A FARMER HUNTER — HIS VIEWS. 239 



revenge as lie would get a plenty right there, 

 and the chances are that he would ever after be 

 afraid of a 'coon, if he were a pup and got that 

 kind of treatment. Help your dog kill a 'coon 

 whenever you can, if you can do it without 

 danger to the dog. I never let my dogs kill a 

 'coon when it can be avoided. If I can find 

 the 'coon with my light in the tree I shoot him 

 out, and then sometimes he has plenty of fight 

 in hini when he comes down. Other times he is 

 dead when he hits the ground. 



Any one of my dogs will kill a 'coon if 

 necessary, but they don't get the chance very 

 often. There has been a few times that I let 

 them kill the 'coon, when I could have killed 

 him myself, when there were some of the boys 

 with me that wanted to see them kill the 'coon, 

 but it is tiresome work on a dog to kill a 'coon, 

 harder a great deal than treeing one. My dogs 

 will not stay at a hole unless the 'coon is very 

 close to the top of the ground, as where I hunt 

 there are a great many old coal entries and it 

 would be a nuisance to have them bark at such 

 places as you could not get them out, so I never 

 encourage them to stay at a hole when they run 

 one in. 



I have seen some discussion about the size 

 of 'coons. The largest 'coon I ever caught 

 weighed 30 pounds. He measured from the tip 



