AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
For the Farm, Garden, and Household. 
"AGRICULTURE IS- THE MOST HEALTHFUL, MOST USEFUL. AND MOST NOBLE EMPLOYMENT OF MAN.' — ‘Washington. 
Volume XLL— No. 3. NEW YORK, MARCH, 1882. New Series— No. 422. 
“WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN.” 
The farmer had set the trap for a fox, but 
the hungry hawk first espied the bait and fell 
a victim in its place. Perhaps the gain to 
the farmer is quite as great as if the fox had 
been caught, for the boldness of the hawk 
makes him dangerous to the farmer’s poul¬ 
try . The fox on the other hand is exceedingly 
wary ; it accomplishes its ends by caution 
and cunning, and is often repelled by the ap¬ 
pearance of danger. The artist has shown 
this peculiarity of the fox in the expression 
given the animal in the engraving. The hawk 
is fast, but Reynard is in great doubt, if it be 
not a bait intended for him. His well-known 
slyness and caution are evinced in his counte¬ 
nance. In the older States, the bounties, join¬ 
ed to the fact that every farmer’s boy looks 
upon the fox as an enemy, have well nigh 
exterminated this animal. It is only when 
pressed by hunger that a hawk can be caught 
by a trap placed upon the ground. The 
bird will soar over the barn-yard for the pur¬ 
pose of observation; but if there is a dead 
tree near by which affords a good view, it 
will alight there. Taking advantage of 
this peculiarity, poultry keepers erect poles 
twenty or thirty feet high, and upon the 
very tops of these, place small steel traps, 
set and fastened to the pole by the chain, 
but without any bait. The hawk, see¬ 
ing a favorite point for observation, and 
not having its suspicions aroused by bait, 
readily alights upon the trap and is caught. 
Copyright, 1883. by Ora nob J ut>t> Company. 
Entered at the Post Office at New York, N. Y., as Second Class Matter, 
