| Show for 19 0 1 I IL akk 04 rl AM I 1 aa ka J N N the eat r 1 with ahe pai 0 the 4 ERCY JONES has realized his childhood ambition when im a man he be told his bis playmates of years yeara ago im going to raise elk see if I 1 dont I 1 percy stuck to his bis word and today he be Is raising elk on the nemasket Ne masket range 16 miles outside plymouth mass on the road to Midd middleboro leboro to him and his older brother maurice the united states government has sold all but 80 30 of the herd of nearly 1000 head of wapiti deer or elk which up to a recently roamed the national range at dixon mont on a range of 1200 acres on cape cod these animals are now turin running ing wild when they have become plentiful enough the surplus animals will be killed tor for meat and shipped to the markets of boston and new york because nobody else in the country was Prepa prepared ta b round iohd ih them benj up u p shap then them in freight cars and take care of them as a herd the government j a awarded to crded the animals to the jones brothers Irol hera all through his early years percy jones talked in earnest about the raising of elk while his neighbors laughed la u glied at him and advised him to raise vegetables for the summer trade they continued to ridicule his idea in 1905 when the brothers quietly began buying land after reading a department part ment of agriculture pamphlet in which experts called attention to the raising of elk as food producing animals recently the sc offers frers were were forced to laugh on the other side of mouths on one eventful day a long train of special express cars pull hullm d into Midd middleboro leboro gathered at the station was the entire town tile the elk had come through the heavy wooden bars of their freight car cages the great soft eyes of the wapiti looked out surveying the strange scene this was the country from which their ancestors had been driven by the indians many years before the pilgrim fathers had come to settle in plymouth larger than the ordinary deer of the eastern forests the elk has a shaggy reddish mane about his neck his bis back Is a lightf sh brown with a large circle of white hair bair over his bind quarters which lie he ralles balies up as a danger signal to his followers when he runs the horns of these animals animal 8 ba had keen been cut off before they left montana they are sometimes as much as four ft feet f t high the first shipment consisted of head and it was with no little effort that the shy beasts were de trained great wooden shields were wera used to prod and urge the from the cars to the trucks which carried them to their new flew home borne at the range the trucks were backed up to a dirt ramp as you will notice in the above picture and the tall gates were drawn but instead of leaping out the frightened animals went right on pushing each other and stamping around inside the truck sometimes it took as much as ai live five minutes before one of them would raise her beautiful head bead look out across the ramp and then suddenly with one desperate lunge bolt for liberty soon the others followed the llie reason we chose massachusetts for our elk raising Is that conditions are perfect there said bald maurice A jones in explaining their venture then too it Is one of the few states without laws against selling the meat the elk Is not so BO tame as the ordinary deer the deer will live where there ar are a people and come and steal a bt of food off the back porch when tile the winter la Is rough but the elk wont R 4 f e 11 alls a e V V 17 1 za stay where there fire are people so he be was driven west massachusetts made her game laws after he had disappeared hence she say anything about selling elk ven venison lson the western states made their game laws while there were still wild elk left so BO it la Is against the law to sell the meat there elk meat is a delicious and profitable sort of food we calculate that we can raise elk at from 0 6 to 8 cents a pound production cost about what it costs to raise beef elk however are much easier to raise than cattle the elk thrives on less food than any other member 0 of f the deer family or any other animal near its size and it Is almost immune to disease it puts on weight faster than the reindeer which Is grown in europe and which our government la Is growing for meat in alaska elk will browse on the young tips of trees and bushes which acts on tile tho bushes as pruning does on apple trees they do well in lin pasture sture land and also in ili land covered with scrub growth as ag la Is the cape white oak tips of which they will find plenty here give a peculiarly culi cull arly delicious flavor to the meat the meat ti Is not so gamy as deer meat and it Is peculiar in that the fat Is at as good as that of the buffalos buffaloe buff alos hump bump which Is regarded as a delicacy in the west elk meat has hag one third more nerve and energy building qualities than han 1 beef mutton or pork and one third tb 1 rd r less I 1 ess fattening qualities after the fence Is put up mr jones jonea explained there Is nothing else to do except sec fee that the elk are kept inside of it they feed and take care of themselves they will dig down to get at grass under the snow or stand on their hind bind legs and browse eight feet from the ground the cows breed at two years of age bringing forth their first calf on their third birthday and one a yen year from that time on the elk breeding and grazing association cl cia tion which Is the name of the jones jonea brothers Brot liers company hopes to increase the herd to 2200 head bead the number that could be raised on their 1200 acres A year ngo ago they brought nine elk from rushville ill which are now much at home on the nemasket Ne masket asket range and proved the feasibility of importing more tills this year the government decided that the national bison range of acres acre s would soon grow too crowded if the to 1200 elk there were kept along with the buffalo the opportunity that the jones boys had been looking for bad ar arrived aved at last it was not long before percy and maurice jones and lice ike milton on their cow ponies had rounded up their first 1 the cost of the work ane and ithe the carfare from montana to middleboro midd leboro mr jones said had made the elk worth worm about M 85 a head jumping over to pennsylvania wf we find the deer here making a nuisance of themselves this states game protective measures have been too successful and have resulted in the accumulation of a large number of half tame does frequenting settled areas these animals have made inroads on farmers crops and orchards and as a result a law has been passed giving landowners the right under certain rules of the game commission t to 0 kill such animals when injuring their property and to use the carcasses in this connection the following statement by the pennsylvania state game came commission seth beth 11 gordon executive secretary Is enlightening last winter a committee representing sportsmen and farmers sponsored legislation to relieve farmers and fruit growers from inroads on their crops and orchards by deer in various sections of the state the department of agriculture then reported that material damage had been done by deer in about twenty counties of the state and urged relief from these depredations the legislature provided several methods of relief the old law permitting landowners to kill deer to send read to charitable institutions when material damage was continued and in addition the state game commission was required to designate the sections of the state where deer aro are committing serious depredations in which designated areas the law allows landowners under certain stipulated conditions to retain and use in their own households all edible portions of the carcasses of deer killed enste instead ad 0 of f sending them to charl charitable tabIe institutions the game commission after deciding upon a constructive plan of action on july 13 took the first step toward relief and designated seventeen counties and parts of three counties as having within their borders segregated or scattered areas in which deer are doing sufficient damage to warrant allowing landowners whose lands are open to public hunting bunting sad whose crops are actually being injured to retain the carcasses of deer killed as ai provided by low law the district game came protector to be the judge in the matter of damage this action of the board does not authorize killing deer anywhere else in said sald counties neither does it authorize the killing of any other kind of game to be retained for food during a period of about a month prior to july 13 nine mine deer bolar folar four bucks bocka and five does we were re killed and the carcasses C either sent to charitable eions or burled because they were unfit tor for food |
