94 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[March, 
board. Many years ago, -when beaver skins 
were so valuable, muskrat skins were worth as 
high as 50 cents each. Then for years they were 
very low—from 5 to 10 and 15 cents. Within ten 
years, they have brought as high as 35 cents, 
but are now down again to 10 or 12 cents. 
These prices relate to skins taken in the spring, 
when they are in their best condition.” 
Trapping the Black Bear. 
There are numerous species of bears, some 
not larger than a Merino sheep, and others 
weighing as much as the largest ox. The 
American black bear is found in all the large 
forests of the Northern and Western States, and 
Canada. They bring forth their young in caves 
or hollow trees, in May or June, generally two 
at a birth, and during this period it is danger¬ 
ous to approach the dam. At other times, they 
will not attack a man, unless in self-defence. 
They are great eaters, devouring corn, oats, grass, 
acorns, roots, fish, flesh, fowl, and honey. They 
seem particularly partial to the latter, and after 
dining on a fat pig, nothing affords them more 
satisfaction than to rob a bees’ nest. This rich, 
carbonaceous food, enables them to store up 
large quantities of fat during the summer and 
autumn. On the approach of winter they re¬ 
tire to a cave and take a long sleep until the ad¬ 
vent of warm weather in the spring. Like oth¬ 
er liybernating animals, they live during this 
period on the fat stored up during the previous 
summer and winter. It fares ill with a well- 
bred pig that happens to be neighbor to a bear, 
hungry for a breakfast, after his long sleep. 
Mr. Thrasher, author of the Hunter and Trap¬ 
per , says: “ Their mode of eating the hog is to 
take him up in their arms and squeeze him 
some, commencing at the same time to take 
their dinner out of the shoulder and neck at 
the back of the hog, which is alive, and 
squealing as only a hog can squeal. A 
bear will carry a hog as heavy as him¬ 
self. * * He is a great natural boxer, and it 
is not easy to hit him with a club, for he de¬ 
fends himself like a well-trained pugilist. He 
is a great hand to fight dogs, sets himself up on 
end and cuffs them right and left, one clip be¬ 
ing enough to make a cripple. The bear is very 
fond of sweets. It is one of their curious tricks 
to climb a tree where bees have stored their 
honey, and gnaw them out; their constant 
growling about the bees’ stings, often showing 
their whereabouts to the hunter. And they are 
often betrayed at the hog-pen by the squealing 
of the hogs. Nothing suits them better than to 
find a hog in a pen, and no one to oppose them. 
They will climb in and out again, hog and 
all.” There are several ways of trapping the 
bear, but the one now generally adopted 
is to set a steel-trap near some place where 
the bear has been committing depredations, 
such as robbing a hog-pen. The trap is set, if 
convenient, under water, or in a swampy place, 
covering the trap in either case with moss, so 
as to look as natural as possible, and hanging a 
piece of fresh pig or sheep over the trap in such 
a way that the bear must step on the treddle 
in order to reach it. A short chain and clog, 
with three hooks, is attached firmly to the trap, 
which impedes the progress of the bear after he 
"is caught. The accompanying sketch, drawn by 
Mr. R. E. Robinson, of Vermont, gives a lively 
idea of the scene, which will soon be ended on 
the arrival of the parties on whom the bear has 
being committing depredations. 
Walks and Talks on the Farm—No. 87. 
The Hon. T. C. Jones, one of the most dis¬ 
tinguished agriculturists and breeders of Ohio, 
writes me as follows: 
“ Knowing you to be an accomplished chem¬ 
ist, and especially well instructed in all branches 
of that science relating to agriculture, many 
persons are surprised that so little of it is * ap¬ 
plied ’ in your practical management of the 
farm, as related in Walks and Talks.” 
I do not know what I have said that should 
lead to such a remark. I try to apply all the 
knowledge I have in the management of my 
farm, and feel the necessity of much more than 
I possess. I know nothing of chemistry com¬ 
pared to what I desire to know ; but it is quite 
possible if I knew less, I might apply more. I 
have long abandoned all expectation that chem¬ 
istry will revolutionize at once the practice of 
agriculture. I have no expectation of making 
a fortune by some chemical discovery in farm¬ 
ing. I have never analyzed the soil on my farm 
to see if it did not lack some simple element of 
plant-food, the application of a few dollars’ 
worth of which would double its productive¬ 
ness and make a rich man of me. I know witii a 
good degree of certainty, exactly what is wanted 
to make my farm rich. It needs, or did need, 
(1st,)underdraining; (2d,) the soil needed to be 
thoroughly broken up and pulverized ; (3d,) the 
land w r as full of weeds and weed-seeds, and I 
knew I must kill the former, and cause the 
latter to germinate, and then kill the young 
plants. I have not tried any chemical mixtures 
to kill the weeds. I have cut down thousands 
of thistles in my pastures, and stubbles with a 
mowing-machine, and have seen it stated that 
if you would put a drop of sulphuric acid, or a 
few grains of salt, on each thistle after it was 
cut, the thistle would die. I have not “applied” 
this kind of chemistry to my farming operations. 
The salt and acid are not expensive, but I made 
a little calculation, somewhat as follows: There 
are 43,560 square feet in an acre, and, say six 
thistles on a square foot, and it would proba¬ 
bly take about a minute to drop the acid on 
each thistle; if I worked ten hours a day, it 
would take sixteen months to go over an 
acre. I did not think it would pay ! 
I should have been a much more popular 
agricultural editor if I had not spent some jmars 
with Lawes & Gilbert. My experience on this 
great experimental farm taught me that nine- 
tenths of the chemical nostrums of the day had 
no foundation in fact or science. It was a real 
misfortune! A quack doctor is always more 
popular than a thoroughly educated physician. 
Nevertheless, I am sorry to hear that “ many 
persons are surprised that so little chemistry is 
applied in the management of my farm.” It is 
not true. I apply all the chemical knowledge I 
have. I do not think a single day passes in 
which I do not find use for chemical knowledge. 
For instance, this morning "the thermometer 
was 10 degrees below zero. I am feeding about 
fifty pigs. I steam the food for them. By put¬ 
ting the steamed food in a vat, and covering it 
up tight, it will keep warmer than if kept in 
small quantities in different vessels. This is a 
chemical fact. And when I got a large vat, and 
had all the steamed food put into it, and shut up 
close for the night, it became “ applied ” chem¬ 
istry.” The food keeps warm in the coldest 
weather. Only a few minutes ago, the man who 
has charge of the pigs told me the food froze 
in the troughs. “ Then you must give them 
but a little at a time, and when they have eaten 
that, give more. Let them have all they will 
eat, but no more.” You say this is not chemis¬ 
try ; but, in point of fact, there are several very 
important chemical laws involved in these sim¬ 
ple operations; and if you will look into the 
matter, you will find that chemistry enters into 
nearly every thing that you do on the farm; and, 
other things being equal, the more thoroughly 
a farmer understands chemistry, the more he 
can economize his time and labor. He should 
apply it to little things as well as great things. 
The trouble with most of our chemico-agri- 
cultural writers is, that they discuss questions 
very imperfectly understood, and say little of 
those simple, well-established principles which 
are applicable to the common, ordinary duties 
of every-day farm life. They prefer to talk 
about the amount of nutriment there is in 
cheese rather than to dwell on the importance 
of using boiling hot water to clean the milk pails 
and cheese vats. 
Mr. Jones writes : “I have a question in re¬ 
gard to the nutritive qualities of common feed 
for stock, concerning which there is no settled 
opinion, and which your attainments ought to 
qualify you to decide. What is the difference 
in the nutritive value of Indian corn of the 
hard, white variety, as compared with a de¬ 
cidedly yellow variety ? The latter is generally 
preferred for feeding and for fattening hogs. I 
suppose it the more valuable ; but I have an 
idea that the white is richer in flesh-forming 
substances—better, therefore, for bread, and 
better for horses. I have tried to have this 
matter tested by analysis, but have not yet suc¬ 
ceeded. My own opinion is founded chiefly on 
experiments and observation in feeding these 
grains.” That is to say, the yellow is richer in 
oil and starch than the white. I do not know 
whether this is so in fact or not; a good analy¬ 
sis would determine this point. For my part, 
I should buy the corn that contained the most 
starch and oil, without any reference, so far as 
nutriment (not manure) was concerned, to the 
percentage of the flesh-forming substances. A 
very poor, immature sample of corn might con¬ 
tain, and probably would contain, a higher 
percentage of nitrogen, or flesli-formiug matter, 
than a well-grown, fully-matured sample of 
corn. Just as a half-starved, lean ox would 
show a higher percentage of nitrogen than a 
well-fed, ripe one. There would not be as much 
nitrogen in the poor ox as in the well-fed one 
of the same age; but there would be more in a 
pound of the beef. And so in a shriveled, im¬ 
mature grain of corn, there would not be as 
much nitrogen as in a large grain, fully ma¬ 
tured, but there would be a higher percentage. 
In other words, this poor, shriveled, immature 
corn would contain a higher percentage of 
“ flesh-forming substances” than the richest, 
fattest, best developed corn grown in the Sciota 
Yalley. And the beef from an old Texan ox 
would contain a higher percentage of “ flesh¬ 
forming substances” than the best and ripest 
Shorthorn in Mr. Jones’ magnificent herd. 
A skim-milk cheese contains a higher percen¬ 
tage of flesh-forming matter than one which con¬ 
tains all the cream. And I could almost wish 
that those who write so much about the “ flesh- 
formers,” or, as one popular author calls them, 
the “ nitrates,” were compelled to live on lean 
Texan beef, or mutton from half-starved Merino 
sheep, or on skimmed cheese, until they either 
studied the matter more thoroughly, or ceased 
writing about it. 
Mr. Jones further asks—“ What is the value 
of wheat bran as food, say for cattle ? The 
