ANNUAL REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT 
I congratulate the Society on the work which it has 
accomplished during the past year; in the financial sup- 
port that has been given by its members and friends, in 
the co-operation which it has received from other so- 
cieties interested in the preservation and enjoyment of 
animal life, in the actions taken by the National and 
State Governments and by the Canadian Government 
in the protection of the bison and other large quadru- 
peds and in providing means by which these large an1- 
mals may increase in numbers and continue to be the 
associates of man for many generations to come. 
The number of pure blooded bison in the United 
States and Canada was increased in the season 1911-12 
from 2,760 to 2,907. The Wichita herd was increased 
to 30 last spring, the Montana herd to 70 and the Yel- 
lowstone National Park herd to 125; the Canadian 
herds to 1,132. Of the private herds, the Blue Mountain 
Forest herd in New Hampshire numbers 86, the Good- 
night herd 120 or more, and the James Philip herd 290. 
This last herd has been offered for sale to the Society. 
It is feeding just east of the Missouri River in South 
Dakota. 
The Society since its last meeting secured an 
appraisal of lands belonging to private parties adjacent 
to the Wind Cave National Park in western South 
Dakota, and reported its findings to the United States 
Secretary of Agriculture early in 1912. On February 
27 and March 6 the Society sent communications to the 
Secretary of Agriculture, after conferences with sena- 
tors and representatives in Congress for South Dakota 
and neighboring states, recommending the establish- 
ment of a National Bison Range and Game Preserve on 
the Wind Cave National Park, and on lands adjacent 
thereto, containing permanent water supplies and com- 
prising some fifteen thousand acres altogether, at a 
cost for fencing of $17,000, and at a cost for acquiring 
lands not now the property of the Government of 
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