Year: 1879

Bringing Up Three that were Taken GUNS


on the Plains.


Colonel Ezra Miller, of Mahwah, NJ,
brought up three bufaloes that were
sent to him from the plains of the West,
and gives his experience with them as
follows in an interview with New York
reporter:


81 have proved to my own satisfac.
tion," the colonel said. "several i'm.
portant points. First, that buffaloea
can be tanned. Second, that it doesn't t
cost one-half as much to keep a buffalo
as to keep an ordinary COW. Third,
they can be fattened as quickly as
ordinary beeves, and on half the food,
and their meat is just as good. Fourth,
they are as good mixers as our Alder.
| neys; and fifth, they are as good butter
makers. The milk of the buffalo is a
little yellower than that of the Alder
ney, but very sweet and rich, and there
is more cream than in the Alderney
milk. As to the quantity OF milk given
by buffalo COWS, they will average with
the average mixer. The udder of the
buffalo COW is very small indeed, but
the milk veins are immense. This
is a provision whereby nature enables
them to run faster than if cumber-
ed by large udder. I am of the
opinion that the most desirable cross is
with the big Dutch cattle that have such
big udders. think that crossing them
with our short-horns will give remarka-
bly, good beef. But the beef from our
buffaloes more than met my expecta-
tions. It was sweet and juicy, and
tender, not at all like the meat of the
buffalo of the plains.


CHOW, in drawing the balance be-
tween the buffalo and the ordinary COW,
find these facts: The buffalo can be
kept at one-half the cost of the COW;
that's one point for the buffalo. We
will assume, to give the cow fair show,
that she yields more milk and butter.
That balances the account 80 far. The
buffalo is fully equal to our stock in
the quality of meat. So they are still
on even terms; but its hide is worth
four times as much, so it comes out far
ahead in the last heat, as horsemen say.
The hide from my bull was beautiful
specimen. It was better than q $25
robe I bought to compare with it. The
fur was longer and finer, the result of
good feed, think"


The colonel led the way to the barn
ward where the buffalo COW and heifer
were kept. A savory smell was ex-
hailed from the kitchen as he passed.


"Come in here minute" he said,
suddenly. Three or four farmhands
were eating dinner, and large platter
of what seemed to be beefsteak stood on
the table. The colonel seized knife
and cut into it, It was sweet, juicy,
and tender, and we'll favored. "That
is from the round" the colonel said.
"Not the best cut by any means, as you
know; but our women say the buffalo
meat is all tenderloin. The hump is
very fine, being rich and juicy. The
heart is immense in size, and the liver
beats any beef liver I ever tasted"


A good.looking colored man went to
the COW stables, and from among
number.of ordinary-looking animals
turned out the buffalo COW. Her black
horns curved upward and were tipped
with brass knobs. Otherwise she was
the ordinary buffalo. Her calf, the
yearling heifer, was her counterpart
without the horns. Both were very
gentle, and the heifer answered readily
to the name of Nancy"


"We have had no trouble in raising
them, 1.-THE colonel said, "and they herd
with the other cattle on the best of
terms. What surprises me is their
weakness. I supposed they we're very
powerful; but they are not. I have seen
q yearling Alderney bull push Bill, the
buffalo bull, when he was three years
old, right up hill. They are fast, but
they are not strong. They are also very
cowardly, very playful and very cum
ming. I have studied their habits and
have been greatly amused. If one'of
them sees you shut o gate, he'll 60 up
and open it Immediately after you; but
he won't 60 out of the gate, I had them
in that lCt there, and noticed that
length of the fence that separated the
pasture from field of rye was down. I
sent man to nail it up. Bill stood just
behind him and watched him closely. The
man had not got back to the house be-
fore Bill gravely walked up to the fence,
put his horns under the lower board,
and ripped the whole length down, and
then quietly turned round and walked
off. One day the men we're working on
that side hill with barrows. At noon,
while they were eating dinner under
that shed, they heard rattle, and down
came Bill. q handle of the wheelbarrow
on each horn, wheeling it. he wheeled
it to the foot of that hill there, when it
turned over. Then he tried to get it
back. I have seen him roll a barrel
half way up the hill and then let roll
down, and every time the barrel bounced
over stone Bill grunted and ierked up
his ridiculous tail. They don't below
like our cattle; they grunt.


One day some girls who were visiting
here from New York went on the bill for
black berries, carrying small tin pail,
such as the men use in carrying salt
when they salt the cattle. Bill saw the
pail, and, though afraid of the girls,
slowly walked toward them. They slowly
edged away. Bill followed. The girls
walked faster; so did Bill. They ran;
Bill broke into trot, and down the hill
they came, the girls still holding the
pail, and frightened ont of their wits,
and Bill behind longing for salt. Hanged
if those girls didn't climb that high
fence there within three lengths of an
open gate. They never saw it. Bill
stopped with grunt and jerk of his
tail.


ga curious thing" the colonel said,
sis their dance. Icall it their war-dance,
and believe the Indians got tie idea
of the war-dance from them, as well as
the grunt. Those three buffaloes would
90 up among those cedars and Bill
would rear up against one, put his fore"
legs around it, and bend it down to the
ground. Then the others would join
him, and they'd all stand over the bent
sapling. Suddenly, at a given grunt,
they'd jump away, and, as the sapling
sprang up with a switch, they'd start in
q circle around it, one behind the other,
jumping stiff-legged, coming down on
all four feet at time, and at each Jump
all grunting.


/ to breed bufaloes. think good idea
would be to have buffalo ranches in the
buffalo country, where tho calves could
be collected and domesticated, and
whence they could be shipped to the
East. If something of this kind isn't
done, the buffalo will be e1terminated. !"