DEER FARMING IN THE UNITED STATES 



273 



adapted to goats. Much of tliis land is 

 suited also to deer and elk, and can be 

 utilized for these animals with less injury 

 to the forest cover than would result 

 from its browsing by goats. 



Virginia deer have often been bred in 

 parks for pleasure or in large preserves 

 for sport, but the economic possibilities 

 in raising them have received little atten- 

 tion. Recently breeders have recognized 

 the fact that they are profitable under 

 proper management and would be much 

 more so were conditions for marketing 

 live animals and venison more favorable. 



The Biological Survey has reports of 

 successful experience in raising Virginia 

 deer from more than a dozen persons, 

 located in different parts of the country, 

 who are now engaged in the business. 

 The management of the herds varies 

 slightly with the surroundings and the 

 object for which they are kept. 



Thomas Blagden. of Washington, D. 

 C, began raising deer in 1874. After an 

 experience of over a third of a century 

 he is confident that the business can be 

 made profitable. In his own herds he 

 has carefully avoided in-breeding by se- 

 curing new bucks from time to time. 

 His stock is vigorous and of the large 

 size characteristic of the Adirondack and 

 other northern deer. Consequently the 

 animals are in demand for breeding pur- 

 poses, the bucks bringing $50 each and 

 the does $75. He feeds grain, using 

 corn and a mixture of bran and meal, 

 and during the summer cuts as much 

 wild forage as possible. He finds that 

 the animals prefer the rankest weeds to 

 the choicest grass. Of the various kinds 

 of hay, they prefer alfalfa. He provides 

 abundant water at all times. 



John W. Griggs, of Goodell, Iowa, 

 writes that he has been engaged in rais- 

 ing deer for about fourteen years. Until 

 two years ago he sold all his surplus 

 stock for parks, but since then has dis- 

 posed of about half of it for venison. 

 For park purposes he gets $20 to $30 a 

 head, but they bring fully as much or 

 more when fattened for venison. As to 

 management of deer, Mr Griggs writes: 



In raising a large herd the park should be 

 divided into two or three lots, and one plowed 



each year and sown to red clover, mustard, 

 rape, and seeds of different kinds of weeds. 

 Bkiegrass and timothy are useless. Corn is the 

 principal grain I feed. I feed it winter and 

 summer. In winter I feed also clover hay, oat 

 straw, and weedy wild hay. Deer when rightly 

 handled are very prolific, and from 50 does one 

 can count on 75 fawns. They can be raised 

 profitably for venison — very profitably until 

 overdone ; but I would not advise one to go 

 into it on a large scale without previous exper- 

 ience with deer. 



The report received from C. H. Rose- 

 berry, of Stella, Mo., although less 

 enthusiastic than others, is quoted be- 

 cause his herd approaches more nearly 

 a state of true domestication. Under the 

 date of January 13, 1908, Mr Roseberry 

 wrote as follows : 



My experience in breeding the common or 

 Virginia deer covers a period of seventeen 

 years, beginning in March, 1891, when, as a 

 boy of 16, I built a small inclosure of i^ acres 

 to confine a single doe that was captured as a 

 fawn in the neighboring forest. 



A buck and other does were secured from 

 year to year, until in 1900, by purchase and 

 natural increase, my herd numbered 25 head of 

 all ages. 



From 1891 to 1901 I lost every year from 

 disease an average of 20 per cent. The climax 

 came in the drought year of 1901, when my 

 loss was so per cent from the disease known as 

 "black tongue." 



I am convinced that, like cholera in swine, 

 individuals recovering from this disease arc 

 immune from further attack. Apparently all of 

 my herd were afflicted. The survivors and 

 their progeny constitute my present breeding 

 stock. I have made no purchases since 1901, 

 nor have I suffered any loss from disease. 



For the last seven years my herd has aver- 

 aged 70 per cent increase, all of which I have 

 sold at satisfactory prices. I began selling at 

 $20 per pair of fawns at 4 months of age, and 

 $30 per pair of adults. I now get $40 and $60, 

 respectively. I sell almost exclusively for pets 

 and for propagating purposes, although a few 

 surplus bucks have been sold for venison, 

 averaging me 15 cents per pound gross weight. 



If we except the goat, I know of no domestic 

 animal common to the farm that requires so 

 little feed and attention as the deer. My herd 

 has a range of only 15 acres, two-thirds of 

 which are set to white clover, bluegrass, and 

 orchard grass. I provide also a small plat of 

 wheat or rye for winter pasture. With the 

 above provision, in this latitude, no feed is re- 

 quired between April 15 and November 15. 

 During the rest of the year a ration of corn, 

 bran, or other mill feed somewhat smaller than 

 that required for sheep, in connection with a 

 stack of clover or pea hay to which they have 



