11 



cattle, but, owing to hostile game laws, experience in marketing it 

 is very limited. An offer of 40 cents a pound for dressed meat was 

 received from St. Louis, but the law would not permit its export. 

 Mr. Russ says : 



From the fact that as high as $1.50 per ]k)iiii(1 has been i)aid for this meat in 

 New York City and Canada, and tliat the best hotels and restanrants pronounce 

 it the finest of all the meats of mammals, we are of the opinion that if laws 

 were such that domesticated elk meat could be furnished it would be many 

 years before the supply would make the price reasonable compared with otlier 

 meats. Ellv meat can be produced in many sections of this country at less cost 

 per pound than beef, mutton, or ]»ork. 



Mr. Russ thinks that large areas of rough lands in the United 

 States not now utilized, especially in localities like the Ozarks and 

 the Alleghenies, could be economically used to produce venison for 

 sale, and he regards the elk as especially suited for this purpose. 



Another feature of Mr. Russ's report is of more than passing inter- 

 est. He sa3"s: 



We find from long experience that cattle, sheep, and goats can be grazed in 

 the same lots with elk, providing, however, tliat the lots or inclosures are not 

 small ; the larger the area the better. \\g know of no more appropriate place 

 to call attention to the great benefit of a few elk in the same pasture with 

 sheep and goats. An elk is the natural enemy of dogs and wolves. We suf- 

 fered great losses to our flocks until \ve learned this fact; since then we have 

 had no loss from that cause. A few elk in a thousand-acre pasture will abso- 

 lutely protect the flocks therein. Our own dogs are so well aware of the dan- » 

 ger in our elk park that they can not be induced to enter it. 



Judge Caton, in his Antelope and Deer of America, also remarks 

 on the animosity of elk toward dogs, and says that the does always 

 lead in the chase of dogs that get into the elk park. If elk will at- 

 tack and vanquish dogs and coyotes and thus help to protect domestic 

 animals grazing in the same pastures, a knowledge of the fact may be 

 of great advantage to stockmen who desire to give up herding sheep 

 and to resort to fenced pastures instead. The addition of a few elk 

 in the pasture may be an efficient protection from dogs, coyotes, and 

 wolves. However, outside of fenced pastures elk do not always show 

 , themselves hostile to dogs and coyotes." 



MANAGEMENT OF ELK IN INCLOSURES. 



Lorenzo Stratton, of Little Valley, Cattaraugus County, X. Y., be- 

 gan experiments in breeding elk about sixty jenrs ago. His plan of 

 management consisted essentially in taming the calves when very 



« President Roosevelt reports in Outdoor Pastimes of an American Hunter 

 that he saw a coyote walking unnoticed among a band of elk in Yellowstone 

 Park; and Thomas Blagden, of Washington, D. 0., informs the M'riter that 

 noisy dogs w^er^ used to drive unconfined elk from the lawns of sunnner cot- 

 tages at Saranac Inn, in the Adirondacks. 

 330 



