DEER FARMING IN THE UNITED STATES 



That the rising prices of beef and mutton in the United States can be partially 

 overcome by raising deer for venison, is maintained by Dr C. Hart Merriani, Chief 

 of the United States Biological Survey. According to Doctor Merriam elk meat 

 can be produced cheaper than beef or mutton in many sections of the United 

 States, and, with comparatively little effort, it is possible to make raising deer for 

 venison as profitable as any other live-stock industry. Every one who has seen 

 the large numbers of deer brozvsing on private estates in England as peacefully as 

 cattle and sheep zvonders zvhy American enterprise has not long since developed 

 breeding deer for food in this country. 



SEVERAL species of deer are suited 

 for breeding in inclosures in the 

 United States ; the axis deer, the 

 Japanese and Pekin sikas, the red and 

 the fallow deer of Europe, and especially 

 the Rocky Mountain elk, or wapiti, and 

 the A'irginia deer. While experiments 

 with the foreign species named offer 

 every promise of success to the owners 

 of American preserves, the elk and Mr- 

 ginia deer are recommended as best 

 adapted for the production of venison in 

 the United States. 



The flavor of venison is distinctive, 

 though it suggests mutton rather than 

 beef. In chemical composition it is very 

 similar to beef. A lean venison roast 

 before cooking has been found to 

 contain on an average 75 per cent of 

 water, 20 per cent of protein or nitrog- 

 enous material, and 2 per cent of fat; a 

 lean beef rump, some 65 to 70 per cent 

 of water, 20 to 23 per cent of protein, 

 and 5 to 14 per cent of fat; and a lean 

 leg of mutton, 67 per cent of water. 19 

 per cent of protein, and 13 per cent of 

 fat. 



The general popularity of venison is 

 so great and the demand for it so wide- 

 spread that overproduction is improbable. 

 The other products of the deer— skins 

 and horns — are of considerable impor- 

 tance, and in countries where deer are 

 abundant, and especially where large 

 herds are kept in semi-domestication, the 

 commerce in both is very extensive. 



THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN ELK, OR W.\PITI 



The wapiti, known generally in Amer- 

 ica as the elk, is, next to the moose, the 



* Abstracted from Farmers' Bulletin 330. By 



largest of our deer. It was once abun- 

 dant over the greater part of the United 

 States, whence its range extended north- 

 ward to about latitude 60° in the Peace 

 River region of the interior of Canada. 

 In the United States the limits of its 

 range eastv.ard were the Adirondacks,- 

 western New Jersey, and eastern Penn- 

 sylvania; southward it reached the 

 southern Alleghenies, northern Texas, 

 southern New Mexico, and Arizona; 

 and westward the Pacific Ocean. 



At the present time the elk are found 

 only in a few scattered localities outside 

 of the Yellowstone National Park and^ 

 the mountainous country surrounding it, 

 where large herds remain. Smaller herds 

 still occur in Colorado, western Montana, 

 Idaho, eastern Oregon, Manitoba, A\- 

 berta, British Columbia, and the coast 

 mountains of Washington, Oregon, and^ 

 northwestern California. A band of the 

 small California Valley elk still inhabits- 

 tlie southern part of the San Joaquin 

 \"alley. 



The herds that summer in the Yellow- 

 stone National Park and in winter spread 

 southward and eastward in Wyoming 

 are said to number about 30.000 head, 

 and constitute the only large bands of 

 this noble game animal that are left. 

 Although protected in their summer 

 ranges and partially safeguarded from 

 destruction in winter by the State of 

 \\'yoming, there is yet great danger that 

 these herds may perish from lack of food 

 in a succession of severe winters. Par- 

 tial provision for winter forage has been 

 made within the National Park, but the 

 supply is inadequate for the large ntim- 



D. E. Lantz, U. S. Biological Survey 



