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ITE raising of deer far trie market may be a
I feature of farm life kn the future. " Why
H I not?" ask the United States department of
ML I agTlculture, Which stands ready to give the
needed advice to all who ask for It.
Surely It is more picturesque in sound tnan
is the raising of sheep. And a venison carcass
is worth three times as much as the carcass
of a sheep anid grown and fattened at a fraction of the cost
and rare needed for the mutton oarca. This Is the chance
offered the deer farmer who may have the diversified woods
and WHs and streams and meadows which so appeal to the
Instincts of ifhe tkmid creatures.
It in nothlmg of moment that in the Chicago zoological
gardens Keeper Cy Do Vry has worse luck with his deer
than with any other animal breeding in the onptlvlty of the
park. In the last season seven fawns were born in the park
pn, and not one of them lived to be 2 months oldi Yet Mr.
De Vry is one of the most optimistic of believers In the value
of a deer farm which can be a farm, and not the mere dry
pen that the Lincoln park quarters offer to the deer kind.
That the deer farm is practicable and praoUoal In every
eenee has been proved on all sides, east and west. A slhort
time ago H. E. Richardson of West Rrookfleld, Mass., vis
ited Chicago with a proposition looking to the stocking of
everal possible pens In I-iincoln park. Mr. Richardson had
been superintendent of the schools In his home town, and
several years ago he fenced in a tract of land near his home
city and put a few pairs of game animals into the preserve.
Long ago he gave up teaching and his business has become
ths Bttle experiment which he took up as a mere diversion.
In calling on Mr. Ie Vry he offered to sell to the park buf
faloes. Rocky mountain elk, Virginia deer. Japanese, Axis,
and fallow deer, nylghau and India antelope, Barbary
heap, wild boars, wild geese,, ducks, and pheasants. But
aapBolally he had deer for sale, and In almost any numbers.
Raising Deer as a Hobby.
. .Th lata Judge Oaiton at Ottawa, 111., was the pioneer
In breeding deer, and the hundred acres or more devoted to
the purpose might have been highly profitable had not the
Judge macke it distinctly a 'hubby nnd a pastime.
At Highland Park, Elgin, Lake Geneva, Oconomowoc,
Htm Boston, and a score of other places In the otmtral west
men have taken up der as pets and gradually as they have
Increased In numbers a reservation has had to be set aside
for them until, as the crs'itures have continued to multiply,
thay have been sold oft the farms to xoiikirical gardens and
occasionally given away. Recently C. C. Worthingtoni at
Delaware Water Gap was compelled to turn 1.mo deer from
his eastern estate for the reason that they had overstocked
the place.
There are Instances enough to illustrate how easily and
quickly the deer responds to domestic ways on the farm.
As 'the creature becomes more and more nearly extinct in
the great woods the prices of 'the deer crircaas In the mar
kets have gone up and up. Ten years ngo In Chicago the
winter season In South Water street saw nearly every
doorway ornamented with magniflctint specimens of the
Virginia deer from the north -woods. Today virtually no
deer are received In the market because of the rigid game
laws of h states, and tn consequence the lover of vernlson
has been paying higher and higher prices and at the same
time seeing the supply at amy price approaching the end.
Require Little Attention from Breeder.
This is the opportunity of the breeder who will set aside
a piece of land that may be good for no other purpose; who
will fence it with meMi wire to keep dogs from the tract average decreases rapidly. For Instance, Vt costs only a
more than to keep the deer Inside; who will stock the pre- little more to fence twenty acres than It costs to fence five
serve at a cost of $50 to according to a conservative acres, and only a little more to fence eighty acres than ltj
beginning, and who will leave the Umkd creatures as largely costs to fence fnrty.
to themselves as may be. Jn stocking such a farm the range of prices to from $10
This Is the one great advantage of the deer farm over the to $J5 for a good grade of Virginia deer. Each doe should
sheep farm, for instance. The sheep requires a great deal of bear twin fawns each year, Bhough not Infrequently the
care ta a great many ways; the deer needs to be let alone twins are followed by a single fawn at a birth. Within one
when once "he Is placed in an inclosure. where he may depend year a buck fawn Is nia-ketable, though there la a profit
upon the pasturage just, as nature leaves It to his wild kind. In keeiping him to his ifull growth at 2. years Old.
Ten acres of woodland would be worth while for a begin-' Whem once the deer J nok.au re Is made dog itlght the work
rdng. If K should have a fair amount of grais growing upon of the deer farmer may be said to be over. The chief pro
It and at the same time have an undergrowth of shrubberv tectlon demanded for the creatures Is a dark, sheltering place
of various edible kinds, Just a little winter feeding to heip for the summer In which "the animals may escape from the
the summer pasturage would make fifty deer a year a con- troublesome flies. Not even this la necessary If there be
wvatlve output; a hundred a year would not be almormally enough undergrowth to enable the deer to brush the Insects
large where some hay and grain might help the foraging, off. In the winter the creaitures forage as long as the natural
,and at comparatively email cost. food Is sufficient, pawing the snow away frore the grass and
Today In Chicago an ordinary selling price for an ordinary feeding on the tips of shrubs. The deer Is a delicate feeder,
deer for park purposes is $15; for a good specimen one might wholly unlike the sheep, and he will He out in almost any
get $25. In the South Water street markets a deer becomes wwuthetr, even when confined In a small pen. In Lincoln
mother proposition, however; he is a dead carcass, ugges- park soo they seldom go into the shelter of the animal
tlve of the table of he epicure; he Is larger than anything house, ibut will lie In the shelter of the fence and sometimes
dreamed of In the ordinary oftliglivi.l garden, and he Anils be snowed under head and ears by morning,
hi way Into the Chicago markets under the strictest of su- The fence for a preserve need not be over six feet high,
perviaion, coming almost wholly from the Wisconsin north as the deer has no disposition to Jump either a wire or wooden
woods where, before a nonresldtnt is allowed to go In scorch molosure. No looking after isneeded as long as feed may
of the animal he must Invest $25 tn a license, with privilege be had; when It la scarce hay Is a standard food, and al-
to bring only two deer out of the state when his hunt Is most any of the vegetables, such as beets, carrots, turnips,
over. Under these conditions a Wisconsin deer In South and the Hke, may be fed. Oats are not good for ithe reason
Waiter street ranges In price from $22 for the average doe that the grain. fet whole, makes trouble In the digestive
to $.15 for the average buck. tracts; when crushed tt is safe. Corn as a fattening grain Is
These are the white toiled Virginia deir, of the variety excellent,
that has done best In captivity. Coming from the north j
woods; 'the doea weigh from Wo to 125 pounds, while the ,
"bucks will weigh from !. pounds to 2oo and 225 nounda. At ' Does tor Breeding Always In Demand.
an average of 110 pours! a for the doe and 175 pounds for the The deer, whether In hus native state or In Inclosures,
buck the prtcea are from IS to 20 cents a pound. seems to produce more males than females to their families,
m the confined sections of a rtty park this Virginia deer so much so that while bucks may be bought almost anywhere
hardly attains a weigh of loo pounds; in the preserves from preserves, the doe for bleeding purposes are always in
where ha has been dven room and food and something of dwniand. Only cne disease has been recognised as especially
tba Wild atmosphere of the woods he takes on fleh and else menacing to the detr. It Is something akin to lumpy Jaw In
asd the flavor that marks he creature that has browsed the oow kind, first showing as a lump under the animal's
In the great woods. In every respect the venison saddle of Jaw, and later seaming to locsen the teeth and' cause decay
uch a aomestlo creature has the flavor that delights epl- in the Jawbone. The experience in the park has been that
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cures tiU gamey something that no animal of the barnyard
ever carries in roast, or chop, or steak.
Cost Is Chiefly for Wire Fencing.
It Is a contagious disease, and when the kaat of it was rooted
out a ferw years aga the herd see me to have been rid of It.
In fhe experience of hunters tlie deer does better In an
Inoluaure than It does in Uhe wilds when the stress of a hard
winter cornea In the Adk-oiulucks men have counted dozens
Wr tocking a deer farm the slae of Vt'U the only gauge of deer, dead from the deep snows and the intense cold. In
ot cost. The wire mesh fence Is the chief Investment, and such sections of the country as tend to deer culture, no such
la proportion to the sise of the tract inclosed the acreage exigencies of climate exist.
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