1912. 
THE RURAL, NEW-YORKER 
1107 
A TRAPPER’S NOTES. 
Part III. 
Otter Trapping. 
Otter trapping takes experience and 
patience, as they are shy and hard to 
catch, and change their feeding grounds 
often. The best place to look for their 
signs is around bayous, along rivers, 
creeks and lakes. This is where they 
mostly feed. Follow along the bank 
and look for their wallow (some peo¬ 
ple call them slides). These places may 
be told by their droppings, which are 
mostly composed of crabs or crawfish, 
and fish scales and bones. Set traps 
where they come out of the water or 
go back. Traps should be about three 
inches under water, not any more. 
Sometimes it is necessary to fill in with 
sods or dirt so that water will not be 
too deep. Don’t disturb the bank in 
doing this. The No. 3 trap is generally 
used for otter, but I prefer No. 4. 
Turn springs to the side and set trap 
so the otter will have to go over it 
endways. Cover the trap lightly with 
water-soaked leaves or grass. Drive 
stake down until the water covers it 
and rub mud over it so it won’t show. 
If trap is set from boat splash any part 
of bank with water that you may have 
touched. If set from the bank, takes 
an evergreen limb and spray all of the 
bank you may have touched by dipping 
in the water and shaking over tracks. 
Other places can be found when there 
is snow where they cross from one 
bayou to another, over narrow strips 
of land. When it is too cold to set 
traps in water, the traps can be set in 
snow and covered with snow. Sweep 
out your foot prints with a branch. 
Otter is skinned or cased the same as 
mink except the tail, which is ripped 
open on under side, spread out and 
tacked to stretching board. The stretch¬ 
ing boards are from five to seven inches 
wide, according to size of otter and 
from five to six feet long, for the 
larger ones. 
Fox Trapping. 
The No. \y 2 makes a good fox trap. 
The No. 2 is good but is not so easily 
concealed. In fox trapping it is best 
to wait for snow, as it is hard to 
catch fox on bare ground. For land 
sets cover trap with moss, grass, dirt or 
sand. In using dirt or sand put a little 
soft roll cotton or wool under pedal 
of trap to keep sand from getting under 
it so trap can’t spring, or take a piece of 
tissue paper and place it over trap when 
set and cover lightly with sand or dirt. 
In putting out bait place it where they 
travel most. For bait use offal, beef 
head, the refuse of rendered tallow or 
lard or anything that they will eat. 
Rabbits or porcupines are good. Lay 
porcupine on its hack and rip open belly 
with knife. In using snow-set put traps 
under evergreen trees and if sun shines 
snow will not be so likely to melt off 
of trap. In snow-sets take a course 
three or four rods from bait as though 
you were going to pass by it and when 
opposite it go straight to bait. Set trap 
and cover stake or drag. (The drag is 
a limb or piece of wood of any kind 
heavy enough to prevent animal from 
going far with it.) Brush over with 
evergreen branch back up to turn and 
brush all tracks up to turn so that it 
will look as though you had gone past 
without stopping. Go close to trap 
only when it is necessary in case of 
thaw or too much snow. Traps should 
be dipped in boiling water before set¬ 
ting for fox, to kill the scent that may 
be on them. Foxes are skinned and 
cased; stretching boards are from six to 
eight inches wide and four feet long. 
The boards are made more tapering to 
fit head and neck of their skin. Do not 
build a bait house and put bait in it to 
catch fox, for they will not go near it. 
Place bait beside logs or stumps. Other 
good places to set may be found where 
they frequent holes or dens. 
Wild Cat. 
Wild cats are found around swamps 
and are easy to catch. Find a place 
where they cross from one swamp to 
another. The No. \ l / 2 trap is large 
enough if it has a stiff spring. Build 
a bait house, use rabbit, partridge or 
squirrel for bait with a little fish added 
if possible. Traps may be set any¬ 
where in swamps where wild cats are 
likely to travel, as bait will attract 
them, especially if fish is used. Skin 
cased; stretching boards are made from 
five to seven inches wide and four feet 
long. 
Badger. 
The only way to trap badger is to 
follow to the dens or holes and set trap 
in hole. The No. V/ 2 is large enough. 
Fasten trap to large limb or small 
sapling that they can’t drag far, as 
they are very likely to dig out stake. 
Badgers don’t seem to care for bait and 
if is hard to dig them out, as they will 
dig as soon as they find out anyone is 
digging for them. Badgers are skinned 
open, the same as coon, and tacked on 
wide boards or on inside of outbuild¬ 
ings. Use plenty of small nails so as 
to get a good edge on edge of skin. 
These trapping articles are all from 
actual experience. s. d. vosburg. 
THE ORANGE COUNTY POULTRY HOUSE. 
Part I. 
Last year Mr. O. W. Mapes gave an ac¬ 
count, with pictures, of his “Orange 
County Poultry House.” Recently, before 
the Orange County (N. Y.) Pomona Grange 
Mr. Mapes described his house and indi¬ 
cated tlie influence of poultry keeping upon 
the milk business. \Ye give the substance 
of this paper herewith—repeating a picture 
of the house. 
The Orange County poultry house 
is only one of a number of types of 
practical houses. It combines more 
good features, however, than any with 
which I have ever come in contact. 
Because I believe that its use will lift 
milk producers out of “the Slough of 
Despond" I have named it “The Orange 
County poultry house” and dedicated 
it to Orange County farmers. We 
sometimes make a mistake when try¬ 
ing to figure on farm problems. We 
take an acre of land, or a cow, or a 
hen, or a bushel of seed as a unit from 
which to work. The true unit should 
be the farmer’s own time and labor. 
All the other items mentioned, or simi¬ 
lar ones, can be indefinitely multiplied 
by the use of capital, which is nothing 
more than the unconsumed product of 
which he never should for market eggs, 
or keeps some of the non-sitting breeds. 
Score again on the same side. 
Now let us introduce the dollar into 
the problem. We have the time and 
labor of the farmer as the one fixed 
factor, and we will take so much Qf if 
as is necessary to care for one cow, or 
four cows, as a base. Flow much time 
does it require to care for one dairy 
cow each day? Remember that she must 
he milked morning and night at all 
hazards. She and her stable must be 
kept clean enough not only to satisfy 
her owner, but a city board of health 
as well, and she usually has to be given 
a supply of grain feed and roughage 
both morning and night in separate in¬ 
stallments. The milk has to be started 
on its way to market every day as regu¬ 
larly as the sun rises. This means either 
that the farmer must take his own and 
his team’s time to drive several miles 
or hire someone else to do it. Would 
30 minutes per cow be too much allow¬ 
ance for the daily care? 
By the use of the Orange County 
poultry house the hens are kept in 
(locks or units of about 250 each. I 
have proved that one of these units can 
be cared for with less time and labor 
than is necessary for one dairy cow. 
It has been designed with an eye to the 
greatest possible efficiency for the labor 
of the poultry man or poultry woman, as 
the case may be. The watering trough 
is self-cleaning and is filled with cold 
water in Summer or hot water in Win¬ 
ter by simply turning a faucet. A bar¬ 
rel for mixed grains and a hopper for 
dry mash hold a week’s supply for the 
flock. Both barrel and hopper have 
covers on which the hens cannot perch, 
thus soiling them, and the dry mash 
THE ORANGE COUNTY HENHOUSE. Fig. 454. 
human toil, but the time and toil of the 
farmer himself is the one fixed factor 
to be reckoned with. Unless we take 
that as a base we are likely to reach 
false conclusions that prove disappoint¬ 
ing when we try to verify them in 
practice. 
Most farms are so located in respect 
to available help that the farmer’s own 
family, including possibly one or two 
hired men, is all that can be counted on. 
I have cultivated a single ‘acre of ber¬ 
ries or asparagus that sold for $500 
a year, a fair proportion of which was 
profit. Ten such acres would have been 
as much of an elephant on my hands at 
harvest time as 100 cows would be on 
most farms at milking time. Bearing 
this in mind, there are some things that 
stand out prominently when we com¬ 
pare the business hen with the dairy 
cow. The cow has to be milked twice 
a day at least. Not only that but she 
should be milked at regular intervals. 
This means beginning a day’s work long 
before the mechanic in town does his, 
and ending it long after. On a dairy 
farm where cows enough are kept to 
keep the milkers busy one or two hours, 
this means a 13 or 14-hour day and 365 
days in a year. When we put along¬ 
side of that the fact that the business 
hen “milks herself,” so to speak, we can 
well “tally one” for the hen. The prod¬ 
uct of the cow is exposed to all manner 
of microbes, etc., that float in the air 
of even the cleanest stable, or lurk 
in every crevice of the pail, or hair of 
the farmer’s beard, while the product 
of the hen is neatly put up in a capsule 
form. Score two for the hen. If the 
farmer wants to attend the circus or 
the Pomona Grange, and does not get 
home before dark, no great harm will 
come to his eggs if they remain in the 
nest over night. This is especially true 
if he keeps no males in the flock. 
hopper is self-feeding, so that the hens 
need never go hungry. The nests can 
he quickly closed after the hens are done 
laying for the day, and are just high 
enough for one to carry the egg basket 
in one hand and fill it with the other 
without bending the back. It takes 
about 30 minutes a day for the regular 
care of a cow. How much for the daily 
care of 250 hens? Each morning I 
visit the flock and first turn the faucet 
which allows the water trough to fill. 
W hile the water runs I open the door 
and step inside. I remove the cover, 
dip from the barrel the day’s supply 
of mixed grains and throw it on the 
floor. I replace the cover and open the 
entrance to the nests. These are built 
in sections 12 feet long and the 24 nests 
are opened by releasing two catches. 
I do not think that the farmer is getting 
near the prices that lie ought to. These 
are farmers’ prices: Hay is bringing .$14 
to $15; straw, $10 to $12; horses from 
$100 up; cows, $25 to $50. Milk is whole¬ 
sale, three to 3% cents per quart and re¬ 
tailing at seven cents per quart. Butter, 
30 cents per pound ; eggs, 28 cents a 
dozen ; wheat, 95 cents per bushel; oats, 
40; corn, old, 80; rye, 70; buckwheat, 70. 
Bloomsburg, I’a. j. n. c. 
Prices for farm products delivered are 
at present about as follows: Per bushel, 
for old corn, 80 to 90 cents; uew corn, 
none sold; wheat, 95; oats, 40; potatoes. 
50 to 60. Picked Winter apples, loose, 50 
to 60. Pumpkins, $1 to $1.25 per two- 
horse load in field. Hay, very little sold 
at present Eggs. 22; butter, creamery, 
30; homemade, 25 for best. Hogs, per 
hundredweight, $8; fat cattle, cows, $4 
to $5; steers, $5 to $6; bulls. $4. Milch 
Cows, $25 to $60 per head ; cattle not lit 
to butcher, $2.50 to $3.50 per hundred; 
fat sheep. $4; lambs, $4.50 to $5; sheep, 
not fat, $2 to $3; lambs. $3 to $4. Not 
many horses sold just now, $150 to $250 
for good, sound working horses or mules. 
Elberta peaches were shipped in from 
Texas and Arkansas and sold at $1.75 per 
basket of about a bushel. Freight per car 
of 300 baskets amounted to $275. a. xi. 
Dubois Co., Ind. 
When you write advertisers mention The 
R. N.-Y. and you'll get a quick reply and a 
“square deal.” See guarantee editorial page. 
FUR NEWSP«TO. 
all about 
.... , -trapping, 
ashing, raw furs, guns; good stories and 
— . .'w — photos. Market prices ami names of 
reliable I ur dealers. Every trapper, hunter and dealer 
needs Fua News Magazine. Copy, 1 Oc.; :i months, 25c. 
FUR NEWS PUB. CO., 71 W. 23d St., New York. Room 520 
HIINTFRW trappers i buyers! 
nunitnO: Make More Money. Read 
' Hunter-Trader-Trapper 128-200 pago 
-- - magazine about game, gunH, dogs, 
furs, fish, roots, trapping secrets, 10c. Camp & Trail, 18- 
24 page weekly, same subjects, raw furreports. prices, 5c. 
A. R. HARDING. Publisher. Box SOU Columbus. Ohio 
RAW FURS 
G. I. FOX, 27 
Seventh Ave., 
N. Y. A square 
deal, liberal as¬ 
sortment, top 
prices. Write 
for price list 
ISKUNK 
AI. J, Jewett «fc Sons, I 
We buy Skunk, Mink,Musk¬ 
rat and all other raw furs at 
highest market prices, and 
give liberal assortments and 
‘A square deal" to everyone. 
Price-list free. 
Redwood, N. Y„ Dept- 29 
-A. T T E 3NT T I O 3NT 
Manufacturer’s Samples; Gentlemen’s black broadcloth 
Fur Lined Overcoats; lined throughout with Australian 
Mink; largo Persian Lamb Collars. Sizes 36 to i8. *80 
each. These coats have never been worn. Similar gar¬ 
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Furs; beautiful Scarf. large stylish Muff, S15 set. Also 
5mv laige size Fur Relies, plusli each. All guaranteed 
new. Sent by express with p:lv lege of examination before 
paying for them. Itemit oidv express charges. Write or call. 
E. ROBERTS, Room 24, 160 West 119th St., New York. 
D A \A# CII DC HIGHEST CASH 
W\ H ¥f ru l\0 PRICES PAID 
FOR SKUNK, MINK, MUSKRAT, ETC. 
We guarantee full satisfaction or 
return furs free of charge. Send 
for price list and market reports. 
J. HENRY STICHT t& CO. 
46 WEST 29th STREET, NEW YORK 
Positively the Best Firm to Sell Raw Furs 
We pay all express charges and charge no commission 
RAW FURS WANTED 
Write in Now for our Market 
Quotations. We will send 
you our Trappers’ Guide Free. 
AMERICAN RAW FUR CO. 
130 West 25th Street, New York City 
FUR SHIPPERS 
WE WILL PHY YOU YOUR 
OWN PRICE FOR YOUR FURS 
Make us a trial shipment stating how much you 
want for same and wo will pay you as much, or 
more, than you expect, or we will return your furs, 
express prepaid. 
Send in your name and address, at once, and we 
will send tags: also “ The Schoenen Fur Reporter" 
our own publication, containing market reports 
and LATEST QUOTATIONS. We keep you 
posted all winter. Write today. 
H. A. SCHOENEN 
277 Seventh Avenue, - New York, N. Y. 
WE TAN 
Every kind of Skins, Horse and Cattle hides for 
Rugs, Robes and Coats. We make Ladies’and Gents’ 
Fur Coats, Scarfs, Muffs, Gloves,etc., from skins sent 
ns to be tanned. Wo guarantee everything wo make. 
Send for Illustrated Catalogue. 
TAXIDERMY IN ALL ITS BRANCHES 
THE PELOQUIN FUR TANNING CO., 
386 East Main St., Rochester, N. Y. 
Established 1894 
LET US TAN 
YOUR HIDE. 
Cattle or Horse hide. Calf, Dog, Deer, 
or any kind of skin with hair or fur on. 
We tan and finish thorn right; make 
them into coats (for men and women), 
robes, rugs or gloves when ordered. 
Your fur goods will cost you less than 
to buy them, and bo worth more. Our 
flhjstratod catalog gives a lot of in¬ 
formation which every stock raiser 
should havo, but we never send out this 
valuable book except upon request. 
It tells how to take off and care for 
hides; how and when wo pay the freight 
both ways ; about our safe dyeing pro¬ 
cess which is a tremendous advantage 
to the customer, especially on horso 
bides and calf skins; about the fur 
goods and game trophies wo sell, taxi¬ 
dermy, etc. If you want a copy send us 
your correct address. 
The Crosby Frisian Fur Company, 
571 Lyell Ave., Rochester. N. Y. 
Three Excellent Books 
SwiTiP in Amprira ^ D- Coburn. Full 
OWine m America description of breeds, 
methods of handling, diseases, etc.; 600 pages, 
many illustrations. Price.$3*50 
Milk and Its Products 
work on this subject; 300 pages. Price..$1.50 
The Hnr«p *’>’ Isaac P. Roberts. In this 
1 . Ilorse work Prof. Roberts has given a 
concise history of the various breeds, methods 
of breaking, feed and general care; 400 pages; 
many illustrations. Price.$1.25 
All These Books THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Are For Sale B« 409 PEARL ST„ NEW YORK CITY 
