Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 75, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 March 1911 — FOOD ANIMAL IS NEW [ARTICLE]

FOOD ANIMAL IS NEW

Texans Hope to Produce One at Reduced Cost. With Muntjac Deer of India Foundation Will Be Laid for Animal That Will Thrive in Lone Star State. Galveston, Tex. —“I have believed for a long time that Texas could produce a food animal that would come into more general use than any at present to be found on the farms and ranches of the state,” said Mr. Lee Mountfort. Mr. Mountfort has a ranch In the vicinity of Robs town, Nueces county, and has for some time past, he says, been conducting experiments in animal breeding. “I have been watching the work of Luther Burbank for a long time,” Mr. Mountfort continued, “and it gave me the idea that I am at present working out. Of cours, I cannot hope to do in the animal kingdom what Burbank has done with fruits, but the main principle underlying both oifr efforts is to determine what product is necessary, how the present product is to be improved upon, and then work out the line of improvement. “Now take the case of meat in Texas. For years Texas has been considered a cow country, so far as meat was concerned. Recently the breeders have been affected by the demand for hogs to the extent that hog raising has predominated. Sheep are also raised. But there is a need In Texas for a food animal that is smaller than the cow, hog or sheep, and bigger than the domestic hen or the rabbit, which Is so easily killed on our ranches. The meat supply of the average ranch Is at present drawn from the smokehouse, and while there are a few Texans who will decry bacon and ham as a diet, there are also few but will admit that fresh meat is better, when it can be obtained. "There are not many farms where a sheep, for example, can be killed frequently and easily used before some of it spoils. This Is even more true of beef. The hogs are killed at one time of the year and the meat necessarily preserved. How, then, is the problem to be met? Obviously not by development of any of the existing species of animals now indigenous to Texas. We must have a new breed. If we can’t create it it must be imported. There’s my chain of reasoning in a nutshell. “I looking about for some animal that Is good for food and that will thrive in the climate of Bouthwest Texas, 1 have read a great deal of various breeds. I can find few animals that are more suitable, to my view, than the little-known ’Muntjac' deer of India. This animal is a beautiful little creature, and is only about 21 or 22 Inches in height. It has small horns, but is not combative, or large enough to be dangerous. It is similar to the sheep In its diet, feeding upon practically any kind of herbage. The meat from the muntjac, I understand, Is of delicious flavor, and possesses that slight gamey taste that makes the epicure prefe- venison to almost any other meat. “As l view the situation, the bringing to the country of a small mammal of this size is of enough importance to justify some little expense. After thinking it over. I have arranged with one of my friends, Capt. Richard Watson of the tramp steamship Punjaub, o bring me some. The Punjaub on her present trip Is to go from Cape Town to Calcutta, and can obtain the muntjac there 1 have asked him to get several pairs, eight or ten if possible to accommodate them, a* several will doubtless die on the tirp. But with those that survive I hope to lay the foundation for a brand new breed of farm food animals in Texas. “I have heard (hat a breeder In antral Texas has been raising Virginia deer for the past four or five years, and has made something of a success of the breeding. The venison finds a ready sale, and the skins have little difficulty In finding a market. Although this animal is somewhat larger than the one I have in mind, it ought also to be developed in the state. This Virginia deer Is also known as the ’white tall,' and Is able to-live in practically any part of the country, if in the colder climates ft Is given a certain amount of attention In winter. TV i« unusually prolific and

the doe, I understand, nearly always produces twins. This breed will eat cotton seed, and will subsist upon practically anything with the exception of wild hay. \ But I dm pinning my hopes upon the muntjac, and as the Punjaub Is due in either New Orleans or Galveston within the next two or three months, I hope that the time will not be long before I will be In a position to make an announcement of the success of my experiment. If the muntjac comes into general use on the southwest Texas farms it will mean that the farmer and his family will be provided with fresh meat every two or three days. And this venison will prove a welcome variation to the hog meat and chicken that now form the staple meat diet of the average farm end ranch.”^