PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS' CLUB. 221 



them, and they have fatted and bred regularly, and have become 

 quite domesticated. The does have been gentle, and act like 

 domestic cattle. The bucks have been also gentle, until they 

 were about four years old, when they have been difficult to 

 manage, in September and October, like a bull or stud-horse. 

 In such cases I generally made venison of them. Excepting these 

 instances, however, the animals are quite docile. The first fawn 

 that I raised was very shy ; he was in a lot of about fifteen acres, 

 and when I went to him he would flee from me, so that I 

 could hardly get a sight at him. The next fawns raised were 

 not so frightened when they saw me ; and now, when I go into 

 the field, the young fawns are like so many calves. My lot is 

 fenced with common rails, six or seven feet high, and there is no 

 difficulty in keeping the animals within bounds. Frequently, 

 wdien the fence may get down, they go out into a neighboring 

 piece of woods ; but, as soon as anything startles them, they run 

 for their own field again, and only feel safe Avhen they arrive 

 there. They are not inclined to stray off. This lot in which 

 they are confined they consider as their home, and chase off any 

 dogs that may come upon it. In four generations, by kind treat- 

 ment, I have, as I contend, not merely succeeded in taming them, 

 but in domesticating them. They are as gentle as sheep that run 

 wild. I have sheep in the same lot that are taken to the barn 

 every winter and fed ; and this fall, when I go into the lot, I can- 

 not call them as I can my elks, which have been there summer 

 and winter, and never left the ground. I have kept two elks 

 until they were four years old, and they are dangerous to go near 

 in the autumn. They attack a person both with their horns and 

 their feet. 



The elks find the greater part of their own living. They are 

 on the same grounds now that their species used to occupy when 

 the country was wild, and ought, perhaps, to take care of them- 

 selves now as Avell as they did then : they eat brush, moss and 

 grass : they eat almost everything that comes in their way : they 

 will grub on scrub-oak until they destroy it: they eat daisies 

 greedily ; not a daisy can grow where they run. There is noth- 

 ing to hinder the raising of them on cultivated farms. Still, I 

 suppose it would be cheaper to raise them on land which was 

 useless for any other agricultural purpose. There are a hundred 

 thousand acres of land in this State that can be used in this way, 

 and that is good for nothing else. I have an idea that the waste 



