FOX TRAPPING. 



J. A. NEWTON. 



Formerly my home was near a succes- 

 sion of sand bluffs which contained in- 

 numerable fox dens, in which the young 

 were reared, and which served, also, as se- 

 cure retreats in winter. Foxes were always 

 plentiful, and occasionally one was killed 

 in front of hounds, but no one in the neigh- 

 borhood could trap them except Daddy 

 Jenks. He was a genial old soul, however, 

 and wanted no monopoly. When he learned 

 of my ambition to catch at least one fox, 

 he offered to teach me how. 



The first thing he did was to grease his 

 traps well, after which he held them a few 

 minutes in the smoke of burning corncobs. 



"I grease 'em so they'll spring easy," 

 said Daddy, "an' smoke 'em to kill the 

 smell of rust ; a rusty trap won't ketch a 

 fox in a dog's age. 'Nuther thing, you 

 don't want to handle 'em with bar.e hands 

 after the smokin', so you see I handle 'em 

 an' set 'em with these 'ere gloves." 



A grain bag was filled with chaff, a quan- 

 tity of lard scraps and smoked meat rinds 

 were taken for bait, and Daddy led the way 

 to a main runway on the bluff. It was 

 toward the last of November and there was 

 yet no snow. "If there was snow," said 

 the old man, "it would make easier trappin'. 

 On bare ground traps must be set in beds. 

 Some use ashes, but they freeze easy if a 

 little wet comes ; I allers use chaff." 



Jenks had placed pieces of rails during 

 the summer at convenient points on the 

 runways where he intended making sets 

 when the time came. I asked him why he 

 put them there so long in advance of the 

 trapping season. 



"Theye're to hitch the trap to," he re- 

 plied ; "and I put 'em here early so the 

 foxes'll get used to seein' 'em and think 

 nothin' of it when I come to set. Traps 

 don't want to be hitched solid or the crit- 

 ters'll pull out or eat a foot off an' git 

 away." 



I noticed that a quantity of chaff was 

 already in each place where he intended 

 setting. Daddy said : "Foxes must be 

 baited a while before settin' the traps. I 

 put these beds here over a week ago. I've 

 got 'em to comin' and takin' the bait; now 

 I'll s'prise 'em by puttin' in the traps." 



The bait had been nosed out and eaten 

 from most of the beds, and a new supply 

 was scattered. Then a trap was bedded 

 so as to be level with the surface, the 

 chain was stapled to the clog, and all was 

 covered lightly with new, dry chaff. "It 

 don't answer to tend fox traps more'n 

 once a week," said Daddy, "so as to let 

 your signs git old. An' don't never go 



closer'n 4 rods or jest nigh enough to 

 see if the trap's sprung." A light fall of 

 snow the following night obliterated our 

 tracks, hid the beds and brought about 

 the best possible condition for immediate 

 success. 



After the second night we tended the 

 traps. Tracks were numerous all over the 

 hills, and 2 traps were gone with their 

 clogs. They had been dragged down the 

 hill to where a fence obstructed the way. 

 There we found our foxes, both young but 

 nearly full grown. The traps were care- 

 fully replaced but that time were covered 

 lightly with snow to avoid too much of a 

 contrast. As Jenks put it : "You want to 

 aim to have things look natural. Now 

 we'll take these foxes purty near home to 

 skin 'em, 'cause if we peeled 'em here and 

 left 'em layin', foxes would make their- 

 selves scarce in this neighborhood for a 

 long time." 



The field was large enough for us both, 

 and I determined to test my own ability. 

 I knew where lay the bodies of a horse and 

 a sheep. When winter came and the foxes 

 were reduced to eating carrion, I set traps 

 near the carcasses, covering them with 

 snow. I waited several days until snow 

 had drifted over my tracks before visiting 

 the traps. I found foxes had been circling 

 the horse ; but I had fastened the trap to 

 a brush, and it looked so suspicious to 

 them that they ventured no nearer than 5 

 or 6 yards. All I succeeded in catching 

 there during the winter was 2 skunks and 

 a neighbor's dog. At the sheep, success 

 crowned my efforts. There the clog was 

 a chunk and had been hidden in a snow 

 drift. I followed a dim trail across the 

 field to a large drift in which I found 

 my fox, half buried and frozen hard. Fre- 

 quent light snows came to hide any signs 

 I made and by February I had caught 3 

 more foxes in the same trap. 



I was elated and began to think fox trap- 

 ping was not so difficult after all ; but I 

 had a lesson yet to learn. I had been 

 catching the young and unsophisticated 

 and had not been called on to frustrate 

 the cunning of an old dog fox. The next 

 fall I placed some beds and baited them for 

 a week with lard scraps. A fox of the 

 largest size had used the region for years, 

 escaping all traps and hunters. His track 

 could be distinguished from those of his 

 fellows by its unusual size. As soon as 

 I set the traps he promptly scraped them 

 out of their beds, turned them over, ate up 

 the bait and went his way. He played me 

 the same trick several nights, seeming not 



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