1873 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
373 
Hunting Deer. 
Now that the harvest has been gathered, and 
the wheat and rye sown, recreation may justly 
he mingled with labor. While there are few 
occasions upon which the farmer or his boys 
can say there is 
no -work to be 
done to-day, yet 
at this season 
there are many 
on which he can 
say, “ Let us go 
a-hunting”; and 
in localities where 
deer abound it is 
a very proper and 
profitable tiling to 
do. Few farmers 
possess hounds 
for the purpose of 
hunting deer, nor 
do we encourage 
them to do so. 
That sort of 
hunting is hardly 
to be called sport, 
and is a barbarity 
which is to be 
reprehended. Still 
hunting, as it is 
called, or deer¬ 
stalking, is pref¬ 
erable in every 
way. But amongst the woods the deer-lick fur¬ 
nishes the most exciting sport, mingled with the 
least labor. On the open prairie hunting a deer 
is hakl work; in the woods it is easier 'while 
equally exciting. The discovery of the trail, 
the finding of the decayed stump to which the 
deer has been in the habit of resorting, the pre¬ 
paration of the lick and the screen behind 
which the hunter keeps guard, and finally the 
silent watches during which the ear is on the 
alert to catch the 
snap of the be¬ 
traying twig or 
the gentle footfall 
of the approach¬ 
ing game—all fur¬ 
nish occasions for 
the exercise of 
judgment, sagac¬ 
ity, and patience. 
When the reward 
is gained, and the 
moment of tri¬ 
umph comes in 
which the hunter 
bears home his 
booty, he feels 
better paid for his 
pains than by any 
equally valuable 
thing gained in 
any other way. 
Deer being very 
fond of salt will 
make a practice 
of periodically 
visiting a place 
where they can 
procure it. The making of a salt-lick is a very 
simple matter. One often finds in the woods 
partly rotten stumps of fallen trees which have 
been gnawed and licked bj r deer for some pur¬ 
poses satisfactory to themselves at least. If such 
a stump is notched with the axe, or a hole is 
bored into it a few inches deep, and salt placed 
therein, and the deer once gets a taste of it, it 
will return so often that a well-worn path will 
soon be made. Other deer will follow the track, 
and a new lick, after a lapse of two or three 
weeks, will be frequented by all the deer in the 
neighborhood. A screen of brush is made at a 
distance of 100 yards or so in which the hunter 
may hide and take a deliberate shot. As soon 
as they have become familiar with all the sur¬ 
roundings the deer will approach the lick with¬ 
out any caution, and very probably the first 
intimation of their presence to the hunter will 
be the sudden appearance of one or perhaps 
more as though they had sprung out of the 
ground. Then it is necessary to be very careful. 
The least sound of a motion may cause the loss 
of the game. Therefore everything should be 
prepared beforehand to take advantage of this 
moment; and, as is shown in the accompanying 
engraving, a convenient prostrate log may serve 
very well botli as a rest for the rifle and a hid¬ 
ing-place for the hunter. 
In some parts of the North-western wooded 
regions and in Canada deer become a positive 
nuisance. They have been known to come in 
droves so boldly as to totally destroy crops of 
grain and turnips. It is only recently that a 
correspondent wrote despairingly to ask how 
he could prevent their depredations. Shooting 
he wrote was of 
no account. They 
came in the night 
when he could 
not see them and 
when he had need 
for rest. Under 
such circumstan¬ 
ces we have seen 
them trapped. A 
stout sapling is 
bent down and 
fastened by a rope 
to a trigger fixed 
in the root of a 
tree or stump. A 
slip-noose is at¬ 
tached to this 
rope, and a piece 
of board balanced 
over a short stick 
forms a trap by 
which the trig¬ 
ger is loosened. 
The instant the 
deer touches the 
trap the trigger 
falls, loosens the 
rope, the sapling rebounds, and the noose 
entangles the deer by a leg or the horns 
and holds him securely. Some salt in a 
notch in the stump or on the trap furnishes the 
attraction, or the trap may be placed at a part 
of the fence over which the deer are in the habit 
of jumping. Our second engraving shows this 
contrivance and the manner in which it works. 
-— .——« o —-■ - — 
Wheat-Growing in Minnesota. —Daniel 
Currie, of Fill¬ 
more County, 
Minn e s o t a, 
writes: “Ou r 
soil is a rich, 
black loam, ex¬ 
cellent for wheat 
and oats. When 
new it will pro¬ 
duce from 25 to 
35 bushels of Fife 
wheat per acre, 
but a great deal 
of the land is be¬ 
ginning to fail. 
We consider that 
last year was a 
good season for 
wheat; but still 
much of the land 
did not produce 
over 15 to 17 
bushels to the 
acre. This was 
land that has 
been cropped 
steadily to wheat 
for ten or twelve 
years. On land cropped not over six times 
the yield last year was not less than 20 
bushels per acre. The best farmers are be¬ 
ginning to seed down largely with clover 
and timothy and to raise more stock. There 
has been very little blooded stock introduced 
here yet. Wheat yields quicker returns and 
DEER AT A SALT-LICK. 
TRAPPING THE DEER. 
