BREEDING FOR HORNS 



Fr,\nk X. Mkvkr' 

 Agricultural Explorer, Office of Foreign Seed and Plant Introduction, I 

 nwnt of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 



Depart- 



IX Bird wc stopped with a farmer 

 who had become a wealthy man 

 through the sale of stag antlers, 

 and saw how the women folks were 

 boiling several magnificent pairs. They 

 were all coated yet with the down, 

 which is an absolute necessity to sell 

 I hem, as the Chinese only take those 

 which are young. This stagkccjjing 

 business has its headquarters in and 

 around Bird and l3\' ijvire accident wc 

 had stumbled upon one of the most in- 

 teresting industries in this world. 



It seems that about 40 years ago 

 somebody in Bird made an ex]jeriment 

 of keeping some stags in ca])tivity and 

 by sawing the antlers off and bandaging 

 the wounds, showed that a stag can be 

 de-antlercd and survive the process and 

 be operated upon every year. Up to 

 that time the animals had been hunted 

 until they were well-nigh extinct and 

 the collecting of antlers was a very 

 unsteady sort of a business, one never 

 knew whether one would get much or 

 not. Well, the animals multiplied and 

 high-fenced enclosures were established 

 all over the motmtains, for these stags 

 need much ground to j^asture upon, 

 otherwise they don't remain healthy. 

 And todav there arc several thousand 



stags in and around Bird and the income- 

 derived from the sale of the antlers 

 has made some people very wealthy, 

 for every male animal produces about 

 70 Roubles^ worth of antlers every 

 year and some men have as many as 

 400 males. The average price paid for 

 the antlers is between eight and 12 

 Rl:)ls. per ])ound, according to the market. 

 The antlers are sawn off with a fine 

 saw and weigh fresh twice as much as 

 later on. They have to be boiled in 

 salted water and very great care has to 

 be taken that the felt-like covering 

 doesn't come off; therefore they are 

 boiled several times and each time al- 

 lowed to dry out again. When suffi- 

 ciently cooked, they are hung in the 

 wind and allowed to dry thoroughly and 

 in that state they are bought up by 

 dealers and said to be exported to China 

 via Mongolia. The Chinese, as you may 

 know, believe thoroughly in the reju- 

 \'enating and stimulative power of young 

 deer horns, and the stuff, scraped and 

 ])owdered, forms a valuable ingredient 

 in certain of their medicines. I was also 

 told that a firni in St. Petersburg has 

 taken up this matter and is manufac- 

 turing a special medicine from them, 

 under the name of "Sijcrminc." 



• Extract from a letter to his chief, dated Omsk, Siberia, July 17, l'>11. 

 ' A rouble is worth about 51 cents, U. S. currency. 



Corriedale Sheep in United States 



F. R. Marshall of the Bureau of Animal Industry, U. S. Department of Agricul- 

 ture, has returned from the anti])odes with 10 rams and 54 ewes of the Corriedale 

 breed, which are now in quarantine at vSan F'^rancisco, and constitute the first 

 importation of live stock ever made by the department of agriculture. With the 

 exceiJtion of six head brought in last year, they are the first Corriedales to be 

 brought to this country. The breed, which originated in the province of Canter- 

 bury, New Zealand, in the late seventies, and was long known officially as "inbred 

 halfbreds," resulted from a Lincoln x Merino cress and in ])art from an F^nglish 

 Leicester x Merino cross. It interests the stockman because it offers a combination 

 of wool and mutton cjualilies, and the genctist because it ai)pears to breed fairly 

 true, in s])itc of the short time that has dai^sed since its fomiation. In api)earancc 

 it is very nearly a blend l)elween the two jjarenls, and there seems to be little 

 segregation of characters in the breed at ])resent. 



96 



