--^^^^ 











THE AMEEICAI^ BISONS. 219 



heifer will be productive from either race^ as I have before stated^ I have 

 tested beyond the possibiHty of a doubt. 



•^"^The domesticated buffalo retains the same haughty bearino* that dis- 

 tinguishes him in his natural state. He will^ however^ feed or fatten on 

 whatever suits the tame cow^, and requires about the same amount of food. 

 I have never milked either the full-blood or mixed breed^ but have no doubt 

 they might be made good railkers, although their bags or udders are less 

 than those of the common cow; yet^ from the strength of the calf, the dam 

 must yield as much or even more milk than the common cow."* 



From the foregoing the following facts are sufficiently attested : (1) That 

 the buffalo is readily susceptible of domestication; (2) that it interbreeds 

 freely with the domestic cow^; (3) that the half-breeds are fertile; and 

 (4) that they readily amalgamate with the domestic cattle. The advan- 

 tages that arise from the mixed race are less clearly apparent^ as their 



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adaptability to labor seems as yet to have not been properly tested, although 

 the experiments of Mr. Wickliffe offer encouragement in this direction. A 

 larger race than either of the original stocks seems^ however, to result from 

 the crossing of the buffalo. with the cow, and a probable improvement in 

 milking qualities. 



The domestication of the buffalo has heretofore been undertaken only 

 in regions where farm-labor was done chiefly by the use of horses or mules, 

 Galissoniere, as already noticed (see antea^ p. 198), writing a century and a 

 quarter ago, believed the buflQxlo w^ould "be adapted to ploughing," and that 



* Audubon and Bachman's Quadrupeds of North America, Vol. II, pp. 52 - 54. Mr. Wickliffe's 

 account of his observations and experiments has been repeatedly quoted by different writers on the sub- 

 ject of the domestication of the buffalo (see Baird, Patent-Office Keport, Agriculture, Part II, 1851 - 52, 

 pp. 126-128; Hind, Canadian Exploring Expedition, Vol II, p. 113), and embraces nearly all of im- 

 portance as yet published relating to the subject. 



In this connection may be noticed the astonishing dogmatism with which Schoolcraft, four years after 

 the publication of Mr. Wickliffe's account of his experiments in domesticating the buffalo, and three years 

 afler its republication by Professor Baird, asserts that while '' the calf of the bison has often been captured 

 on the frontiers, and brought up with domestic cattle," and been "measurably tamed,'' that "it produces 

 no cross^'' and " is utterly barren in this state" He alludes also to the statement of Gomara that it is sus- 

 ceptible of domestication, his statement being revived, Schoolcraft adds, and " in a manner galvanized by 

 a justly eminent writer [Humboldt], after the uniform ohservation of the French and English colonists 

 of America, disaffirming [!], for more than two centuries, the practicability of its domestication"; and fur- 



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ther states that " all visitors and travellers who have spoken on the subject coincide in the opinion that 

 the bison is incapable of domestication^ and that it is not without imminent peril to themselves that the 

 fierce and mitamable herds of it are hunted." — History^ Condition^ and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of 

 the United States, Part V (1856), p. 49. 



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