HARDY ON PROVINCIAL ACCLIMATIZATION. 29 



of the third year that the males become unmanageable and dan- 

 gerous.* 



The point, however, on which I wish to engage attention, is not 

 the domestication of either of these animals in the state in which 

 the ordinary domesticated animals are' associated with us, but a 

 possible state of semi-domestication, by which the moose might be 

 caused to multiply on uncleared land, and regularly bred, fattened, 

 and turned to profit Avithoufc the smallest cost to the owner, except 

 the expense of maintaining his enclosures in an efficient state of 

 security. jMy attention was first drawn to this by reading an 

 account of the successful breeding of the American elk (C. Wapiti) 

 by an American gentleman, a Mr. Stratton, of jS[ew York State. 

 I quote from a letter dated January 12, 1859 : 



" My desire to keep and breed them, without their becoming a tax 

 upon me, led to diligent enquiry in relation to what had been done in 

 the way of their domestication. I procured, as far as possible, every 

 paper, book, and document, which could give any light upon the subject. 

 I wrote to every part of the country whence any information could be 

 obtained, and opened a correspondence with those who had undertaken 

 such an enterprise. The result of my efforts was simply this : nearly 

 every one who had owned an elk was a gentleman amateur, and had 

 left the care and direction to servants ; — that the bucks, not having been 

 castrated at the proper age, had become unmanageable : — and when the 

 novelty of the attempt was over, the domestication in most cases wag 

 abandoned. But from my own inquiries, and a close personal observa- 

 tion of the habits of the animal, I believed that a different course would 

 produce a more favorable result. The first requisite was a place to 

 keep them in. Now, they had always lived in the woods, summer and 

 winter : why not live in the forest again ? Actino^ on this principle, I 

 immediately set to work and fenced in about 150 acres of hill land, 

 which was steep and stony, covered with brushwood and entirely 

 useless for agricultural purposes. In this lot I turned my elks, where 

 they have been six years. In the mean time I purchased two more does, 

 and have reared eight fawns. Having emasculated the older bucks as 

 fast as the younger ones became adults, I have now a herd so gentle, 

 that a visitor at my farm would hardly imagine that their ancestors, only 

 three generations back, were wild animals. And this has been done 

 simply by visiting the park two or three times a week, and always carry- 

 ing them an ear of corn, some little delicacy, or salt, and treating them 

 with unvarying kindness. 



" The facility for extending this business may easily be conceived. 

 New York alone might support 100,000 elks on land where our domes- 

 tic cattle could not subsist, furnishing an amount of venison almost 



♦Formerly the elk of Europe was used in Sweden to draw sledges, but his use 

 for this purpose was finally prohibited by government, as criminals used it as a 

 aieans of escape. 



