Saturday news. (Watertown, S.D.) 19??-19??, 1912-02-29
,npply for food. clothing, shelter,

supply for food, clothing, shelter, W.
hicles, boats. and all the numerous
necessaries the animal afforded. Ma
| jor Mclaughlin in his book MY
Friend, the Indian" says it was The
disappearance of the buffalo in the
section to which they had fed that
compelled Tin 1881 the return and
surrender of the 5000 Sioux indiana
who had supported Sitting Bull in ac-
is only one of multitude of examples
in which the opening of probably g.
10000 square miles for the white
mans peaceable occupancy was mater
tally fastened by the destruction Of
the buffalo The conservation of the
bison would have required the saeri-
flee of additional thousands of lives of
American soldiers and determined set-
tiers in the conquest of what is now q
cation which has built sovereign states
covering every square mile of the
5000, 900.
Secondhand what was there, any
way, to this marvellous horde of bison
on western plains that should have
made its preservation any particular
advantage to the necessities of civil
cation? The maintenance of S,0eo,-
600 or 100000 animals on 5000. ~
square miles of country mean cnlv
about three animals to the square mile.
When there were that maximum nun-
Der of animals, their only produet
available for the general market was
their robes And these sold in the
middle 70's at SIPS for bull hides and
60 cents for cowhjdes or on the aver
age about $1.00 per robe. OF course
there could be sold in any one year
not more than Is per cent as many
robes as there were animals ON the
plains-probably 100000 robes at the
outside, or 100000 income from g,
100000 square miles of territory. That
is to say, during the time when the
buffalo was most plentiful, the avail
| able climax of its annual output for
this great West, as an addition to tho
general wealth of the country, could
| not have been more than about Go
| cents per square mile What do you
| think of that?-the buffalo was actu-
| ally worth only IS cents per square
mile, SO far as the purpose Of civili-
cation were concerned. To have pre-,
served the buffalo at the cost of the
civilization which has succeeded it
would have been infinitely worse econ-
omy than Saving at the spigot and
losing at the bunghole."
Third-But supposiDg that not only
the robes of these animals, but the
meat as well, could have been added to
the worlds supply Of necessities
which, of course would have been i'm
possible. Who would exchange for
this buffalo meat the millions of range
cattle and the millions of feed-lot eat
/ tie from this same area that today
supplies beef to America and the
world? Or trade its pork, it's mutton
and wool, it's dairy products, it's eggs
and poultry? Or barter the multi
Piled millions of bushels of grain an
nually grown on these 100000 square
miles Of territory vacated by the but
falo? Or swap the hundreds Of thous-
ands of rural homes or urban homes
and all the myriads of industries loeat-
ed in the empire formerly occupied ex-
clusively by the buffalo and the In
dians, and which industries and homes
could not have been thus located il
such buffalo and Indian occupancy
had continued?
And, anyway, buffalo meat isn't SO
much of a luxury that it is worth the
sacrifice it would have cost to maia-
tain it. Up at Fort Pierre, S. D., the
other day, where the late Scotty Phil
lips herd has been fenced in for ex-
hihition for years, consisting of a
few real buffalo and lot more ciyih-
zed critters that have been crossed
with them, moving picture enter
prise paid for the privilege of having
some cowboys" and Indians chase
the herd through the pasture and run
i down and kill one of the animals, con
tinuous Photographic snapshots Of the
performance being taken, so as to
/ cO1lrterfeit IN tha ma irons IF lth, nick.