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220 



THE AMERICAlSr BISOI^S. 



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'^ they would possess the same advantage that horses have over domestic 

 oxen, that is, superior swiftness/' but the question has as yet received httle 

 attention. Being more active than the domestic ox, it seems highly prob- 

 able that they might make a superior farm animal, especially since, as Pro- 

 fessor Shaler suggests to me, they would be far better able to endure the 

 intense heat of summer than ordinary cattle. 



besides being 



swifter and 



stronger. 



From what is already known of the behavior of the buffalo under domes- 

 tication, it seems altogether tractable and docile. A letter written by Mr. 

 P. B. Thompson, Sr., to Professor Shaler, respecting the domestication of the 

 buffalo in Kentucky, bears further on this point. Mr. Thompson says (under 

 date of ^^Harrodsburg, Ky., October 30, 1875 ") : ''In reply to your inquiry 

 relative to the buffaloes formerly owned by Colonel George C. Thompson of 

 Shawnee Springs, Mercer County, permit me to say that my remembrance 

 of them runs back at least fifty years. My first recollection is that there 

 was a bull and three cows. They were kept in a park of about sixty acres 

 of blue-grass. In the same park were about fifty deer, and from seven to 



twelve elk. The animals in the park were fed but little, and given the same 



have submitted to milking. 



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food as other cattle. The elk and deer were but slightly domesticated, but 

 the buffaloes became as gentle as any other cattle that were not constantly 

 handled. I have been often within a few feet of them, and have no doubt 

 that they could have been used as beasts of labor, or that the females would 



ere were but few young, they being poor 

 breeders, which was probably the effect of neglect. They were very long- 

 lived; one of them must have been thirty years old, the others over twenty. 



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The bull died many years ago, the last cow about a year smce. 



^^ During the whole time I do not think they ever broke a fence, or w^ent 

 beyond the limits of the park unless driven. Other cattle were put in the 

 park, and it was used at times for a calf lot. They were not vicious to cither 

 cattle, horses, hogs, or sheep. ''The two last left were cows, who survived 

 the bull at least fifteen years. They were calved in the park, and, as I 

 have said before, were docile and harmless." 



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No attempt appears as yet to have been made to perpetuate an un- 

 mixed domestic race of the buffalo, 

 they would lose much of their natural untractableness, and when cas- 

 trated would doubtless form superior w^orking cattle, from their greater 

 size and strength and great natural agility. While on the Plains in 



Probably after a few generations 





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