Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1900-04-23
THE BUFFALO PARK
The Committee Reported In Its Fa-
vor Against the Wishes Of
Delegate Perea.
ACRES IN new MEXICO
The Land Is Situated In Ohaves County,
New Mexico, and Colonel Jones
Will Have to Pay for
Leasing It.

A dispatch from Washington states
that the house committee on public
lands made a favorable report on the
bill to set apart a bison reserve in New
Mexico in opposition to the wishes of
Delegate Pedro Perea. The area to be
set aside has, however, been reduced
from II, 0O0, 900 acres to 20, 1000 acres, and
Buffalo" Jones will not receive the
land for nothing, but it is simply leased
to him for a number of years at the rate
of | cent per acre per year.
The committee in reporting the bill
gives it's reasons for being favorable to
it in the following language:
"There is perhaps NJ fact in the nat
ural history of America which brings
such reproach on civilized nan as the
reckless and almost total destruction of
the bison. At his time there are in all
probability not 500 animals on the con-
tinent. When America was discovered
the American Indians, measured by
their tocks and herds, We're as opulent
as any people on the globe. The bison
was the common property of all. He
took care of himself both winter and
summer, and furnished a never-failing
supply of food and raiment for the abo-
rhymes. Through inconceivable ages
this animal has become adapted to the
soil, climate and surroundings. The
bison is the most typically American of
al &c @l,n ,,~ I,@or%, ~a ~ a1,1
tinent.
"In 1882 the last of the bison was
killed east of the Mississippi river. Be
fore the development of the railroads
vast herds of these animals avoided the
destructive effects of the white settle
ments by emigrating to the far west,
and down to as late as 1870 they still
numbered very many millions. The
building of the Pacific railroad was the
signal for the destruction of these vast
herds. They We're slaughtered without
mercy. for sport and for profit. The
most pitiful story in the history of all
days report on the extinction of the
American bison. The mania for slaugh-
ter seems to have affected every one.
The English lord, the miner, the cow
boy and the emigrant slew right and
left, dotting the plains with thousands
Upon thousands of tons of bleaching
bones that have since been gathered up
and transported to the sugar refineries
~, t1p A t1n ,,fso oDn~{ nj, n~a n-Jo @l14
could have easily been converted into
domestic animals and preserved as a
permanent source of wealth, have liter
ally been swept from the face of the
earth.
Professor Hornaday thinks that
there are at present 400 living buffalo in
the whole world. The herd of the Flat
head Indians, the Buffalo Jones herd.
few specimens here and there in zoolog-
zeal parks, remnants still of perhaps
twenty in the Yellowstone national
park, and a few scattered buffalo west
of the countless millions of a genera
ton ago.
"In New Mexico the buffalo finds his
natural home, both summer and winter.
There remain vast acres of unoccupied
public lands where the buffalo formerly
roamed and bred with much fruitful
ness. Domestic cows can be placed on
this range and crossed with the buffalo
| bulls. This is no longer an experiment.
The product of this cross is an animal
| with a coat heavy enough to resist the
| severest western winter storm. This,
however, is only an incident to the real
| purpose of the plan, as there would be
no attempt made to breed from the fe-
male buffalo anything but the pure
| blooded bison. The addition would be
made by breeding domestic cows. and
so the production of the pure bloods
would not be in this manner de-
creased"