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MY EXPERIENCE AS A TRAPPER | |
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MY EXPERIENCE AS A TRAPPER
Of course my experiences as a trapper are not as many or as interesting as they will be in a few years. I mean to trap more and more each year, and study closely the habits of fur bearing animals. In 1913 I bought about one 'hundred second-hand traps for $10. I was to pay for the traps with the money I earned by trapping, so I had to get busy and make some money. As soon as the law allowed, November 1, I had my traps all ready to start. That day I got up early in the morning, took my hatchet and bag of traps and started out. Our house sat beside a pond into which the river empties, so I have a better opportunity to trap than most boys. All summer and fall I am on the lookout for "signs." If we know a few things about animals, we can easily find the places they inhabit I know their runways and feed beds, so I know where to set my traps. I caught only skunks, mink, weasels and muskrats; but I shall soon trap raccoons and foxes.
Just before time to trap, my father showed roe how to make a large box trap to set for skunks. On the first of November I put the box trap behind the creamery, where we knew skunk were in the habit of coming, and baited it with meat. In the morning I found a black skunk in the trap. I put the box trap on my wheelbarrow and wheeled it home and made a ho1e for my prisoners out of a large packing box. I left a place open in the top so I could feed him I took my trap back and set it again in the same place and the next night got another nice black skunk. I put him also in the house I made for the other. The third night I caught another skunk in the same place. They were all very small, but sleek, black fellows. The third skunk I put in a small pen house we had back of our garden. I kept these three skunks two months. I fed them scraps from the table, muskrat carcasses, and mother made johny cake for the little fellows. They are very fond of johny cake. It was lots of sport to care for the little fellows and watch them grow.
As the cold weather came on, their fur improved and by the first of January I had three fine skunks. To kill them I took them to the pond and drowned them. It is best to kill them in this way; they do not scent. I got fifteen dollars for those three skunks. That same fall I caught fifty muskrats and three mink. The mink and muskrats brought me in a sum of $38.50. We have three old trappers in our village and they all knew that there were mink in the neighborhood.
They all went for them with all kinds of bait and scents; but I captured three of the animals by finding the places they inhabit, and putting my traps there. Mink are very sly and one has to be careful not to make tracks or leave any signs. I am most successful with muskrats by putting my traps in their runways or on feed beds or in holes, though sometimes they will take bait. I visit my traps early each morning, so the animals will not suffer long. Often they twist their foot off and escape. The war caused the price of fur to drop, so I did not do much in 1914. I caught only thirty-five muskrats and received nine dollars and fifty cents for them. My experiences last winter I will write you about later.
John R. W. Bancroft.
Washington County, Vermont.
Fur, News. Fur News, January 1916.
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