Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-08-19

serve the enormous wild herds of buffalO-tO
use them for the national meat supply instead
Of domestic cattle. But now that the buffalo
has been reduced in numbers and handled like
domestic animal in many parks it has been
discovered that he is really not much harder
to manage than any other variety Of cattle.
It is true that he retains feraI contempt for
fences, and the great weight of his shoulders,
protected by nantole Of heavy hair, enables
him to express this contempt for barbed wire
by going right through it. An ordinary three
or four strand barbed wire fence does not
hold him at all. Those buffalo keepers who
use barbed wire fences do so with the full
knowledge that they will have to round the
buffalo up and drive them back into the en-
closure every once in so often.
The government buffalo pastures are en-
closed in woven wire fencing with strong posts
planted about sixteen feet apart. This spac-
ing gives the fence a certain residence, so
that when the buffalo hits it, he has ten
dency to bounce back. There have been many
cases. however, when the bouncing idea didn t
work. Once, for example, on the Montana
Bison Range a buffalo bull in a bad humor
saw big black and white Holstein bull paw
ing up the dirt and believing in an insulting
manner just outside the enclosure. The
buffalo bull very deliberately backed off about
hundred yards and took a run at the Hol-
stein, completely disregarding the detail that
a fence was between them. His disregard
was justified by the fact that he went through
Gus goes through the paper hoop. After
properly drubbing the impudent domestic, the
buffalo bull walked back to the gate of his
home pasture and waited for the keeper to let
him in.
The potential value of the buffalo as do
nestle animal lies in the fact that he can
stand very cold weather. He can survive a
winter that would kill cattle, and can get to
the grass through deeper snow than can cat
tle If the buffalo herds were established on
| 1I11nT al ho
on mountain ranges, which are now prOduc-
ing nothing. And the buffalo makes fine
grade of beef and more Of it under the same
conditions of feed and age than other cattle.
The extreme scarcity of the buffalo, and the
fact that breeding animals cost $3.50 piece,
are the reasons why the domesticatiOn Of the
animal has not proceeded further. Another
ten years is very apt to see good progress in
the establishment of the buffalo as ranch
animal.
The cattalo, which is a cross between the
buffalo and domestic stock, is an even more
promising animal than the buffalo. This
hybrid is generally larger than either Of its
parents. It inherits the hardihood of the
buffalo and also his heavy valuable coat. A
cattaIo robe has been sold for $1,000.
But the difficulties of putting the cattalO
on a sound productive basis are even greater
than those of demonstrating the buffalo. In
the first place only about one in ten OF these
hybrids is fertile In the second place a
of them in order to produce stock, free from
interbreeding. Thus a very large number OF
bufaIoes, and long time would be necessary
to produce sound strain of cattalo. That
the animal would be of great value, and that
it could be greatly improved by scientific
selectve breeding, cannot be doubted but the
preliminary work would cost millions and
would require several generations. 1t is not
likely therefore, that any private individual
will ever undertake it, but it seems probable
that when the government buffalo herds have
increased to eight or ten times their present
size, the cattalo will be bred and developed
by the scientists of the biological survey.
Of the seven thousand buffalo now alive,
about half are in the United States and hall
in Canada. The government owns slightly
less than thousand buffalo. These are on
eight reservations and national parks, the
largest herd being that Of the Yellowstone,
with 44O members, and the second largest
that on the Bison Range in Montana, where
there are 290 buffalo in fenced pasture OF
$4,000 acres. The government has IN It's
parks and reservations range enough for ten
times as many buffalo as it now owns. The
rest of the buffalo in this country are IN 11ye
or six large herds which are privately owned.