828 SHEEP INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES 



of Van Buren County, introduced a bill relating to bounties on wolves, 

 etc., which is as follows : 



SECTION 1. Sections 1487 and 1488 of the code are hereby repealed, and the follow- 

 ing enacted in lieu thereof: "A bounty shall be allowed on the skin of a wolf, lynx, 

 swift, or wildcat as follows: Five dollars on an adult wolf, and two dollars on a 

 cnb wolf, and one dollar on a lynx, swift, or wildcat, to be paid out of the treasury 

 of the county in which the animal was taken, upon a certified statement of the facts, 

 together with such other evidence as the board of supervisors may demand showing 

 the claimant to be entitled thereto. Any person who shall demand a bounty on any 

 of the above mentioned animals killed or taken in another State or county, or on a 

 domesticated animal, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof 

 shall be fined not more than one hundred nor less than fifty dollars and costs, and 

 be imprisoned in the county jail till said fine and costs are paid. 



11 SEC. 2. The person claiming the bounty shall produce such statement, together 

 with the whole skin of the animal, to the county auditor wherein the said w r olf, 

 lynx, swift, or wildcat had been taken and killed, and the auditor before whom 

 such skins are produced shall destroy or deface the same, so as to prevent their use 

 to obtain for the second time the bounty herein provided." 



In explanation of the manifest increase of wolves in the State, the 

 Homestead, of Des Moines, says : 



There are a lot of farmers scattered up and down the prairie streams who are en- 

 gaged in wolf farming. There is less cash outlay and more clear income in wolf 

 farming than any other kind of farming we are acquainted with. The ranchman 

 feeds his stock on the Government lands free of charge, the wolf farmer allows the 

 wolf free range among his neighbor's sheep, chickens, and pigs. He harvests his 

 crop each spring in the shape of a litter of cubs whose scalps he takes with the great- 

 est regularity to the county seat and draws the bounty. If the a<l joining county pays 

 more bounty than the one he is in, it is no difficult matter to take them across a 

 county line and kill them so as to make them citizens of that county, duly taken as 

 provided by law. Under these conditions wolves are increasing in Iowa, and, we do 

 not doubt, in other prairie States where similar inducements are hold out to wolf 

 farming. The complaint is made constantly that there are not enough sheep in the 

 West. One of the main reasons is because there is no efficient method of extermi- 

 nating one of the greatest enemies of the sheep the wild dog or wolf. The evil 

 can be abated only by State action. Farmers pay the most of the taxes in the State 

 of Iowa, and all the Western States for that matter, and they are entitled to some 

 protection from one of the most important and profitable industries in the West. 



Kelating to this same subject, A. J. Blakely, of Grinnell, Iowa, a 

 prominent breeder of Merinos, says : 



The wolf, not merely figuratively, is at the door of many an Iowa farmer, but the 

 real wolves, large wolves, prowl over the Iowa farms in increasing numbers, seeking] 

 what they may devour. No census like that of their cousins, the dogs, has ever been j 

 made. Like the flea, when you put yonr hand on them they are not there. Mut 

 their name is legion. Much of the best sheep lands of the State, the bluffy, bushy 

 portions along the streams and adjacent to timber belts, can not be pastured with] 

 sheep. The sprouts from the cut off timber and the hazel brush can now be exter- j 

 minated only by the grubbing ax and the brush hook, and at large expense. If 

 sheep could be kept on these lands how quickly would the young sprouts vanish 

 and the roots decay, and their places betaken by the rich blue grass, preparatory, a 

 few years later, to easy plowing and large corn crops. Not merely would the owners 

 of these rough, bushy lands be benefited, but their reclamation and settlement 

 would bless the neighboring schools and the neighboring towns, and in fact the 



