EXPERIENCE IN RAISING ELK. 31 



house where he stopped a full-grown elk perfectly domesticated. 

 There were no fences about and it never attempted to run away. a 



The final outcome of the Stratton experiment at Little Valley was 

 recorded in a communication to Forest and Stream by Mr. E. L. 

 Stratton, of Grand View, Tenn., a brother of Lorenzo Stratton. He 

 stated that so far as the experiment was carried it was a complete 

 success. " Had there been a moderate amount of capital invested, 

 with a larger territory of cheap mountain land added, and with 

 close attention to the business, it would have been a profitable invest- 

 ment and doubtless would have shown handsome dividends. But 

 when we decided to move South, the elk business had to be aban- 

 doned. Most of the stock on hand was bought by some foreigners 

 and shipped by rail to New York, thence some to Italy and the 

 rest to Germany, and three or four were slaughtered at home." 6 



In 1887 T. D. Kellogg, of Whitestone, Long Island, contributed to 

 the New York Herald an interesting account of his observations on 

 domesticating the wapiti, made when a pioneer in northwestern Iowa 

 in the fifties. Mr. Kellogg said that at that time elk roamed over 

 all the plains of that part of Iowa, but already in diminishing num- 

 bers. In the spring when a settler had killed a doe elk he would occa- 

 sionally take home a suckling fawn in his arms and bring it up by 

 hand. Two settlers whom he knew well had each an elk thus domes- 

 ticated, and several similar instances came to his knowledge. These 

 settlers had no inclosure except a small garden patch, from which 

 stock was excluded by a rude fence. 



The tame elk, let loose upon the open prairie, were at full liberty, 

 and although born in a wild state they never joined a passing herd 

 nor roamed far from home. They gave no trouble by getting into 

 the garden or injuring the fence. They were less timid than sheep, 

 although not so familiar as dogs. " Probably no animal in existence," 

 says Mr. Kellogg, " is naturally fitted to take so kindly to domestica- 

 tion as this noble creature, so rapidly disappearing from the face of 

 the earth." G 



Judge John D. Caton, of Illinois, who contributed so much to our 

 knowledge of the deer family and of their susceptibility to domestica- 

 tion, seems to have been unfortunate in having inclosures poorly 

 adapted to deer. He believed that his pastures contained some kind 

 of vegetable food that was harmful to most of the species, but his 

 elk were always healthy. Writing in 1880, Judge Caton said : 



My elk continue to do well and are so prolific that I have had repeatedly to 

 reduce their numbers and would be glad now to dispose of at least 30. I 



a Trans. Am. Institute for 1861-62, pp. 220-223, 1862. 



& Forest and Stream, XLVIII, 445, June 5, 1897. 



c The American Field, XXVIII, 126, August 6, 1887. 



