a.16 FERRET FACTS AND FANCIES. 



sixty-two squirrels. Mr. Davis exhibited the fer- 

 rets at Colfax recently and they attracted much 

 attention. He says they are the most successful 

 squirrel exterminators he has ever tried. He 

 believes it will pay farmers of the Palouse coun- 

 try to breed ferrets and train them to hunt squir- 

 rels and further thinks that systematic effort 

 along this line will eventually solve the squirrel 

 problem. With half a dozen industrious ferrets 

 a farm could soon be cleared of squirrels, and 

 once they were driven out it would be compara- 

 tively easy to keep them exterminated." 



A raiser, breeder and seller of ferrets located 

 in Illinois, who has followed the business for 

 many years says that ferrets one year old will 

 drive out ground squirrels (large western kind), 

 gophers and prairie dogs but that younger or 

 inexperienced hunters should not be tried on 

 these animals. Several ferrets should be used, 

 or liberated at the same time, where these pests 

 are numerous. As some of the pests here men- 

 tioned are still found near the raiser alluded to 

 he should be familiar with what his animals can 

 and will do. 



The ground squirrel in the East is different 

 from the western variety and is not such a pest. 

 The western variety is larger than the little 



