ELK IN THE OZARK MOUNTAINS. 33 



well with deer as with the elk. Deer require a higher fence and more 

 care. The elk do well on hay, corn fodder, and other rough feed ; if 

 they escape from an inclosure they can be driven back like cattle. 

 Mr. Wilson paid $165 for 2 adult elk and a fawn. He has sold $300 

 worth of stock, and, in 1908, had a herd of 12 head, worth $1,000. 



The experience of Carl Tielenius with his herd at Mount Pocono, 

 Pa., is less satisfactory. He began about the year 1890 with 26 head 

 of 2-year-old elk, 22 of which were cows. The first year they pro- 

 duced 23 calves, and in the following four years 22, 18, 16, and 12, 

 respectively. In later years with about 80 cows the number of calves 

 has ranged from 5 to 10 per year. The herd is healthy, but reproduc- 

 tion is deficient in spite of the infusion of new blood by the introduc- 

 tion of bulls from the Whitney herd. It is possible that, as Judge 

 Caton suspected to be the trouble in his herd, the bulls at Mount 

 Pocono exhaust themselves by much fighting before the rut begins. 



ELK IN THE OZARK MOUNTAINS. 



Col. W. C. Wetmore, of St. Louis, writes under date of April 20, 

 1908, that the St. Louis Park and Agricultural Company, of which he 

 is a member, owns several thousand acres of land in Taney County, 

 Mo. The land is in the Ozark Mountains and the ground rough and 

 hilly, though well watered. A little of the upland and some of the 

 valleys are tillable, and corn and oats are grown in the former and 

 corn and alfalfa in the latter — enough to feed the game when snow 

 prevents their finding their ordinary food. The preserve is sur- 

 rounded with an 8- foot wire fence, and in it are now about 400 elk 

 and 1,000 deer. 



Colonel Wetmore writes further : 



They are hearty and healthy and do well in every way and at all times are 

 fat and marketable. I am thoroughly convinced that the raising of both elk 

 and deer can be made very profitable where the ground, water, and other condi- 

 tions are favorable. Deer increase very rapidly, as a doe usually drops twins 

 after she is three years old. Elk do not increase so rapidly, cow elk dropping a 

 calf every other year, but they are hardy, and with an experience of over 

 twenty years I have not known one to die of natural causes. * * * I am a 

 lover of all wild game, particularly deer and elk, and I hope you will be suc- 

 cessful in interesting people in propagating them. Give them plenty of room to 

 run in and they will do well. 



George W. Russ, of Eureka Springs, Ark., has a herd of 93 elk 

 (1909) . They have ample range in the Ozarks on rough land covered 

 with hardwood forest and abundant underbrush. He reports that the 

 animals improve the forest by clearing out part of the thicket. 

 Fully 90 per cent of the females produce healthy young, and Mr. 

 Russ thinks he could make the business of growing elk for market 

 profitable if the law would permit him to kill and export the meat. 



