PROTECTING SHEEP FROM DOGS AND WOLVES 383 



pieces of meat should be handled with gloves and may 

 be carried in a pail. They are best dropped along a 

 scented drag line, made by dragging a piece of hide or a 

 dead rabbit, bleeding more or less, over the ground or 

 along a wolf trail, or they may be put under carcasses on 

 which wolves are feeding. In some instances wolves will 

 dig up poisoned bait and eat it, when they would not 

 touch it if exposed. Young wolves are much more readily 

 poisoned than old ones. 



For many years past bounties have been offered for 

 wolf skins in all or nearly all the states infected by 

 wolves. These state bounties have ranged from 25 cents 

 upward, seldom falling below $2 for a young wolf skin, 

 and in some instances amounting to several times that 

 sum for a grown female. These have been supplemented 

 by bounties paid by live stock associations and the owners 

 of live stock. These supplementary bounties have raised 

 the earnings of the hunter to not less than $15 for some 

 classes of skins, and in some instances that amount has 

 been exceeded. The hunter also gets from 50 cents to $6 

 for the skins, according to the quality. 



Enormous sums relatively have been paid out in 

 bounties. In California an act was passed in 1891, mak- 

 ing the bounty on coyotes $57 each. During the 18 

 months that the act was in force that state paid out 

 $187,485 on wolf hides. In Kansas in the year following 

 July i, 1903, bounties were paid on 20,000 wolf skins. The 

 Standard cattle company operating in Wyoming in a 

 single year paid bounties on wolves amounting to nearly 

 $2,500, the bounty being $5 a hide. 



That the offering of bounties has made the number 

 of wolves considerably less than it would otherwise have 

 been cannot be questioned. The discouraging thing about 

 it, however, is, first, that it has not gone far toward the 

 extermination of wolves, and, second, that it has led to 

 the fraudulent practices on the part of wolf hunters. 



