Memories of an Old Buffalo Hunter. 
Browning, Mcrnt., July i .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: As an old hunter and trader I am 
greatly interested in the welfare of the few 
remnants of the once vast herds of buffalo that 
used to roam over the great plains, now the 
golden States of the West. On the buffalo de¬ 
pended the very existence of the Indian people, 
and that of the white pioneer. 
The Conrad Herd. 
I send you a few photographs of buffalo 
owned by the C. E. Conrad estate, one of the 
two herds located in this State, which I take 
much pride in visiting from year to year. These 
herds are in part the increase of a few calves 
gathered by a lone Indian hunter of the Flat- 
head tribe many years ago on the plains on 
the east side of the main range of the Rocky 
Mountains, the story of which was told in 
Forest and Stream in the issues of July 5 and 
12, 1902. 
Through the courtesy of Mr. Chas. Conrad, 
Jr., I recently made a trip with him behind his 
speedy horse Traveler to see his bunch of buf¬ 
falo on their feeding grounds in the outskirts 
of the town of Kalispell, the county seat of 
Flathead county, 1.222 miles west of St. Paul 
in the beautiful Flathead valley. We drove 
about and among them, the buffalo showing no 
sign of shyness or fear. To me this was a 
revelation, demonstrating that kind treatment in 
handling the calves when very young makes 
much for the domestication of the wild buffalo. 
The range near Kalispell is divided in two dif¬ 
ferent pastures, one for winter, the other for 
summer. The care given them in winter is only 
that given to domestic cattle. From being fed 
in winter the herd has learned to follow a wagon 
loaded with hay much as cattle do. 
The number of buffalo in the herd for the 
year 1907 is as follows: 
Bulls, four-year-old and better. 4 
Cows, three-year-old and better. 25 
Heifers and young bulls, young stock. 34 
Calves this year’s increase. 12 
Total of herd . 75 
SALES THIS YEAR TO DIFFERENT STATES. 
Minneapolis, Minn., bulls. 1 
Spokane, Wash., bulls . 1 
Ohio, cows . 4 
Total. 6 
Prices—Bulls, each, all ages.$250 
Cows, each, all ages. 300 
Buyers prefer the light weight buffalo, as the 
express charges are less. 
The buffalo are shipped crated. This is done 
on the ranch near Kalispell in a very simple way. 
The crate, built like a cage, is set at the end of 
a chute, built much like a branding chute for 
cattle. The buffalo are quietly driven into the 
large corral; the one to be shipped is separated 
and gotten into a smaller corral from which the 
chute leads. The slat-like make of the crate at 
the end of the chute gives the buffalo a view 
of the open country, and he at once dashes into 
the chute and then into the stoutly built crate. 
He is now ready for shipment. 
So far Mr. Conrad has had no accidents in 
shipping these powerful animals. His herd is 
healthy. All are in fine condition and apparently 
gentle and well domesticated. Yet there was no 
mistaking the fire in the eyes of those great 
bulls, for when aroused their wild spirit asserts 
itself. A lady who owns an interest in the Con¬ 
rad herd informed a friend that when the spirit 
of moving set in, nothing in the line of high 
strong barbed wire fence would prevent those 
great bulls from going to their summer range. 
I have long been watching both these Montana 
herds as to their increase, and I fail to note any 
defects from inbreeding. This is not the case 
with our domestic ruminating animals, among 
which at times I notice a tendency to smaller 
size and bone in some individuals. These buf¬ 
falo are remarkably free from freak or ab¬ 
normal formations in the calves. Nature in its 
wisdom has a care for its products. 
In time, as the Department of Agriculture 
takes note of its responsibilities and the neces¬ 
sities of the day, a bureau for wild game and 
its general care will be part of its duties. Then 
the Government can give practical attention to 
the effects of inbreeding of the different game 
species and can offer some incentive to those 
who own the bunches of buffalo to exchange 
bulls and can give a general health inspection 
of all. This is a duty the Government should 
recognize. 
When the Calves are Born. 
With the wild buffalo, nature has well regu¬ 
lated the season for dropping of calves, which 
takes place in the latter months of spring, and 
by the early summer they are through calving. 
At times a buffalo cow will have a late fall 
calf, but this was so unusual that the Indian 
hunter would not kill it, giving as a reason the 
statement that this calf was from the Great 
Spirit and so must have its life. 
When dropped the calves are dull red in color, 
which changes to brown and black in August. 
Twins are not very rare. The buffalo cow is 
a good mother. The wolf that gets her calf has 
surely got to put up a fight for it. At calving 
time she leaves the herd and the great buffalo 
wolves are quick to see this and at once gather 
around her. When the calf is dropped they close 
in upon her, and then comes the battle of her 
life. She does not bawl with rage or fear as 
does the domestic cow, but utters a low cry of 
alarm like that of no other ruminating animal 
that I know of. The calf at once takes the 
alarm and with outstretched neck lies close to 
the ground. Often I have seen the soil torn up 
and the grass all trampled out in a circle, show¬ 
ing where she had made her desperate fight. 
Perhaps the circle grows smaller and smaller 
until, exhausted, she can fight no longer. The 
wolves charge and her bones tell the tale. Yet 
this I think did not often happen. 
In calling her young the buffalo mother does 
not make the bawling cry of the domestic cow, 
but gives out a peculiar muttering grunting 
sound, the calf answering in much the same 
manner. This was often to be heard when a 
wide river was to be crossed. 
If all was quiet and there was no cause to 
hurry, the mother in swimming kept her calf 
on the upstream side. When the calf grew tired, 
if small, it often climbed on the back of its 
mother and in that way she would ferry her 
young across swift-rushing rivers. 
The buffalo cow gives a rather limited quan¬ 
tity of milk, but its quality is very rich. To 
the Indian hunter the bag of a cow with calf 
was a great delicacy, for it was rich in fatty 
oils. 
Flesh. 
In the old days when I was a hunter the cow 
was not good meat until the autumn, but when 
the leaves began to fall her flesh was fine. Then, 
too, her calf was fat. In the spring months 
young bulls were the best meat, as they became 
fat early, when they fed on the buffalo flowers. 
The cows were thin when dropping their calves. 
The tongue of the buffalo—its choicest part— 
is not as large as that of cattle. It is dark 
or black in color and is richer in fats than 
tongues of cattle. It was fine eating when salt 
dried. 
Diseases. 
Except scab I have never seen any diseases 
among the buffalo. At times the young buffalo 
as well as the old bulls were thus affected, but 
the disease was not deep seated, like the form 
of scab in cattle; still I have seen cows die 
from scab. In the vast herds some forms of 
lameness were at times noticed in individuals, 
due to their hoofs being deformed by injury 
to the young in the crush of a wild stampede, 
such as I have known them to make at night 
in the winter, when they might go over a cut 
bank on to the ice of a river, when many were 
killed by piling on top of each other. 
My old Indian friend The Horn told me that 
once on a trip to war against the Crows— 
being out of meat—they ran buffalo. Behind 
the herd we found two young cows so ex¬ 
hausted that they could not move when ap¬ 
proached. 
They were sick, the skin being very hot and 
cracked all over. Only at long intervals had 
he seen buffalo in that condition, and then but 
few of them. When butchering buffalo at the 
end of the chase I have frequently examined 
their lungs, but never found any symptoms of 
tuberculosis or other affection of the lungs. 
I killed a young bull in good flesh which had 
a large abscess on the liver and two young cows 
—both fat—in same condition. Another had 
badly affected kidneys. 
Endurance and Courage. 
No matter how cold the weather I have never 
seen buffalo with any of their parts frozen, or, 
like cattle, losing tails, horns, ears or feet. 
When a blizzard came up the buffalo was in his 
