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bucksUin uru piub;ibly the bi'st. Foxes are very wary 

 about approaching; I lie most temptiiij^- bait when they 

 discover the scent of a luniian being, and many otlier 

 animals are likewise afraid of it; hence, when handlin*,' 

 traps for any animal, cover your hands with buckskin 

 gloves. In getting- a steel trap ready to catch a Fox, 

 it should, as already stated, be perfectly clean and 

 every trace of rust removed; then washed in weak lye, 

 greased and dried. Then it should be well smoked by 

 holding over burning hens' feathers. After this is 

 done some recommend that both the trap and chain 

 should be smeared all over with beeswax. To do this 

 melt the beeswax and smear it with a feather. At- 

 tach the free end of the chain to a log, about two or 

 two and one-half feet long and eight or ten inches in 

 circumference, to serve as a drag to impede the Fox 

 when he gets into the trap. But before you fix the 

 trap as described above it is necessary to make a "bed" 

 for it. Tliis is done in the following manner: Tlie 

 bed should be made on level ground and cover a space 

 of about nine or ten feet in circumference and about 

 an inch and a-half deep. The materials used to make 

 the bed are buckwheat chaff, which experienced trap- 

 pers claim is the best, wheat chaff, or oat chaff; wood 

 ashes and moss are also sometimes used with satisfac- 

 tory results. This should be baited for at least a 

 week, before' a trap is set, with scraps of cheese, pieces 

 of fresh meat, heads of chickens, turkeys, or Pheasants 

 or Englisli Sparrows — heads and all — will answer. 

 This bed, of couise, is made in some place where 

 Foxes are accustomed to wander on food-hunting ex- 

 peditions, and when they become acquainted with the 

 place, the trap should be set and covered up in the 

 chaff; a thin i>iece of paper should be placed over pan 



