of keeping those animals. Jumbo,' the elk king
of the place, has' the proud distinction of hav
' ing been exhibited in Philadelphia during a na
tional convention of his human friends, the
Elks, 'and, in consequence, his name and fame
'are known throughout the land.' .
' Among the curiosities of the elk herd on
this place is a , young hull ' elk that has been,
trained to trot in harness. - The animal takes
.kindly to rosd. work of this kind, sni haa de
veloped speed enough to outstrip many of th
fast horses' in the neighborhood. .
Many of these animals have become as tame '
, and tractable as calves and giv ' no ' trouble.
They make friends with the children, who visit
them almost daily, and poke their slender noses
through the paling fence to eat from th hands
of their admiring little friends.
Mr. Billmeyer's herds do hot depend alon
cpon pasture and browsing for their subsistence.
Their owner sees to it that they never go hun
gry., An evidence of the csre git en them is th
fact that the owner feeds to them annually
something like 2000 bushels of grain and 303
bushels of nuts of various" kinds. '