Show HS HIS COWS ca wis S SWIFT T FO FOOTED y TED AS DEER FEER minnesotan SAYS HE HAS HERD THAT CAN OUTRUN WOLVES AND BEARS SURVIVAL OF THE ME FITTEST strange brood sheds brown fur in the fall and takes on coat of e for the winter months minneapolis minn torkell swan son pioneer farmer of st louis coun ty who 20 years ago invaded the wll wil berness north of duluth and settled fa th the narrows between vermilion and trout lakes north of tower minn has brought to minneapolis a story which if not as picturesque as jack london s call of the wild of fers at least to students of nature natures s phenomena as good an example for consideration and study it Is no fascinating romance which mr swanson tells but the homeliness of his narrative gives it the earmarks of truth which in this case is strang er than fiction the st louis county pioneer had not been in minneapolis tor for 30 years till week before last when he came here to attend the meeting of the minnesota farmers exchange of which he la Is a member to a group of interested farmers gath ered in the lobby of the hotel one evening he told an unvarnished tale of a new breed of cattle which he claims developed in 20 years among the progeny pf p his brindled cow dellah deliah which he took with bis his family aal household gooda good from duluth to the narrows in 1887 it Is a story of development for the survival of the fittest touching the natural selection of species in terms used by scientists and not mr swan son the latter told his story of ear ly pioneer struggles the losses inflict ed by wolves and bears which made raids on his log cabin home and hay thatched stables in all mr swanson declared he had lost head of cattle through wolves till deliah gave birth to her wonderful calf I 1 thought it looked a bit queer when I 1 first saw it two days after its birth said mr swanson it was a long limbed and slender built little critter with been keen black eyes and when I 1 walked up to the calf off it leaped like a doe I 1 could not get within 50 feet of it and after I 1 had led the mother home the calf would not edme with within laluce lalU aft aig distance of the barn it was nok till ten days after its birth that I 1 could pet the L calf and all the time it was growing into a more graceful and e animal dellah was always frisk frisky but never like that heifer calf of hers vell sir that belter heifer grew up and became tame but when the wolves came down lon on us the following winter and killed half of my little herd there was not a scratch on that heifer I 1 called her toxy and foxy has now raised a stock of 30 cattle on my farm all of them just like her dark brown light of limb ad and there Is not a deer in the northern woods that can them they take on flesh give good milk and are easy to handle abrl bf i a trifle shy they became very tame and are fond of being petted but there has not been a single one of that brood that has ever fallen prey to solves or bears but that isn t all when fall fail came that year following foxy s birth she began shedding her hair I 1 thought P i the cows outrun the swiftest wolves the calf was getting a distemper of some kind but I 1 was mistaken she shed her hair and I 1 noticed she was turning colors well sir in three weeks about the time the snow was falling that calf had fur snow white and the next spring she shed her fur again and it turned dark brown lust just the color she had when she was born all of her calves and the whole breed ive I 1 ve raised from her have shed their fur twice a year with the seasons and turned brown in summer and white in winter they ve got a touch of the wild in them I 1 bake ake it and in winter when fodder has run low they go out in the forest and forage tor for them selves mr air swanson said that he had sold some of his new stock to other farm ers who pt of late years ears had settled in his neighborhood and he intends to place his new species on exhibition at future stock shows in this stale |