1912. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1083 
A TRAPPER’S NOTES. 
Part II. 
Mink Trapping and Traps. 
In lake tapping care has to be used 
to set traps in bayous and places where 
waves will not bother the trap by spring¬ 
ing it or covering it with sand. The 
bait house is used to force animals 
to go over trap to get to bait, and 
should always be built large enough so 
if animal is trap-shy and gets over trap 
with front feet will be caught by hind 
feet while trying to get bait.* If blue 
jays or other birds bother bait cover 
bait house with bark or evergreen 
boughs. Care should be used in placing 
boughs so they will not blow off and 
spring trap. This covering can be used 
to keep out snow, as animals could not 
scent bait if covered with snow, but do 
not use covering unless it is needed. 
Coons are trapped the same way as 
mink, as coons go to water a good deal 
in the Fall. Bait houses should be built 
larger, higher, and stronger and heavier 
stakes are needed or solider fastenings. 
Where streams are too gravelly or stony 
to drive stakes tc hold, cut small tree 
1J4 to two inches through that would 
be heavy enough to make a good drag. 
Trap may be fastened to sapling or-tree 
by driving in dog. Another good way 
to fasten to tree is to double trap chain 
through ring, put loop around pole on 
tree, and put trap through loop and draw 
up fight; leave branches so that loop 
will not pull off tree or pole. All traps 
should be tended every three or four 
days while trapping with water sets, as 
the fur will come off if left in the water 
eight or nine days. 
I think almost every State has laws to 
govern the trapping season. November 
1 is as soon as furs are good, except 
in northern part of Northern States, 
then October 20 is soon enough. 
Skinning and Stretching Mink.— 
To skin mink lay mink on back and rip 
down hind legs to belly or lower side 
of vent, cut around vent and loosen 
skin, pull out tail bone. After skin is 
started around tail take tail in left hand, 
thumb on one side of tail bone, finger 
on other, and pull with right hand (it 
is not hard to do). Now pull skin for¬ 
ward over head. The skin will have to 
be cut around fore legs and ears and 
eyes. Skin all of head. If fur is not 
too wet it is ready to stretch. Put on 
board, fur inside, and stretch as long 
as possible. Use small nails about one- 
half inch apart, Make a small strip 
the length of skin one-half inch wide, 
one-quarter inch thick, made tapering. 
Shove between board and skin on belly 
side. This is so skin can be pulled off 
board when dry without too much trou¬ 
ble. If an animal is muddy it should 
be washed and dried before skinning or 
if it is too wet it should be dried; this 
keeps fur from matting. 
Mink Stretching Board. —To make 
mink stretching boards get pine boards 
one-quarter inch thick. It should not 
be much thicker. Other soft wood will 
do to make large stretcher. Make it 
three inches wide at head end, four 
inches at other end, and 24 inches long; 
shave edge to one-eighth inch and round 
and taper head to fit the skin; make 
medium board 2 l /z inches wide at head 
end and 3j4 at other end, 24 inches 
long; small board two inches wide at 
head end and three inches at other end, 
24 inches long. In some sections 
stretcher will have to be smaller or 
larger to fit the size of mink, as they 
vary in size in different sections of 
country. 
Skunk Trapping. 
As skunk have no certain runs they 
have to be trapped at their dens. So 
the more dens that can be found through 
the Summer and early Fall the better. 
Set a No. lj /2 trap in the mouth of all 
of the dens that can be found. The 
trap should be placed about one foot 
in den and just a little to one side of 
center, as skunks do not walk with their 
feet square under them. A good place 
to catch skunks is around the unused 
buildings; if there is any chance of 
them getting under them they will be 
there if anywhere. 
Skunks are cased or skinned the same 
as mink or muskrats. Some may be 
stretched on rat boards, but some will 
need larger boards. Care should be 
taken in skinning them not to cut scent 
sacks. (They are on both sides of the 
vent.) The tail of the skunk may be 
ripped open to get tail bone out. The 
best way to kill skunks is to shoot them 
with a 22-calibre pistol or rifle; shoot 
them in the breast and they will not 
throw half as much scent as if shot in 
head. November is as soon as skunk 
will be prime, or as soon as fur will be 
classed No. 1. 
Muskrats. 
While a No. 1 trap will hold them, it 
is not heavy enough to drown them, and 
so the No. V /2 should be used. Go 
along bank of stream or lake in boat or 
on foot and look for signs, or where 
they are feeding on grasses or roots of 
other plants. Set trap where they come 
out of water and the tracks are plenti¬ 
ful. The traps should be about one or 
two inches under water. Stake trap in 
water as far as chain will allow. Where 
the water is shallow put in two stakes— 
one for them to tangle up on. They 
may be trapped in their holes under 
water. When water is clear the holes 
can easily be seen. The mouth of the 
hole always starts un-der the water and 
goes up under the bank. This is a good 
way to trap them. Traps should be 
placed in hole a foot or more, if possi¬ 
ble. 
Look under overhanging banks and 
in under trees and stumps for tracks. 
If the tracks are plentiful and musk¬ 
rats have carried grasses there it will 
be a good place to set traps. Another 
good place is in hollow logs and stumps 
when they are not entirely under water. 
When there is grass pulled in the open¬ 
ing or clam shells lying around in the 
water, if water is deep enough to drown 
rat, fasten trap to log by driving dog 
into log. To trap them around their 
houses set trap on edge of house under 
water, as they most always carry grasses 
and stuff to eat on outside of house to 
eat it. When water is frozen they may 
be trapped in houses by cutting or dig¬ 
ging hole in side of house and setting 
trap in the holes that rats use to enter 
house. Fill up the hole made by dig¬ 
ging in house after the trap is set. (In 
some States it is against the law to 
break into muskrat houses). 
Parsnips and sweet apples can be used 
as bait to attract rats to trap. Sharpen 
small stake, put one of either on stick 
and shove stick in ground so apple or 
parsnip will hang over trap and be eight 
or 10 inches above trap. Trap should 
be set in the edge of water where there 
are rat signs. In the Spring take musk 
sacs of the female rat (they are found 
on both sexes in Spring only and will 
be found on belly between hind legs). 
Squeeze musk in bottle and take a small, 
stick and chew or pound end so the 
musk will stick to it. Put chewed end 
of stick in musk in bottle, set trap in 
edge of water and stick the stick with 
musk on it in ground on bank three or 
four inches back of trap. Muskrats are 
cased or stretched and skinned the same 
as mink. Stretching boards should be 
one-fourth inch thick; small boards, five 
inches wide and 18 inches long; medium 
boards, six inches wide and 18 inches 
long; large boards, seven inches wide 
and 18 inches long. Round and taper 
head of board to fit head of skin and 
shave edge thinner. Pull skin well 
down and use plenty of small nails to 
fasten skin. The tails of muskrats are 
not left on skins. Use wedge between 
skin and board the same as on mink, so 
that skin can easily be removed. 
s. D. V0SBURG. 
Business in Pork Products. 
I have been selling some of my surplus 
hams, and last Winter sold some sausage. 
Now I have an offer from the people 1 
sold to, wanting 100 cured hams in the 
early Spring and from 50 to 100 pounds 
of sausage per week during the Winter; 
they will also take backbones, ribs, souse 
aud headcheese. I am offered 20 cents 
per pound for sausage. 18 for hams. T 
have had no understanding about the price 
of the other things, but am sure they will 
give a fair market price for them. My 
idea is to buy pigs along as late as I can. 
Some I will have to keep and feed, as I 
would only need two or three each week. I 
shall make tho sides and shoulders into 
sausage, keeping only the hams: will have 
to pay from seven to eight cents a pound 
for hogs on foot. Will you tell me how 
much a 200-pound hog will lose in dress¬ 
ing, and if you think there is any money 
in it for me at these prices? j. c. 
Virginia. 
Before you start have a definite 
understanding about the prices to be 
paid for headcheese and other parts, 
and be sure they will all be taken. Any 
profit in such business will probably 
come out of these extra parts. It looks 
like a good proposition if everything 
can be handled. Such hogs shrink from 
20 to 30 per cent, in dressing. With 
care in saving all lard you should get 
about 150 pounds of pork from a 200- 
pound hog. 
A Little Story of a 
Great Name 
“What’s in a name?” Sometimes nothing at all. We have all been 
taught that “the rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” 
Nevertheless, it is a well-known fact that there are cases where we are 
prejudiced for or against certain persons or things merely on account of the 
name they happen to bear, and usually without real reason. 
When a name is once given, and becomes fixed, it is difficult and often 
impossible to change it, even though there may be good and sufficient reason 
for so doing. This is particularly true of the name of old established news¬ 
papers. 
The case of “The Breeder’s Gazette” is a notable instance. A farmer 
for example not^ specially engaged in stock-breeding would very probably 
assume that he would not find a paper called “The Breeder’s Gazette” 
of any particular value, and yet he would be wholly mistaken, because as 
a matter of fact the paper actually carries the biggest and best line of good 
farm matter being published. 
More than'thirty years ago this greatest of all the farm newspapers of 
this day and generation was started as an organ of the breeders and im¬ 
porters of pedigreed farm animals. Its founder very properly christened it 
“The Breeder’s Gazette.” For years it was devoted almost wholly to that 
important interest; it grew, it prospered and expanded. 
Like an acorn slowly but surely attaining the dignity of the mighty oak, 
so “The Breeder’s Gazette,” planted in the rich soil of stock-keeping, un¬ 
folded leaf after leaf, taking on year by year a broader body and deeper roots, 
and has developed from an humble beginning as a mere “breeder's” paper 
into what it is in these closing months of 1912, the most brilliant success 
ever registered in the annals of general agricultural newspaper making. 
Why didn’t the publishers long since change its name to fit its contents? 
That is a fair question. Why continue to carry a name which is today alto¬ 
gether misleading to those who are not familiar with its actual make-up? 
The answer is that no one knew or could tell the time when the trans¬ 
formation in its character took place. It was the child growing up to matu¬ 
rity. The boy doesn’t become a full-grown man overnight, and his parents 
never see the day when they feel like changing the name under which the 
youth has rounded into full stature. 
So “The Breeder’s Gazette” of 1881 is still “The Breeder’s Gazette” 
in 1912; under which name the successors of the original founder have 
builded it out into one of the biggest and best farm newspapers in all 
the world. 
If anyone doubts this, let him send for sample copies of all of them—don’t 
overlook one, either in the old world or new—and make your own comparison 
of matter and illustrations. 
Therefore, let not those who may be invited for the first time to become 
subscribers to “The Breeder’s Gazette” fall into the error of assuming that 
it is only made for those who are professional dealers in so-called “fancy” 
live stock. 
Soil-building is the crying need of the hour in all agricultural America. 
Every owner of an acre has or ought to have a personal interest in that 
proposition. 
“The Breeder’s Gazette” is the logical and the actual leader of the farm 
press of the United States in the handling of this great subject. 
Its readers and its writers stand for the very best elements in American 
country life. Its big subscription list makes up a roll of farmers not dupli¬ 
cated or approached in point of quality by the subscription list of any other 
farm paper in the world. 
Men are known by the company they keep. To be known as a regular 
student of the pages of “ The Breeder’s Gazette” is to attain an advanced 
standing in your community. 
A big extra Holiday Number goes free every December to subscribers 
whose names are on the list on date of issue. This is admittedly the finest 
publication of the year in the whole field of agricultural journalism. 
Please ask us to send you a copy of a recent issue. It will cost you 
nothing and you may be surprised at the size, quality and character of it. 
Address, mentioning this paper, 
The Breeder’s Gazette 
542 South Dearborn Street Chicago 
KOUEKTSON’8 CHAIN 
HANGING {STANCHIONS 
“I have used them for moro 
than TWENTY YEA US, and they 
huve given the ver y beat of satis- 
faction in every way/’ writes 
Justus n. Cooley, M.D., Plainfield 
Sanitarium, Plainfield, N. J. 
Thirty days’ trial on application 
O. II. UOKEKTSON 
Wash. St., Foreslvillc, Conn. 
EXCELSIOR SWING STANCHION 
30 Days’ Trial—Stationary When- Open 
NOISELESS SIMPLE SANITARY DURABLE 
Tho Wasson Stanchion Co., 
Box GO, Cuba, N.Y 
