New Industry

Last week there was a strange and exciting scene in the quiet hamlet of Middleboro, Mass. Snorting, kicking, bunting, bugling, a herd of over 400 wild elk entered town. There were other elk in the vicinity and these the newcomers soon joined. They had traveled across the continent, all the way from Moiese, Mont. (Flathead Indian Reservation), in 70 hours, riding in specially constructed, electrically lighted express cars. Their total carfare amounted to $14,000. Everyone of the bulls had been dehorned before being shown to his stall, for the comfort of his fellow passengers and the conductors.

They were the property of one Percy R. Jones, to whom they had been presented at Moiese by the Government, free of charge, to relieve the pressure of elk population on the northern range of the Yellowstone herds. Mr. Jones and his brother, after 13 years of study, are setting out to establish a new U. S. industry, the elk meat industry. Five miles from Middleboro they bought and fenced a 6,600-acre range and experimented with a herd of ten elk. They have satisfied themselves that the following facts are dependable, about elk in general and Massachusetts elk-raising in particular:

Second only to moose in size, elk thrive on less food than any other deer. They are the hardiest deer, are immune to hoof and mouth disease, Texas fever, lumpy jaw and black tongue. They have “a quiet and contented nature.” They dress heavier than any other meat animal. Their meat is considered by many an epicure superior to any meat on the market. It is virtually non-existent commercially, brings $1.50 a lb., and New York City alone would have consumed 3,000 elk carcasses last autumn had they been available. Laboratory tests show that elk flesh has a third more nerve and energy-building qualities, a third less fattening qualities, than beef, mutton or pork.

Elk meat costs less to raise per lb. than beef, mutton or pork. Matured bull elk weigh 700 lb. to half a ton, females 600 to 800 lb. They mature in 16 to 18 months as against four years for cattle. Cattle herds increase 30% in good years; the acknowledged ratio for elk is 90%. The females calve in their third year, commonly twinning.

Cattle must be winter-fed; elk graze. Rich range is not necessary for they will graze through 18 in. of snow or stand on their hind legs to browse 8 ft. overhead.

Spaying and castration is as successful with elk as with cattle, resulting in animals with more meat of finer quality.

Elk do better in New England’s even, sea-tempered climate (where once they ranged) than in the severe extremes of western weather. They require only three acres of land each, as their grazing does not shave the herbage (like sheep), and their browsing has the effect on trees that pruning has on an orchard.

The elk express at Middleboro was cleaned out and sent back to Moiese for another herd. In all, the Jones brothers, whose company is called the Elk Breeding and Grazing Association, Inc., intend to accumulate 2,200 head at Middleboro. The Yellowstone herd totals about 50,000 head, of which 24,000 feed on a range capable of supporting only about 16,000. The Government is obliged to feed out hay and cottonseed oil cakes at the Jackson Hole elk refuge, which was instituted in 1901 by President Roosevelt among other measures taken to rescue the then-vanishing elk from systematic slaughter for hides and teeth.*

*Patron animal of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks (chosen because he was “fleet of foot, timorous of wrong, but ever ready to combat in defense of self or the female”), the elk was slaughtered that human Elks might wear his teeth on watch-charms.