The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1900-09-07
HERD OF Bl:FFALOES.
One Of the Most Interesting Elk
hibits at the Coming State Fair -
Bred on Wisconsin Farm.

On their large stock farm in Buffalo
county. Wis.,. Huber Bros. of Cochrant
have been breeding -bloodeh and
graded butfaloes for years. and they own
one Of the three best herds in the Unit
ed StateS-all in the country today num-
boring less than 800 head, the remnant
of millions once roaming the great plains.
now the &.ranary of the United States.
and largely Of the world.
In letter received by Press Agent
Ruddle, Huber Bros. say that they will
bring twenty-five head Of their choicest
full-blouded and graded animals to eX-
hibit at the fair The exhibit will in
clude the great fuli-hloodrd bull Lincoln.
the nohleSt specimen OF the genus left
in the United States
While these buffaloes have been assoc
| GATED with man ut the Huber stock
farm, and are readily controlled there.
it requires most careful handling to take
| them from their usual quiet Surroun,l
ings to the disturbing Influences of the
train and make them subject to the
crowds OF curiosity~seekcrs who gather
about them when abroad.
These animals will! be loaded on the
ears at Cochrane, through chute built
expressly for the purpose, that they may
not injure themselves or onlookerS. or
escape from their specially -trained at
| lcillllldI VIII De
| taken at the unloading of the animals ut
State Fair park. the board having con-
| structed Il chute at the end of their rail
road journey, where they will be placed
in a specially built enclosure at Il central
place in the grounds. accessible to the
thousands Of visitors to the fair.
Migration of Herds.
There is Il great deal of sentiment al.
tached to the subject Of the almost total
extinction of the American bison, or buf.
falo, once roaming the Western plains.
| buffalo trails, originating in western Tex
as. crossing the Indian territory and
Kansas and so north to Manitoba. told
| of the countless herds that made their
annual pilgrimaGes northward in the
spring, and in the late summer the great
brown mass moving southward to- the
winter grazing in the Indian territory
and western Texas.
The explanation Of this annual migra-
ton of the buffalo from the south to the
north and their return is simple.
As soon rs the tender grass shoots .ap-
peared in the spring, on their winter
grazing ground, the buffalo would start
the later summer, and then. us the
weather would give warning Of the
death Of vegetation, the immense herd
would start toward the South. So it
had gone on for centuries until the
building Of the Union Pacific railroads,
through Kansas and Nebraska, with the
consequent importing of thousands OF
sport. sounded the death knell of the
buffalo. Among those OF the latter were
foreign sportsmen-and their retinueS-
the Earl Of Dunraven, Marquis of Butte.
Sir Cecil Standish and other titled and
untitled Englishmen. The Grand Duke
Alexis Of Russia came with Il great suite.
and slaughtered hundreds
In passing. it may be remarked that
the services Of Buffalo Bill were always
in demand by the foreign hunter. At
the time OF Alexis visit Gen. Phil
Sheridan was selected to show the cour-
tesies of the army to the Cars brother
Then the slaughter began. and became
such as men had never participated in
or witnessed before, since civilization be-
gan.
Col. Cody's Title.
Col. W. r. Cody buffalo Bib got his
sobriquet from the fact that he was Civ
en- the contract for supplying fresh meat
to the men employed in the. constructing
Of the transcontinental railroad through
Nebraska. There were thousands of la
borerS to be fed. and it required the
carcasScs OF thousands Of buffalo to feed
them.
Another element in the destruction Of
these animals were the relentless hunters
who killed them solely for their hides.
leaving the skinned rarca>$es to dry up
on the plains, or to ke torn and de-
voured by wolves and coyotes, the high
waymcn of the plains.
1t was Destiny.
Sentimentalists dcplore the almost com
plete determination Of the buffalot>. But
it was destiny: 1t forced the savage
tribes, Sioux. Comanches, Arapahoes, HI
oWas and other relentless and obstruct-
i've foes to the progress of the whites
towards the settlement of millions CT
acres OF land in the West,-it forced
them to the reservations set apart for
them, thereby preventing their incursionS
of white settlements and the maSsacring
of the inhabitants. as their commits
sariat was destroyed, and they had to
become fed wards of the nation.
In the pioneer days here written of.
the outposts of civilization We're settled
by brave men and women, who realized
the risk they were taking in releeming
what is now the great wheat-growing
section of the country. When the grass
first appeared, in the springs CT those
days, the settler would watch for his
willy foe and take what precautions he
could against surprise. AS soon as Il
hostile body of Indians was heard of on
the border, runners would 90 out and
warn settlers for miles around The
United States troops at the various
FORTS generally from forty to sixty
miles apart, would be prepared to 20 at
a moments notice to the relief or pro-
lection Of the settlers. Those We're times
about which volumes have been written,
and the incidents, trials, heroisms Of
these days not even yet touched upon
The object of this writing is to tell
the sentimentalists and humane society
people that the killing off Of the buffalo
was the chief factor (barring the con-
struction Of the transcontinental rail
road in building up the Western plains
country, until it has become the granary
Of the United States. and largely of the
rest Of the world. When the buffalo was
swept from the plains safety was as
sured the SETTLER, as the Indian could
not move without his commissary of
jerked buffalo meat.
The stock exhibit at the fair will sur
pass in interest that made by any pre-
vious Wisconsin State fair and the ex-
hibit of the Huber Bros. herd of buffa-
loes will be the most interesting to the
general visitor, as it will be a new sight
to thousands, and to the pioneers of the
West it will renew youth and they will
tell of the days when they stalkcd the