The weekly times-record. (Valley City, N.D.) 1912-1922, 1919-12-11
MEAT TO
REPLACE BEEF

Lees meat market is soon to have
a supply of buffalo meat to sell to it's,
patrons. This is the information we
get from this popular market. A
carcass of buffalo will be received by
this market at Valley City in about
ten days. It seems incredible that this
can be done, but it seems that the
buffalo is increasing in numbers per-
mitting the sac Of this meat.
Within five years the. resident of
any up-todate American city can have
his choice Of beef, pork, veal, mutton
or buffalo.
A. II. Leonard says so, and he ought
to know because he is the son-in-law
of the late Scotty Phillips and man
ages the famous buffalo herd fenced
in by Phillips nearly 40 years ago.
Mr.. Leonard was in Minneapolis
this week arranging with J. M. Ornes
of Ornes, Esswein & Co., to distribute
this years output Of the herd, which
amounts to some 300 carcasses. Mr..
Ornes has already made tour
through the east and middlewest and
finds a ready market for all the buf-
falo meat that can be supplied. De-
liveries will be made early in Deem
Der for the holiday trade. The sup
ply this year goes to meat retailers
generally and not to one designated
dealer in each city as formerly. Min
neapolis and St. Paul are each to have
carload.
Ten years ago Leonard was travel
ling out of the Twin Cities for Chi
cago soap manufacturer. He used to
make" Fort Pierre, S. D., occasion
ally and became familiar with the
Phillip establishment Eight years
ago he married one of Scotty Phillips
daughters and upon the death of
Phillips soon after he assumed charge
Of the herd. To his new work he
brought ideas of marketing and dis
tribution which had never been ap-
piled to the herd before. He began
possibility rather than as curiosity.
Today the fenced range occupied
by the herd includes some 10000
acres and this is now in the process
of enlargement to 10000 acres. The
federal government is cooperating by
giving the free use of lands to be put
| under fence for the herd, which num-
bers about l 100 animals.
Asked if it would ever be possible
for the natural increase of the herd
to furnish steady supply of meat
for general distribution, Leonard de-
clared that this could be accomplished
within five years at the present rate
of progress. He explained that this
did not mean buffalo competition for
beef clear down the line, but he was
convinced that the buffalo supply
would be sufficiently large and con-
slant so it would relaese just that
much beef for general consumption.
He said the peculiar quality of buf-
falo meat is that it does not lose so
much weight in cooking as meat from
domesticated animals. A 5-pound
buffalo roast would weigh more when
cooked, he declared, than a roast OF
beef which weighed 8 pounds before
going to the oven.
Eight years association with the
American bison has given Leonard a
high regard for the animals native
intelligence.
In summer the herd never grazes
in among the buttes, where there is
both shelter and feed. This is re-
served by thes animals themselve
against a time of need in winter and
when there is a deep, driving snow
they are all to be found in the shell
tered spots living on the grass that
they conserved during the summer.
Though the herd has been fenced for
many years, any animals that escape
invariably follow their wild instincts
by running against the wind so as to
scent an enemy ahead, Herdsmen
have sometimes had to wait a week or
two for the wind to change before be-
ing able to drive runaways back into
the pasture Beef cattle always run
with the wind, not against it. Ia