Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-03-03
Other Herds Not Mentioned.


Other Herds Not Mentioned.
The writer of the article that appears in
the New York paper might just have men
toned the Corbin herd at Newport N. h,
seeing that it Is the largest herd of all pure
blooded buffalo in the country But as he
didn't mention this. we could hardly expect
him to refer to the Dolly herd in Utah, the
j. ]. Hill herd at Cardigan, MINI: the Lee
nander herd at Bancroft, Iowa; the Monte
bello kennels herd. or of the buffaloes in the
geological parks in New York, Chicago,
Cincinnati. San Francisco, Buffalo city, st.
Louis, Pittsburg, Toledo, Rochester Omaha,
Worcester and other places. He only left
out about four hundred buffalo, which isn't
so bad when we consider that he tells us
In another paragraph that the most recent
census places the entire number of the
pure bred bison at 943.55 Neither is he to
blame in the least, because there are some
five hundred buffalo in Canada. In fact I
should not have been so fussy as to call at
tention to his trifing errors had he not I'M
dertaken to prove that there is mo profit
in buffaloes." If there is no profit In them
of course we want to know IL, but we would
prefer to get our informa ton from some
one who knows at least something about
buffaloes.
Now. let see how he arrives at his con-
clusion that 'the notion that there is money
in a great herd of buffalo has passed" The
facts are these. A few years ago Messrs.
Burgess and Hanson of Luana, Iowa, pur-
chased a very small numDer OF Duf1atOGS,
not more than five or six, If | remember
rightly. The firm of Burgess & Hanson fall
ed last December and their buffalo herd
was sold at auction. Therefore, says the
authority there Is mo profit in buffaloes.'
But as the bankrupt firm also sold lot of
land al the same auction, 1t would be Just
as reasonable to say that there is no profit
In real estate To be sure, Messrs. Burgess
& Hanson did not realize what our inform
ant states was their ambition, viz, TO make
a fortune out of the bison they owned. but
then the noble beasts were hardly to blame
If their owners were too ambitious. Sup
pose the frm-had started with half dozen
pigs, or sheep. or cows or horses. Is 1t at
all likely that they would have made their
sudden and everlasting fortune? And II
they had failed would 1t have been any
proof that there is no money In pigs, sheep,
cows horses?
On what assumption did the concern base
it's hopes for quick and enormous profits?
According to the correspondent from their
own town, they estimated that every ami
NAL would bring them 81 geo, If a market
could lie created for the meat" | could
mention good many domestic animals, the
ale of which would prove mighty disap-
pointing II their owners had reared them
in the belief that each one of them would
bring one-fourth or even one-tenth of a
thousand dollars. Yet all these animals are
actually reared and dealt in by thousands
of people at a reasonable and satisfactory
pI oft.
Prices for the Meat.
Behold some of the prices at which 1t
was expected the meat could be sold, and at
which, the article asserts. some of 1t was
sold for the holiday menus of several large
hotels throughout the country. Loin and
porterhouse steak. $3.50 per pound; short
rib roasts, $1.50 per pound; round steak, 81
per pound; haunch meat, $1.50 per pound,
and all other cuts at equally reasonable
prices.
But" walls the writer of the article.
1.-THE sale was limited. number of fat
animals shipped to the stock yards of Chi
cago brought prices only little above those
paid for good fat cattle" Considering that
buffalo meat is neither better nor worse
than domestic beef, and since 1t is said that
the human palate Is not sensitive enough
TO distinguish any difference between the
two the wonder is, not that Messrs. Bur-
CESS & Hanson received so little for their
product, but that any one was foolish
enough to pay them so much
The Emperor of Germany, says the
writer was looked upon as sure Gus
toner. He was said to have offered $1,000
for the crazy bull of Lost PARK, Col, and
Hanson & Burgess saw no reason why
they could not produce crazy bulls for
less money" Whether the firm failed to
produce a bull crazy enough to please the
emperor or whether, when the bull was
produced, the emperor refused to come
up" with the money, is not explained In the
article.
The correspondent winds up his formi-
.'It was not long before the firm discov-
cred that the SLOW increase of buffalo herds
In numbers and the little demand for the
meat makes buffalo raising for profit an
impossibility." Yet moment before In the
same paragraph he states: They found
that a buffalo COW after getting to be four
or five years old would give them one calf
year. which invariably lived. was able
to stand alone when first born and usually
wanted to fight within an hour after 1t saw
daylight.
And Mr.. Tom Burgess himself in a recent
letter to me states concerning his own buff
falo: '"They breed every year the same
as domestic cattle. I raised fifteen calves
from four cows In four successive years..
But what's the use? The whole article Is
made up of inaccurate, Illogical and self
contradictory statements. The writer OF II
begins by stating that there Is no profit In
buffaloes, basing his argument on the re-
suit of one tiny and probably poorly con-
Quoted experiment with half dozen AMI
mails And during his ramblings he tells
us that the animals increased as last as do
nestle cattle would have done, that they
weighed from 1,2a0 to 900 pounds apiece
and that the meat when sold brought more
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