FUR FACTS 171 



Key to Young Cats, Coons and Badgers 



Young bobcats are much striped and spotted. Young cats of 

 any kind can be distinguished by the short nose and round head. 



Young coons have a broad black band across the face and eyes 

 bordered above by a light band. 



Young badgers have a white stripe between the eyes. 



The big bounties offered by some states have no doubt added 

 incentive to trappers, but is doubtful whether it has done any real 

 good, considering the amount of money expended for this purpose. 

 It results in inexperienced and amateur hunters setting out all sorts 

 of poisoned baits to get the wolf scalp, and according to well informed 

 experienced ranchmen does more harm than good. 



Wolf is one of the few furbearing animals that no one has at- 

 tempted to conserve and there are no fur farms devoted exclusively 

 to the raising of wolf for fur purposes. The wolf pelt is one of the 

 most valuable fur pelts that we have and thousands of them are 

 used annually and thousands are wasted because of the poisoning 

 method of killing. The fur is very popular for trimming both in this 

 country and abroad; but because the wolf is such a destructive animal 

 it seems to be the general policy of every one to kill and exterminate 

 him . Wolf are hunted constantly year in and year out. 



Some states have even gone so far as to pass laws against the 

 raising of wolf and have declared war to the death against them. 

 The time will come no doubt when wolf will be a scarce article 

 and something else will have to be found to take the place of wolf 

 fur in the markets of the world. This is another reason why the 

 farmer boy and the lad in the country should be taught early to 

 become interested in the smaller furbearing animals and to con- 

 serve them and raise them, because the coon, the mink, the skunk, 

 the opossum, and the muskrat, will always be wanted and will 

 become more valuable as time goes on. 



For years dogs have been used to run down wolves, and wolf 

 chasing is a very exciting sport. The Russian wolf hound is a past 

 master of this art. The Irish wolf hound and the ground hound, 

 and many other classes of dogs have been trained for generations to 

 run down and kill the wolf. The wolf is a fast runner and it takes a 

 speedy dog to catch and hold him. A well balanced pack usually 

 has several grey hounds in it, which can outrun the other dogs. 

 The grey hound and the wolf hound are about the only dogs that can 

 outrun the wolf on a dead straight away, and even then they have 

 to be mighty good dogs to do it. The balance of the pack are usually 



