AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[February, 
52 
River and extends to the Texas line. Here large 
numbers of buffalo have been killed during the 
past three or four years. Between the scant herb¬ 
age of the plains, and the merciless destruction of 
Remington, Winchester, and Sharpe’s rifles, the 
animals promise to soon disappear from this region. 
The range is reached by going out on the Atchison, 
Topeka, and Santa Fe road as far as Lakin, and 
then striking due south. There are a few buffalo 
left in North Park, Col., and to the country west of 
it. They are, however, very wary and difficult to 
find. A party of us rSde over 130 miles in a fruit¬ 
less effort to discover this drove. There are like¬ 
wise a few buffalo in Northern Nebraska in the 
Niobrara region. The great northern herd, how¬ 
ever, has pushed far northward beyond the Yellow 
Stone country, in their endeavors to get as far as" 
possible out of the way of advancing civilization. 
Buffalo are easily domesticated, and one frequently 
sees them feeding with the cattle on the ranges. 
Some attempts have been made to raise them for 
profit. A few years ago, passengers on the Kansas 
Pacific Road constantly saw antelope from the win¬ 
dows. Now, however, they are rarely seen except 
in the western portion of the State and along the 
Colorado boundary. They are likewise diminishing 
in Colorado and Nebraska. In Wyoming, however, 
and Northern Colorado, there are more antelope 
this fall than there have been for several seasons, 
and the hunting has been excellent. I know no bet¬ 
ter locality for hunting antelope than North Park. 
We found countless numbers of. them here and 
so tame that they would occasionally run through 
our camp before sunrise. After the genuine 
sportsman has shot one or two of these beautiful 
creatures, he desists from their further destruction 
unless it be for food. There are parties, however, 
calling themselves sportsmen, who shoot down 
antelope right and left for the mere brutal gratifi¬ 
cation of being able to tell ou their return home of 
their achievements, and to add to the number of 
their horns and other trophies. Day after day 1 have 
marked the trail of these spurious sportsmen by the 
carcasses of animals unnecessarily and inhumanly 
slaughtered. There is naturally much feeling in 
Wyoming and Colorado against these butchers, and 
the frontiersmen often becomes so incensed as to 
threaten them with summary vengeance. Deer and 
Elk are to be found during the summer months in 
the snowy ranges of Colorado, and likewise on the 
southern borders of North Park. In October and 
November they begin to come out of the snow cov¬ 
ered mountains, among the foot-hills and on the 
plains, where they are found in considerable num¬ 
bers. The other day, while we were riding on the 
Utah Northern Road, the engineer was compelled 
Fig. 1. —FIRST FLOOR OF PIGGERY. 
to slack up the train for fear of running over a band 
of deer which were crossing the track in their de¬ 
scent from the mountain regions to the plains. 
During the winter months the best region for 
hunting elk, deer, or antelope, is in Northern 
Wyoming, due north from Rawlins, in the Sweet 
Water and Wind River regions. Here appears to be 
a kind of winter rendezvous for wild game, and if a 
hunting-party secures the right kind of a guide, 
they can have their fill of enjoyment in this country. 
We had planned a horseback trip through this 
region, north to the Yellow Stone, and thence east 
through Dakota to the Missouri River at Bismarck. 
It was abandoned this year owing to the insecurity 
occasioned by the Indian outbreaks and the increase 
in the number of outlaws. If you can afford the 
time and expenditure, one of the most adventurous 
of western trips, is to proceed to Bismarck, go up 
Fig. 3.— FRONT OF PENS. 
the Yellow Stone River, visit the Parks, and then, 
pushing down through Wyoming, reach the Union 
Pacific at Rawlins, Laramie, or some adjacent point, 
and return to Omaha and Chicago by the Union 
Pacific and Chicago and North Western roads. 
[A portion of this correspondence, “ Among 
the Lumbermen and Iron Miners of Lake Su¬ 
perior,” is given on page 60 of this number.] 
A Convenient Piggery. 
Last month we described some convenient imple¬ 
ments in use in the piggery of J. W. Morrison, 
Orange Co., N. Y., and now we present plans of the 
piggery itself, from sketches made on the place. 
The building is two stories high, and 26 x 40 feet 
on the ground ; front posts, 16 feet; rear posts, 14 
feet. The roof is fiat, and covered with gravel and 
tar. In fig. 1., P, P, are the pens, each 8 x 14 feet; 
T, are the yards, 8 x 16 feet (here shown one-half 
size). A, A, are iron troughs, 1 x 7i feet, shown 
also in fig. 3 at c. Feed tubs are located at F T, 
where they receive the skim and buttermilk through 
a pipe from the dairy. The floor of the pens are 
brick laid in cement, and slope 4 inches back to the 
sills, which are raised that hight above the floor, 
resting on iron pins, thus leaving a space for the 
discharge of dung and water into the yards. The 
yards are also provided with a tight bottom and 
walls of brick and mortar, thus preserving the 
manure from waste. A roof over the yards, to shed 
rain, and supported on posts, with no boarding, 
would be an improvement. At S L, fig. 1 is the 
slaughter room ; the pens are partitioned off from 
this floor, so that the slaughtering can not disturb 
the pigs. The floor of this part slopes a foot in the 
26 feet of length, and a few inches from the sides to 
the center. The furnace and boilers are at F, the 
scalding-tub at W, and the dressing table at S. 
The boilers are used both for cooking food and 
heating water for use in dressing the porkers. A 
door opens from the pens to the slaughter floor, and 
the pens are all connected by doors between them. 
The second story, fig. 2, contains the sleeping- 
rooms, 8 x 12, entrance to which is gained by in¬ 
clined planes, i, i, from the pens below. No diffi¬ 
culty was experienced in getting the pigs accus¬ 
tomed to climbing up to their sleeping-rooms at 
night, and they keep them clean and dry ; leaves 
are furnished for bedding. This economical ar¬ 
rangement of pens allows the keeping of about 50 
hogs in a comparatively small building. The space 
over the slaughter floor extends up to the roof, ex¬ 
cept that a platform, P, P, fig. 2, runs around in 
front of the sleeping pens, on a level with the sec¬ 
ond floor. The room R, fig. 2, is used for grain 
bins and storage. The doors opening into the 
yards, and from pen to pen, are all managed by 
ropes and pulleys from in front of the pens, as in¬ 
dicated at e, fig. 3. This engraving also shows the 
iron trough and shoot, c and i; at a is shown a 
board set back 4 inches in front of the shoot, to 
prevent soiling the sheathing, which is neatly 
painted. To help in keeping out vermin, all 6pace 
around the framework and behind the troughs 
(fig. 3) are filled in with brick and mortar. 
Do Prairie-Dogs Dig Wells? 
Last summer one of the staff of the American 
Agriculturist, when in Nebraska, published infor¬ 
mation furnished him by Mr. M. T. Leech, then of 
Ogalalla, but now of Julesburg, Nebraska, to the 
effect that Prairie-dogs dig wells, each “ dog-town” 
being provided with one. It was asserted, amoug 
other things that, no matter how far down the water 
might be, the dogs would keep on digging until 
they reached it, Mr. Leech adding that he knew of 
one such well two hundred feet deep. These state¬ 
ments have been widely copied, and they have been 
several times denied by, among others, one of the 
Professors of Yale College. We have met Mr. 
Leech this autumn in Wyoming Territory, where 
he holds a responsible position in the railway em¬ 
ploy, and he reiterates the original statements, and 
affirms their truth, adding that if the skeptics will 
come to Sidney, Nebraska, they will find convinc¬ 
ing proof of their accuracy. There is a “ town ” of 
25 or 30 pet Prairie-dogs, about five rods from the 
track north-west of the Railroad Hotel. The owner 
of the Prairie-dogs will show the visitor the well, 
and will tell him that about the first move the dogs 
made, after being located there, was to dig for wa¬ 
ter. At a point on the Kansas and Pacific Railroad, 
not far from Buffalo Station, the workmen in sink¬ 
ing a tank reservoir some time ago, struck one of 
these Prairie-dog wells, and followed it down to a 
depth of two hundred feet. Mr. Leech’s statements 
were verified by Professor Auglrey, the well known 
Geologist at the Nebraska State University, who 
informed us 
at Lincoln, 
that he had 
d i s c o v e red 
these wells 
while making 
geological ex- 
plorations 
along the Lo¬ 
gan River in 
Northern Ne¬ 
braska. Mr. 
Leech, who is 
a frontiers¬ 
man of long 
e x p e r ience, 
further in¬ 
forms us that 
there is no 
foundation 
for the pre¬ 
vailing notion 
that dogs,, 
Fig. 2.-SECOND FLOOR OF PIGGERY. ratt l esnake S „ 
and owls occupy the same holes. When for one cause 
or another a Prairie-dog abandons a hole, it is taken 
possession of by an owl, who stops it up with rub¬ 
bish at about three or four feet from the mouth, 
and constructs its nest. Rattlesnakes infest the 
dog towns for the purpose of preyiDg upon the 
young dogs, and the eggs of the owl. Mr. Leech 
states that he has several times killed rattlesnakes, 
within the stomachs of which he has found on dis¬ 
section young Prairie-dogs three or four days old 
v 
8x12 
R 
14-* 16 
1 
I . 
