CROSSING BISON AND CATTLE 



First Cross Dangerous But Results are Bett3i in Each Succeeding Genera- 

 tion — Hope of Taking Fur and Hump of Bison and Placing Them 

 Upon Back of Domestic Ox. 



MossoM M. Boyd, Bohcaygeon, Ontario, Canada. 



WHEN in 1908 I gave an 

 account' of my firm's (Mos- 

 som Boyd Co.) experiment 

 up to that date in crossing 

 the American bison with domestic 

 cattle, we had just begun the third 

 stage of the experiment; and although 

 four years^ in a work of this kind is too 

 short a time in which to accumulate 

 much data of interest, I will nevertheless 

 report what little there is to tell. 



The first stage of the experiment was 

 the crossing of the two species. 



The second consisted of crossing the 

 hybrids thus produced with pure-bred 

 animals of both species. 



And the third stage, in which we are 

 now engaged, consists of breeding from 

 parents, both of which arc of mixed 

 blood. 



The produce of the first stage in 

 which both parents were pure, we call 

 hybrid buffaloes or half-bred-buffaloes, 

 or for short, hybrids. The produce of 

 the second stage in which one parent 

 was pure and the other of mixed blood 

 we call three-quarter-buffaloes, or one- 

 quarter-buffaloes, or one-eighth-buffa- 

 loes, as the case may be, reserving for 

 the sake of distinction the term "cat- 

 talo" for the produce of the third stage 

 in which both parents are of mixed 

 blood; and we put before the word 

 cattalo a figure to denote the proportion 

 of bison blood; for example, one-half 

 cattalo (containing 50% of bison blood), 

 one-quarter cattalo (containing 25%), 

 and so on. Breeders will readily under- 

 stand that there is a radical difference 

 between what we now call cattaloes 

 and three-quarter, one-half, one-quarter 



and one-eighth -buff aloes. Excepting 

 two or three, we have not been raising 

 animals carrying less than one-eighth 

 of buffalo blood. 



CHARACTERS OF THE HYBRIDS. 



In the first stage the hybrids, of which 

 we succeeded in raising about 30, were 

 all of one type; so uniformly alike that 

 individuals of the same color were as 

 hard to distinguish from one another 

 as are Polled Angus cattle. Those from 

 Hereford dams had white faces, but 

 almost no other white; and excepting 

 these, all were practically whole-colored, 

 and were either brindled or black. The 

 black was not the jet black of the Polled 

 Angus but had a rich tinge of brown. 

 The brindled varied between a tawny 

 red and brown. 



The hybrids were larger than the 

 bison; of "smoother" build; wider 

 chested, had better hind quarters, stood 

 straight er on their hocks, and had coats 

 of a better color, with more lustre and 

 less tufted. Altogether they were much 

 finer-looking animals than the bison. 



The three-quarter-buffaloes, got by 

 using a bison bull on the hybrid females, 

 were likewise all of one type; as much 

 like one another as are Polled Angus 

 cattle; and they were about midway in 

 appearance between their parents. The 

 five we raised (one bull and four females) 

 were in color very much like the bison, 

 but of a somewhat darker shade. One, 

 whose dam was half-Hereford, had the 

 front of its face white. 



The one-quarter-buffaloes, got by 

 using Polled Angus and Hereford bulls 

 on the hybrid females, were all of one 



^A Short Account of an Experiment in Crossing the American Bison with Domestic Cattle, by 

 Mossom M. Boyd. American Breeders' Association Annual Report, vol. IV, p. 324 ff. 



^This paper was prepared in January, 1913. Mr. Boyd writes that at present his company has 

 31 head of grade buffaloes and cattaloes in its herd. 



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