Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1902-02-03
cRoss-BREEDINe THE BISON.
Plan to Save the Creature by Mixing
With the Domestic Strain.

IS trying TO nave Lnem preserved IOf
future generations. He has per-
suaded Congressman Charles Curtis of
Kansas to introduce the measure
which he is now writing at the coming
session, and great energy will be used
to get the bill passed. 1t provides for
the setting aside of several thousand
acres of land in New Mexico for buff
falo preserve, where Jones can con-
duct his experiments in buffalo breed
ing on an elaborate plan. For be it
known that Mr.. Jones is producing a
herd of buffalo cattle, one-half buffalo
and one-half native steer, which to all
outward appearance resembles a buff
falo, but which has all the habits of a
cow The buffalo as is known can
not exist in confined or thickly set
tied community, while this new buff
falO now of Mr.. Jones will exist in
any climate where steer can live.
Charles Goodnight, the Texas mil
lionaire, has taken an interest in Mr..
Jones's scheme of saving the buffalo
and has permitted him to experiment
with some of his buffalo. Goodnight
has a herd of rs buffalo and Jones
has succeeded in raising half dozen
yearling buffalo COWS. These buffalo
cattle have been placed in a separate
pasture and are promising well of
thriving and multiplying. Jones says
he has no doubt these will be the only
species of buffalo in existence few
years hence. He hopes to spread their
kind to every section Of the United
States, until their number will equal
the vast herds of wild buffalo that
few years ago roamed the western
plains.
Jones spent 27 years of his early
life on the plains catching and shoot
ing buffalo. He made a fortune in
shooting them; now he is spending it
in preserving the few remaining ones.
He is today one of the few survivors
of the early COS, when the plains were
indeed a wild habitation. Buffalo"
Jones is a great friend of that notable
Snowman Buffalo Bill" and much of
the time they were together on the
frontier. Jones is a commanding
figure wherever he may be; whether
in the lobby of great hotel or on the
streets of a typical frontier village.
Tall, of splendid physique, with long
hair and grizzled beard, he attracts
men to him like a magnet. 1t has
long been a habit of his to wear buff
falo-skin clothes in winter, a wide
sombrerO on his head and booths
whose uppers were of the shaggy and
Unframed hide of the buffalo. Of re-
cent years, however, he has cast aside.
this wild dress for one of more COM
fort Then winters on the plains are
not what they used to be, and only
billiards. make such a wardrobe real
~ comfortable. His garb is yet typi-
cal of the cattleman
Jones is of New England birth, but
by education and training a man of
the west. He came to Kansas toward
the end Of the civil war and began the
wild rowing life of plainsman He
hunted the buffalo for the Union
Pacific road, and sold their hides at
bargain-counter prices. In 1885 he
saw that their final extinction was on
~ matter of few years, SO he de-
ciocd to embark IN hte business alone,
selling to eastern parks and preserves.
He accumulated fortune at this work,
likewise a reputation as buffalo
slayer. Jones established ranch at
Garden City, Kan, then wild frontier
community There he kept a number
of calves and began training them.
1t was in 1886, while serving a part
of an eight-year term in the Kansas
Legislature, that he conceived the idea
of breeding the buffalo and the COW.
At first it was slow and hating, this
cross of animals so nearly alike and
yet SO vastly opposite. Years were
required to accomplish single reult.
Year after year he would capture
young buffalo and proceed with the
work of demonstrating them Each
buffalo was turned over to the care
and nourishment of a milk COW of
Texas breed. The COWS did not enjoy
the association of their adopted off
spring, and many young buffalo calf
was tossed high by pair of long
horns, only to fall pierced through
some vital part, dead. BY 1889 he had
succeeded in gathering up 70 young
buffalo, and began to domesticate
them. He soon gained a name as a
breeder of domesticated buffalo, and
from this ranch he cleared $4,000.
His buffalo are yet to be found in
preserves in New York, Vermont, New
Hampshire and other eastern states.
Meanwhile, he never allowed the
one idea to escape, him-the crossing
of buffalo and cattle. He had achieved
some good results, and others fol-
lowed year by year. Then he was del
egated by the government to go to
Alaska in search of certain species of
wild animals, and for three years the
herd suffered the loss of his attention.
All but one or two of the buffalo COWS