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Trenton Evening Times
Trenton, New Jersey, Jan 15, 1916
GOATS “BUTT IN” FATAL
A shaggy-haired goat overestimated his fighting ability at Washington Park Zoo, says the Portland Journal, when he wandered into the buffalo paddocks and gave battle to one of the big male buffaloes. The consequence was that the goats’ battered remains were taken to the city incineratory for cremation.
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The York Daily
York, Pennsylvania Feb. 15, 1915
TO STAVE THE WOOD TICKS
Government Officials Have Plan to Trap “Spotted Fever” Pests
(extract)
The wood tick, common on cattle and sheep, get the blame for starting the disease. It is believed that the great herds of buffalo which once roamed the western plains gave the wood tick and incidentally the “spotted fever,” their start in life. After the disappearance of the buffalo, herds of range cattle carried the little pest over the plains.
But animals aren’t the only invasive species that help the ticks spread. Giant reed — or Carrizo cane, as the tick riders call it — was originally introduced by the Spaniards for roof thatching, and it grows up along the banks of the Rio Grande, creating a cool, moist climate perfect for ticks and inhospitable for their predators. – Ticks and Cowboys- 2014
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Times Herald
Olean, New York, Apr 6, 1915
DOG SAVES MASTER’S LIFE
Attacks Charging Buffalo While Man Flees to Safety
New York. April 6.— With a huge buffalo rushing upon him from the rear, James Crowley, keeper at Central park zoo, was saved from serious injury by his pet- Airedale terrier.
Crowley had entered the buffalo pen and was stooping to pick the body of a pet rooster killed by the storm when “Black Diamond,” fighter of the herd of buffaloes, rushed upon him. Crowley knew nothing “of his danger until his dog attacked the animal. He just had time to make a dash for the gate. The dog seeing his master safe came racing safely out of the pen.
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Red Lake News
Red Lake, Minnesota, Apr 15, 1915
WANT NO SQUAWS HEAD ON CENT.
A delegation of Washakie Indians from Boxelder County called at the office of Indian Agent L. D. Creel Friday at Salt Lake City to request the government to provide a “national flag” for the Indians and that the Indian head on the United States penny be changed. They said the head was a “squaw’s head.” They expressed satisfaction with the Indian head on the Buffalo nickel, but complained that the coin was not large enough. .Kansas City Star.
Note. It might be possible to modify the Washakies by placing their HANDS on the coins, especially so if the pennies are thus treated in sufficient numbers.
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Richmond Times Dispatch, June 9 1915
The Catalo
The cross-breeding of the buffalo and the domestic cow has resulted in the production of the ”catalo.” The catalo has been in existence long enough to justify the prediction that it may alter the character of does slaughtering trade. The great problem in meat producing is feed. The Western ranges do not supply cattle with sufficient food, salt or water. Range-bred cattle have, as a rule, to be fattened in the corn belt, and then sent to the packing house. This process involves much delay and a large expenditure of money. The catalo is believed to meet all difficulties. It is immune to an astonishing degree from disease and is hardy. The meat is of fine texture and firm quality. Seventy per cent more of the catalo’s weight than that of the ordinary beef animal can be sent to market. In the plains, when blizzards sweep down on the herds, cattle perished by the thousands. The catalo, thanks to its buffalo ancestry, turns towards the storm and lives through it. It has the buffalo’s, or, more properly speaking, the bison’s hump, and this furnishes a fine quality of roast. The average catalo provides about 150 more pounds of beef than average domestic beef animal. The cost of herding is comparatively little. Reproduction has made the catalo a common sight in some parts of the Southwest, and breeders are enthusiastic over the outlook.
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The Buffalo:
Black Diamond was put up for auction June 28, 1915. However, no bids were received. He was purchased for slaughter in a private sale for $300 by A. Silz, Inc., a game and poultry dealer. He was slaughtered November 17 and “Black Diamond Steaks” were sold for $2 a pound. Fred Santer, a New York taxidermist, mounted Black Diamond’s head and turned his hide into a then-fashionable 13-foot automobile robe.
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The Chickasha Daily Express
Chickasha Indian Territory, Oklahoma Sept. 17, 1915
This Animal is Five-Eighths Buffalo and Three-Eighths Herford
The Spanish edition of the Pan-American Union Bulletin reviews Mr. Borthwick’s article on the “Catalo” In the Forecast. The following English version gives the salient features: features:
It seems that a new species of the genus bos has been evolved in the United States and Canada. As is well known, the American bison, or buffalo, has become almost extinct, only a few small herds, nearly all to be found in captivity In zoological gardens, being left to propagate the species. The catalo, the name given the now species, is a cross between the buffalo and the domestic cow, and according to an article by Mr. Benton Borthwick in a recent number of the Forecast (published in Philadelphia, Pa.), much may be expected from it as a meat producer. He states that un-like most hybrids, which proverbially inherit the worst qualities belonging to both parental strains, the catalo seems to have selected and combined in himself the most useful qualities of both buffalo and cow. He is so hardy that he can live on pastures that would afford poor sustenance for even a sheep, and his meat is equal to the best beef, to which has been super-added the tender luscious hump that made the wild buffalo so eagerly sought by the huntsmen of the plains.
It was the extreme desirability of this hump, combined with the value of his shaggy hide, that helped to bring about the practical extinction of the American buffalo. The Indians appreciated both, but they lived in peace and amity with the buffalo and left enough of them to insure an inexhaustible supply of meat and tepees for future years. The white man’s appreciation was equally keen, but, like the Indian, the buffalo was in his way. He wanted the plains for his cattle to range over and he did not approve of the cattle associating with the buffaloes. Therefore the buffaloes were gradually exterminated.
Even in the early days there were some far-seeing individuals who dimly saw the possibilities of an animal which would be a blend of buffalo and cow, a number of breeders tried to establish a species of cattle carrying the buffalo strain, and the experiments began as far back as the first invasion of the western plains by white men, but they always foiled. Even down to the present day there are but two brooders who have succeeded in establishing this now bovine strain, one in Texas and the other in Canada.
The important fact remains, how-ever, that the now species has really been established and there are now a sufficient number of cataloes, according to Mr. Borthwlck, to make it safe to prophesy that the new animal will play a leading part in the future food supply of the United States.
Unlike the mule, this hybrid is able to perpetuate its own species without reverting to type. So far as is known, no males have over been born from this first cross. The heifers resulting from the first cross are bred either to domestic or buffalo bulls, so that the second generation is either three-quarters or one-quarter buffalo, as the case may be. In this second generation, the animal resembles very closely either the buffalo or the domestic cow, according to the preponderance of either species in Its blood.
From those animals are produced the true catalo, the animal that has both species on both sides. When the true catalo appears. it becomes a type which combines the characteristics of both lines of ancestry and is quite distinctive. It has a heavier coat than the domestic animal, carries a larger hump and bigger hind quarters .than the buffalo and what is still more important carries approximately 150 pounds more of edible meat than the ordinary beef animal.
Knowing that the great secret of producing a larger quantity of meat lay in the hump of the buffalo, the first care of the breeders of the catalo was to transfer this hump to the back of the now hybrid animal. Instead of being a huge lump of fat, the hump of the catalo forms the upper cut of a rib roast of beef. It is tender, clear meat of excellent flavor, scarcely distinguishable from that of the ordinary beet cattle. The great value of the catalo as a meat animal is that 70 per cent of his weight can be sent to the table.
As the situation stands today, the problem of the catalo is not one of the mechanics of breeding. That has all been done and now it is simply a matter of selection. The rule has been established that if an animal is one-eighth buffalo it can produce fertile bulls. Therefore the best of the hybrids are all being used for the purpose of propagating better animals’ and the others are being used for meat. Already carcasses have been sent to the slaughter houses.
Time alone is necessary to establish a race which will make productive vast areas that are good for little else. On these almost arid plains grazing is too thin and water too scarce to allow the better grade of beef animals to exist, but the catalo, if left to itself, will thrive and gain in weight. The range animal of the past has been responsible for tough, fibrous meat too often diseased. The range animal of buffalo strain is hardy enough to resist disease and will produce clear-fibered meat that never gets tough. Before many years it Is likely, according to Mr. Borthwlck’s view, that the problem of our meat supply will be solved by the blending of the American bison blood with that of the beef animal that for a century has formed the main food dependence of the people of this continent.
This Dam and Its Young Are the Result of a Mixture of Buffalo and Domestic Cattle Through Both Lines of Descendants.
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The New York Times
New York, New York Nov 10, 1915
ZOO’S BIG BUFFALO SOLD TO SLAUGHTER
Black Diamond, LARGEST OF His Kind in Captivity, Will Be Cut Into Steaks
KEEPER HAS BUSINESS HEAD
Fearing 20-Year-Old Animal Will Fall Dead, He Disposes of Him at Opportune Time
Black Diamond, the largest buffalo In captivity, will be led out of his inclosure at the Central Park Menagerie and taken to the shambles a week from today. It was learned only yesterday that this finest specimen of Western plains wild life was going to be disposed of in a slaughter house. The sad end of the great bull is almost sure to arouse a protest from animal lovers, Persons of all kinds, and particularly artists searching for models, have lingered near the inclosure of the splendid animal to admire and wonder at his size. He was the subject of some of the best animal paintings of many artists.
Nevertheless Black Diamond is in his twentieth year, and Bill Snyder, head keeper, thinks Dr. Osler’s conclusions about old men and old women may well apply to lower animals when they become aged and infirm. Furthermore, Bill, single-handed, is left to keep the menagerie supplied with new animals without receiving any appropriations from the city for this purpose. He manages to do this by breeding the animals, and the surplus he sells, buying instead wild beats which the menagerie lacks.
According to Synder, Black Diamond is likely to pass away without a moment’s notice. He is perfectly familiar with the habits and the longevity of this kind of animal, and holding the exact date of Black Diamond’s birth in his mind, Bill was quite unwilling to let the aged bull lie down and breath his last, only to be carted away at a cost of about $25. That wasn’t good business.
It is a well know fact that buffalo meat is scarce in New York markets. A purchaser for Black Diamond was found without much difficulty about two weeks ago, when Bill agreed to hand over the bull to A. Silz, a butcher, 416 East Fourteenth Street, for $300. Adding to this sum $25 which it would have cost the Park Department to dispose of Black Diamond had he been permitted to die on exhibition, it is figured that the accounts of the menagerie should be better off by $325.
The butcher, too, had jotted down some interesting figures before negotiations for the purchase of the bull were concluded. Black Diamond standing nearly six feet high, weighs 2,000 pounds, according to Bill Synder, and the estimate of Synder has been accepted by the butcher.
Buffalo meat is not quoted in most of the markets here, because the genuine article is hard to find. Mr. Silz was not quoting prices on buffalo yesterday, but one of the sales agents of the slaughter house said the butcher would be in a position next week to give quotations. He said the price of a pound of buffalo steak, no matter what kind of cut, would not be under $1.
In buying a buffalo on foot the butcher figures he can get 80 percent dressed meat out of the gross carcass, which in the case of Black Diamond would be 1,600 pounds of dressed meat. At an average of $1 a pound Black Diamond dressed ought to sell for $1,600. Of course to this amount must be added the value of the hide and the head. Buffalo heads mounted have sold from $50 to as high as $200, but, allowing $100 for the head and $25j more for the hide, the total commercial value of Black Diamond ought to be something like $1,725. This is $1,400 in excess of the price paid for the bull.
No one in the office of Butcher Silz would venture to suggest who might be some of the purchasers of Black Diamond. Rarities in the meat line always were sought by the high-priced restaurants and hotels, so it appears that some of these classes of customers would serve the famous old buffalo.
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