CULTURE OF FUR-BEARERS = 265 
on his property, for not only is he putting out 
of business a most useful ally in his contest 
with nature, but is destroying one which will 
not easily be replaced. 
Apart from that wanton, thoughtless disposi- 
tion to kill any and every wild creature met 
with, which possesses the ruder sort of men, 
and most boys who have not been taught to 
restrain the innate savagery of the human an- 
imal, the excuses made for killing badgers are 
usually either that its fur is wanted or that it 
digs bad holes in the ground. 
As to the pelt it is now of no great value, 
and its use is mainly to furnish hairs for art- 
ists’ pencils and for the making of shaving- 
brushes. The hide is strong, however, and 
good overcoats and carriage-robes may be made 
of it. 
Badger-holes as man-traps. The second ex- 
cuse is that it digs holes in the land which may 
be dangerous pitfalls for horses and cattle, and 
which furnish runways for water that some- 
times, after heavy storms, develop into bad — 
gullies. 
That this charge was originally well-founded 
