268 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



prey tlioy always spring suddenly upon it from some concealed station, and if 

 tht*y fail iu their first attack they seldom repeat it. By nature they are cow- 

 ardly and cruel ; they are gifted with acute senses of sight and hearing ; they 

 are only beneficial in destroying many of the injurious herbivorous mammals ; 

 and it is a doubt whether or not the damage they inflict by destroying great 

 numbers of beneficial birds'aud valuable ruminants, does not more than balance 

 the little good they do. At any rate, the hatred all farmers have for them is so 

 great that they lose no opportunity to destroy them, and, probably, this one of 

 their prejudices is founded on reason. 



In the family CanidcB are included our wolves and foxes; the same remarks 

 ■will apply to them as to the cats regarding their usefulness. 



The family Viverida has no importance to our agriculturists. 



The family Musldidce, in which are placed our martins, weasels, otters, 

 badgers, and skunks, is the most important of the Camivora to agriculture. Its 

 characteristics are based principally on peculiarities of the teeth, of which these 

 animals have six incisors iu each jaw ; two canines ; six or eight pre-molars ; 

 two molars iu the upper, and two or four in the lower jaw. Their bodies are 

 generally long and slender; legs short; feet, five-toed, provided with long 

 sharp claws ; the tail is generally long, and sometimes bush}', as with the 

 skunks. These animals generally have glands at the root of the tail which 

 secrete a liquid of offensive odor. With the skunks this secretion is used as a 

 weapon of defence ; its ofi'eusive odor exceeds anything in nature. The weasels 

 and skunks are the most important members of this family; they arc continually 

 active iu destroying the mice and rats ; the form of the weasels being peculiarly 

 adapted to following them to their most secret haunts. Insects also form no 

 inconsiderable portion of the food of skunks and weasels. Birds, and their 

 eggs, and young, are often destroyed by them, but not to an extent at all bal- 

 ancing the benefit they do; nor is the injury caused by an occasional raid into 

 the poultry yard at all comparable to the immense benefit we receive from their 

 Quceasing nightly labors in the destruction of rats, mice, and insects. The 

 otters and badgers are of no importance to agriculture. 



The Ursidce, in which are included our raccoons and bears, are omnivorous 

 in nature, although they are placed by naturalists in the Camivora. In con- 

 sequence of their depredations in the cornfields and sheepfolds they are in ill 

 favor with the farmers, who improve every opportunity to destroy them. But 

 little can be said of their benefit to agriculture. In closing the order Camivora 

 it would be proper to say that these animals are slow to multiply. If this were 

 not the case, they would, iu consequence of their voracity, extenninate the other 

 animals on which they subsist, (and which are also valuable as food for man,) 

 and thus defeat the object for which they were created. 



RODENTIA. 



" A knowledge of the characteristics and habits of the animals of this order is 

 of great importance to the agriculturist, from the fact that these animals con- 

 stitute one of the most destructive elements with which he has to contend. To 

 properly understand these characteristics, it will be necessary to enter into a 

 more careful and less general examination of these animals, and trust less to 

 external peculiarities than we have thus far done; and we will, as far as possi- 

 ble, simplify these examinations, that they may be brought within the compre- 

 hension of all who have not already made the subject a study. 



The animals of this order are all of small size, the beaver and marmots being 

 among the largest. The species are all very prolific and numerous, and all are 

 destructive, some exceedingly so. The prominent characteristics of these 

 animals is the peculiar formation of the teeth. These are of two kinds, incisors 

 and molars ; the canines are wanting ; the incisors are generally two iu number 



