378 



RECREA TION. 



would do the work. Nothing less will. It 

 would not be necessary to put a bounty on 

 coyotes, as a great many would be de- 

 stroyed by the trappers when trapping or 

 laying poison for wolves. The same boun- 

 ty should be paid on wolf pups as on 

 grown wolves. This would cause lots of 

 small ranchmen to turn out, in April and 

 May, to hunt wolf dens and dig out the 

 pups. This would of course require a large 

 outlay of money for the first 2 or 3 years, 

 but it would settle the question in the end. 

 Wolves are so cunning that you cannot 

 make any headway against them with poi- 

 son or traps. Hounding is not practical in 

 a rough country; but with a sufficiently 

 large bounty on pups nearly all the litters 

 would be destroyed, every year, and as 

 wolves are not long lived, in a few years 

 there would not be many left. Wolf dens 

 are easy to find and when found, in 19 

 cases out of 20, you can get the pups; very 

 often the old ones, also. 



The difference between wolf pups and 

 coyote pups is so apparent that there 

 should be no danger of any enterprising 

 trapper palming off the latter for the for- 

 mer, upon the person authorized to punch 

 the hides and pay the bounty. 



Unless something is done soon to exter- 

 minate the pests, the live stock business, in 

 the West, is doomed. I am afraid the job 

 is too big now for the different States, and 

 should- be taken up by the general Govern- 

 ment. Otto Franc. 



means meet the necessities of the occasion. 

 The bounty should be territorial and the 

 law could easily be framed to insure pay- 

 ment only for wolves and lions killed in 

 Arizona." 



FROM ARIZONA. 



A correspondent of a Chicago paper, 

 writing from Phoenix, says: 



" In this part of Arizona the mountain 

 lion is the wolf's equal as a scourge. In 

 the country bordering on the Huachuca, 

 Patagonia and Canelo mountains every 

 colt, of 1895, was eaten; even in the barbed 

 wire pastures they were all killed. Until 

 lately the wolf, in this section of Arizona, 

 travelled alone; but they have now be- 

 come so numerous that, as in Texas and 

 Montana, they go in packs. Within the 

 past month, on the mesas bordering the 

 Santa Cruz valley, we have found a dozen 

 yearlings killed and partially eaten, and 

 calves are, of course, killed in larger num- 

 bers and wholly devoured or carried into 

 out-of-the-way places where they cannot 

 be seen. A statement of the actual per- 

 centage of loss would stagger any reader. 



" James Parker, a ranchman living close 

 to the mountains, has seen wolves in packs 

 and their depredations are constantly on 

 the increase. We are informed that the 

 same conditions of loss prevail in Cochise 

 and that it is even worse in Graham county, 

 where the supervisors contemplate offering 

 a bounty. 



" A county bounty does not by any 



Chico, N. M. 

 Below you will find answers to the wolf 

 questions, according to my limited knowl- 

 edge: 



1. Chico Springs, N. M. 



2. Yes, very. 



3. All kinds of stock. 



4. Hard to estimate, but an immense 

 amount. 



5- No. 



6. Decidedly so, and rapidly. 



7. No. But they roam around in 

 bunches. 



8. Average weight not far from 100 

 pounds. 



9. He certainly is, in New Mexico. 



10. By offering a cash bounty of not less 

 than $10. We have plenty of good hunters 

 that would spend their time exclusively in 

 eradicating the worst enemy the stockman 

 has to contend with, if they could get the 

 cash for their time and labor, and not have 

 to wait 2 or 3 years, which they now have 

 to do where scrip is paid out. 



I wish you all success possible in getting 

 this question before the proper authorities 

 and I will do everything I can to assist. I 

 like Recreation very much. 



P. A. George. 



FROM THE POWDER RIVER COUNTRY. 



Powderville, Mont. 

 Editor Recreation: I shall endeavor to 

 answer your questions as accurately ^s I 

 can. 



1. Powder river, Custer county, Mont. 



2. Very troublesome. 



3. Horses, cattle and sheep. 



4. We estimate the damage done us at 

 $1,000 a year, or more (not less) per outfit. 



5. No, never. 



6. About holding their own in spite of 

 strenuous efforts to exterminate them. 



7. No. 



8. 



9. A nuisance. 



10. Offer bounty large enough to tempt 

 able men to engage in wolf hunting as a 

 business. William Ferdon. 



WAR ON COYOTES. 



J. H. Calderhead, commissioner of labor, 

 agriculture and industry, for Montana, has 

 prepared some statistics as to the number 

 of stock destroying animals killed, in that 

 State, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 

 1897, on which the State will pay bounties 

 as fast as the funds are provided for that 



