BREEDING VIRGINIA DEER. 43 



disposed of about half of it for venison. For park purposes he gets 

 $20 to $30 a head ; when fattened for venison they bring $20 to $35 

 a head. The animals do well in captivity. Mr. Griggs says fur- 

 ther : " In raising a large herd the park should be divided into two 

 or three lots, and one plowed each year and sown to red clover, mus- 

 tard, rape, and seeds of different kinds of weeds. Blue grass and 

 timothy are useless. Corn is the principal grain I feed. I feed it 

 winter, and summer. In winter I feed also clover hay, oat straw, 

 and weedy wild hay. Deer when rightly handled are very prolific, 

 and from 50 does one can count on 75 fawns. Deer can be raised 

 profitably for venison — very profitably until overdone — but I would 

 not advise one to go into it on a large scale without previous expe- 

 rience with deer." 



Charles Goodnight, of Goodnight, Tex., writing March 26, 1908, 

 states that he kept deer and elk on his plains pastures for a number 

 of years, until he became convinced that his ranch was unsuited to 

 browsing or partly browsing animals. He says: "With a properly 

 selected place, the raising of these animals is not only practicable but 

 very profitable. I should select a rough, broken piece of country 

 with some prairie and glades, covered with as great a variety of 

 shrubbery as possible. Deer will not eat ordinary grass if they can 

 help it, but will eat wild rye and other kinds of soft grasses. With 

 a properly selected place they are of very little expense after the 

 pasture is fenced." 



R. H. Harris, of Clarksville, Tex., on January 16, 1908, wrote that 

 he had been engaged in raising Virginia deer for several years, and 

 thinks that the business is admirably adapted for the profitable in- 

 vestment of capital. The Virginia deer is suited to almost every sec- 

 tion of the United States. It is prolific, each doe usually producing 

 twins. These grow very rapidly, and become the most beautiful, 

 graceful, and healthy animals known. The demand for venison and 

 deerskins is unlimited, the flesh being very high priced in city 

 restaurants and cafes. 



" No other meat," says Mr. Harris, " is equal to venison as a diet for 

 the sick, it being easily digested and agreeing with the most delicate 

 stomachs. Deer are easily tamed; the wildest fawn, if taken from 

 the herd when young, will in a few hours become as gentle as a pet 

 dog. I have for several years been raising them in large numbers. 

 They run at will in woodlands and fields, are never handled, but fed 

 occasionally, and are as gentle as a common herd of cattle, They are 

 easily and cheaply raised and seldom, if ever, die from natural causes. 

 After years of practical experience, I unhesitatingly state that the 

 raising of deer is in profitableness second only to the raising of cattle. 



" The cost of feeding deer averages about one-half cent each per 

 day. They feed on all kinds of vegetables, buds, and leaves of trees, 



