APPENDIX C 



THE YAK— THE RANGE BEAST FOR THE 

 NORTH-WEST 



(This appeared first in Country Life in America, February, 1909.) 



There exists in America a vast belt of unsettled country ex- 

 tending from Atlantic to Pacific, from Maine through Canada to 

 Alaska — some four thousand miles, with an average width of 

 more than five hundred miles, which is suited to cattle raising in 

 every way but one — its winter is too severe. 



With four months of hard frost and deep snow the ordinary 

 range cattle cannot thrive, so that practically the north limit of 

 cattle ranching, without winter-housing and feeding, is the south 

 limit of the so-called Canadian fauna — not the south boundary of 

 Canada, but a line crossing from the south end of Lake Winnipeg 

 to the north Saskatchewan, then southward along the Rockies 

 into the United States. 



Reference to a map shows that this area is at least equal in 

 size to all the cattle ranges hitherto utilised in America. At pres- 

 ent, however, it is in a primitive condition, not turned to produc- 

 tive use, except on the edges, by lumbermen, and in general by a 

 few trappers and Indians who need not be interfered with by any 

 stock-raising enterprise. 



Attempts to utilise this cold range have not been wanting. 

 The American Buffalo and its various crosses with the long-haired 

 cattle of the Highlands have been tried, but so far without satis- 

 factory results, chiefly because of the unmanageable nature of the 

 Buffalo. It is unreliable in temper, almost impossible to drive, 

 and ever ready to stampede in the wrong direction. 



A better solution of the problem is offered us ready-made in 

 Asia, where they have precisely the same conditions to face. The 



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