STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 287 



four times a week, at which times I always cany a pocket of 

 corrij oats, or in the summer time, a handfull of clover-lieads, of 

 all which they are very fond; and, in this way, I keep on excel- 

 lent terms with them. My success in domesticating them, by 

 this sort of treatment, has been quite satisfactory; instead of 

 scampering away, like wild animals, when I approach them, they 

 crowd around me like so many pets. My original number of 

 five purchased elk, have increased to ten, with a prospect of an 

 additional increase of four next spring. During the winter, and 

 in time of deep snows, they gather into a thicket of brush, 

 (which embraces about one-half these grounds,) which they trim 

 with great apparent relish; and notwithstanding the deep snows, 

 and severe winter of 1855-6, they remained in. high order, with 

 no other resources than the staddle timber or brush, whicli they 

 trimmed and laid waste bv the acre. The enclosure I have for 

 them, would be quite sufficient to sustain from fifty to sixty elk, 

 until tliey have destroyed the brush, at which time their pasture 

 would have to be extended over new territory, or trees be cut in win- 

 ter for them to browse. Now, in view of the character and price 

 of large quantities of land in this country, also of the fact that 

 these mountain ranges were formerly the natural home of tlie 

 elk, and their perfect suscejDtibility of domestication, I deem it 

 an enterprise of the first importance that portions of these lands 

 should be re-stocked with their original denizens. And not only 

 to the naturalist, the man of science, but to those wishing a pro- 

 fitable investment, it holds out every inducement. When we 

 consider the amount of lands in this country only fitted fur such 

 j)urposes, I do not hesitate to say that it might be made a business 

 of vast imi»ortance. While the world is being ransacked to obtain 

 rare and foreign animals, which may never be acclimated to 

 this country, and whose utility is rather questionabh^ if they 

 should be, the elk with nil its claims to our attention, with 

 scarcely an effort to domesticate, is rapidly dis;i])j»cariui:; from the 

 land. Wlit'U we consider the short space of time (say 50 years,) 

 since the tlk ranged the entire country between this and the 

 Mississijipi river, it is a fair estimate, with the increased facilities 

 of travel and emigration, and what is being done in the territories 

 of Utah, Nebraska, and Dacotah, that witliin twenty-five years 

 the race will be entirely extinct, unless ]»roper means is resorted 



