The Last of tJte Buffalo 



great size and tremendous frame of these 

 cross-bred cattle should make them very 

 valuable for beef; w^hile their hardiness 

 vs^ould exempt them from the dangers 

 from winter, — so often fatal to domestic 

 range cattle, — and they produce a robe 

 which is quite as valuable as that of the 

 buffalo, and more beautiful because more 

 even all over. If continued, these at- 

 tempts at cross-breeding may do much to 

 improve our Western range cattle. 



Mr. Jones has sold a number of buffalo 

 to persons in Europe, where there is con- 

 siderable demand for them. It is to be 

 hoped that no more of these domesticated 

 buffalo will be allowed to leave the coun- 

 try where they were born. Indeed, it 

 would seem quite within the lines of the 

 work now being carried on by the Agri- 

 cultural Department for the Government 

 to purchase all the domesticated American 

 buffalo that can be had, and to start, in 

 some one of the Western States, an exper- 

 imental farm for buffalo breeding and buf- 

 falo crossing. With a herd of fifty pure 

 bred buffalo cows and a sufficient number 

 of bulls, a series of experiments could be 

 carried on which might be of great value 

 to the cattle growers of our Western coun- 

 try. The stock of pure buffalo could be 



