Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1894-12-01
CROSSING BUFFAlOES.
Unique and Successful Experiments Made
I'm the Texas Panhandle.

Unique and Successful Experiments Made
I'm the Texas Panhandle.
ABILENE, Tex, Nov. 23.-Goodnight,
n little station on the Fort Worth and
Denver railroad, in Armstrong county.
in the Texas panhandle, is the home Of
Charles Goodnight, who is quietly but
earnestly and persistentlg conducting
an experiment in the crossing OF the
American buffalo with native cattle, SO
far without completely successful re-
suits, but certainly with very interest
ing ones.
Mr.. Goodnight has q little homo
anch of about 10000 acres. This Is
lis garden. His real ranch, where he
loes his business, is the Quitaque, some
distance away, where he has about
100, 600 acres under fence. 1t Is at his
title garden, or truck patch, that he
,as his buffalo experimental station.
Several years agos when buffalo were
more plentiful in Texas than they are
iow, the cowboys working for Mr..
Goodnight would often rope" a buff
alo calf and bring it home. These
we're turned into an Enclosure, and
.hough little attention was paid TO
hem they formed the necleus OF the
,erd now on the ranch. As the wild
buffalo began TO disappear these be-
,ame of greater interest and six or
Ieven years ago Mr.. Goodnight begun
m earnest the attempt TO produce u
new and distinct breed by crossing
buffalo and neat cattle and trying To
oerpetuate this type OF inbreeding.
There are now on his ranch about
twenty-five or thirty full blood buff
lalo and as many more half breeds.
Most of these full bloods- probably all
bf them-were calved on the ranch.
Indeed, the herd are the product of the
calves roped and brought in by tho
cowboys in the late '7O's, which grew
,p and multiplied by the regular and
natural process. They are fine looking
sncsc~ auimufs covered the Tsxas prai-
ries by millions, which is conclusive
evidence that civilization Ia not fatal
70 the propagation of the buttalc. lie
needs only to be protected and gwen q
tair show. and in time there is no rea-
son why there should not be as nan
buffalo on the prairies of Texas as
there were twenty years ago.
The crosses are, however, of the
greatest interest. IL was Mr.. Good
lights desire to establish a type of
cattle with the valuable robe, the
thrifty rustling qualities, the weight
and general characteristics of the buff
talo. He has bred 'black mulleys' TO
The buffalo bulls-the cattle being
chiefly polled Apgus-and the result il
the light headquarters and the heavy
shoulders OF the buffalo, the shaggy
head and the long, woolly hair so de-
sirable in buffalo robes being repro
iLced almost as perfectly MS IN the
parent bull. The tail is long and fat
ike n mules tuil. Horns are absent
when bred 10 mulleys. In two or three
cases where the mothers were Texas
COWS the horns were like buffalo horns.
but some longer. One peculiar animal,
which is out OF place outside of "a side
show, is the offspring Of a buffalo bull
and Texas COW, and has black and
white stripes running around the body
like . zebra's.
MIR. Goodnight finds his chief trouble
In breeding the crosses. In fact, with
; very few exceptions, he has found IL
impossible to get offspring from the
half breeds. He is not discouraged.
but will persevere In his efforts and
feels confident that he will ut last cs-
tabllsh a new race of cattle in Texas.
The half breeds are heavier In weight.
than the average cattle. are better
-ustlers and keep fat through cold
weather and hard rustling that thin
.he Others and often result in heavy
fatalities.
Mr.. Goodnight also has on his horse
'anch about thirty or thirty-fve elk
hat were brought from Colorado.
which no has in a pasture of 400 or 500
,cres, the fence around which is eovote
proof. The elk nave not thriverf well
and do not appear to be at home.