462 



RECREA TION. 



pelled to keep men on wages who did noth- 

 ing but " wolf " all the time. These men 

 thinned out the wolves so that the loss was, 

 for a time, comparatively light. Many of 

 the stock men accordingly withdrew their 

 wolfers; and now the wolves have again 

 increased to perhaps one-half what they 

 were 3 years ago. They are also much 

 more cunning than formerly, and harder 

 to kill. 



7. Have you any reason to believe wolves 

 can signal across country, and so tell each 

 other what parts are dangerous or where 

 the hunting is good? 



I have often noticed that when a beef had 

 been killed wolves, smelling the fresh 

 blood, would begin howling. Answering 

 howls would be heard in the distance, but 

 I do not attempt to assign any definite 

 meaning to these howls. 



8. What is the average and the greatest 

 weight and measure of a wolf, according to 

 your certain knowledge? 



I never weighed one. 



9. Do you consider the coyote a nui- 

 sance; or do you consider the harm done in 

 killing lambs, etc., more than balanced by 

 the good they do in keeping down gophers, 

 ground squirrels, etc.? 



When compared with the wolves the co- 

 yotes do very little damage to cattle; but 

 I understand they are troublesome among 

 sheep. They do kill calves, occasionally. 

 I think they do very much more damage 

 than good. 



10. What do you consider the best means 

 — legislative and practical — of dealing with 

 the wolf question? 



A good cash bounty, of not less than $3 

 or $4, should be placed on wolves, and after 

 they had become somewhat thinned down, 

 the bounty should be raised, occasionally, 

 until at last $10 should be paid. 



Every stock owner should devote time 

 enough to wolfing to keep the wolves en- 

 tirely killed out, on his own range. The 

 large outfits would need to keep a man out 

 wolfing, all of the time. The granger has 

 not so large a range; but he should keep 

 plenty of poison on what he has, during 

 the entire year. 



If all stockmen would do this the wolves 

 would be soon thinned out so that the 

 damasre would be slight. But, unfortu- 

 nately, a great many either fail to realize 

 the importance of the subject, or else have 

 too little faith in the methods of destroying 

 the wolves. The result is that united and 

 systematic work is not done. Although 

 some outfits expend large sums of money 

 on these lines, the results are not what they 

 should be. 



A bounty of enough consequence to call 

 out wolfers, would make every one stand 

 his proportionate share of the expense. 

 The worst objection to it would be that 

 wolfers would not want to kill unless they 

 found their wolves, and, therefore, the 



most effective methods of poisoning would 

 be little used. As a result of a wide per- 

 sonal experience, and a long, careful study, 

 I append here some hints on 



HOW TO POISON WOLVES. 



I recommend this method mainly to 

 stockmen, who desire merely to get rid of 

 the wolves, and who do not care about the 

 bounty. The poison I have used with the 

 best results is that in the form of tablets, 

 each containing 2 grains of strychnia. 

 These tablets may be obtained from any of 

 the leading druggists. 



Whenever a beef is killed the wolfer 

 should save all of the tallow, to make baits 

 of. The best part, for this purpose, is the 

 fat around a cow's bag, as it contains more 

 tissue and does not crumble easily. The 

 kidney fat, and the other inside fat, may 

 be used with ease if the wolfer will make his 

 baits while the tallow is fresh, and before it 

 has cooled and hardened; but if this fat, 

 once gets cold it is so brittle it will crumble 

 in handling. 



The tallow should be cut into pieces a 

 trifle larger than the last joint of a man's 

 thumb and one tablet should be inserted in 

 each piece. The baits should not be made 

 too large, or the wolf will chew them too 

 much, before swallowing, and then, tasting 

 the strychnia, will spit out the bait. Neither 

 should the bait be made too small, or it 

 will not then sufficiently cover the tablet, 

 and the wolf will strike it with his teeth, 

 crushing it and tasting it, with the first bite. 

 Furthermore, the small bait will not so 

 readily attract his attention. 



Having made the baits the next thing is 

 to prepare the same number of sticks on 

 which to set the baits. These sticks should 

 be made from round twigs of not over a 

 quarter of an inch diameter, and having 

 the bark on them, so they will not attract 

 attention. They should be about 8 inches 

 long, and sharpened at both ends, so that 

 one end may be pushed into the ground 

 and the bait stuck firmly on the other end. 

 An excellent material from which to make 

 these sticks is the stem of the buck brush, 

 so common in the West. These sticks 

 should be cut while green and allowed to 

 dry a day or two, when they will be strong 

 and tough. If this wood is not readily ob- 

 tained, dead twigs of willow, or choke- 

 cherry, will answer. 



A handy way to carry these baits and 

 sticks is to place the baits on the end of a 

 piece of canvas, fold in the sides, roll up a 

 short way, then lay in the sticks and finish 

 rolling. The bundle can then be easily tied 

 on the saddle. 



The wolfer now rides along the cattle 

 trails and watches for places where all the 

 trails converge into one or 2 principal 

 trails. Then he selects a point where this 

 big trail is well worn and has distinct 



