*jfeY<A«/ U. OF t. UX 3 AKA-, 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Dec. 25, 1909. 
Trappers, Attention. 
Now is the time to begin to get ready for the 
winter’s trapping. Many a boy or man who is 
lucky enough to live in the country earns each 
season a very decent sum of money by the sale 
of the fur that he traps, and this year, when the 
prices of fur are higher than ever before, oppor¬ 
tunities to make money are greater than ever. 
To have success, he who is going to trap this 
winter must live in the country—the real coun¬ 
try—but this does not necessarily mean that he 
must live in the wilds, nor even at a great dis¬ 
tance from a large city. There is more or less 
fur everywhere. 
Many people imagine that the fur-bearing ani¬ 
mals are almost extinct, but this is far from 
true. One would suppose that they should be 
growing more and more scarce from the vast 
numbers that are destroyed each year, but not¬ 
withstanding this annual destruction these creat¬ 
ures persist in a wonderful way. Even in the 
most thickly settled sections there is fur to be 
had by the boy that has the patience and per¬ 
sistence to set about his task in earnest and to 
follow it up, and who in addition has taught him¬ 
self or is willing to learn something about wood¬ 
craft—the ways of wild animals, where they live 
and how they seek their food and where. 
We know a place nine or ten miles from two 
great manufacturing cities where are to be caught 
—by whoever is smart enough to do it—foxes 
of two kinds, mink, skunks, ’coons and muskrats. 
A man living in a large city in New England,' 
who was trying to protect his birds from vermin, 
caught seventeen skunks- in traps in one season. 
One would not have to get a great many of 
these furs to earn $25 or $30. Enough to fit 
himself out with a number of things that he 
would like to have. 
Of course anyone who lives further from 
great centers has a larger list to choose from. 
Beaver are extinct in most States to be sure, or 
else are protected by law, but the Canada lynx, 
once the cheapest of furs, and selling for about 
$1, is not very uncommon in some of the North¬ 
ern States, and now a first class skin is quoted 
at $25 or even more. In the big woods there 
are still a few marten and fisher, which bring 
good prices. 
The first thing to be done now—and it should 
be done as soon as there is a fall of snow—is 
to lay out the trapping ground. This means that 
one must decide where he will establish his line 
of traps. To do this the trapper must learn first 
of all what fur-bearing animals are found in his 
section, and where they live, for the trapper 
takes his traps to his fur and does not expect 
the animals to come to him. He probably knows 
two or three streams where there are plenty of 
muskrats, and along which the mink seek their 
ffljfood. The tracks of both these animals will be 
•>, seen in the first snow that comes, and the 
muskrat, besides, has left his sign along the 
“stream on the bank on stones and logs. Also he 
jtnay have built a house or two in some quiet 
Hpond. The early snows will show you also that 
skunks are about, and probably you may track 
j[j|i family or two to their homes, which may be 
holes, dug by themselves, or perhaps an old 
woodchuck hole that they have appropriated for 
hemselves. Also the tracks of ’coons and foxes 
will be found, and by following them one may 
earn the tree which the ’coons inhabit, and the 
route followed by the foxes, which generally 
have regular places where they cross the roads, 
and sometimes have paths through the swamps. 
After the animals you hope to catch have been 
approximately located, it will be a good idea— 
if your trapping ground is in a thickly settled 
country, one of small farms—for you to call on 
all the landowners on whose lands you wish to 
trap and ask their permission to do so. In 
ninety-nine cases out of a hundred this will be 
readily granted, and this permission will very 
likely give you a monopoly of the trapping on 
these farms, for an owner having given one in¬ 
dividual permission to trap on .his land is not 
likely to grant this to a second person. Not one 
farmer in a thousand does any trapping, yet 
many a farmer, if he learned by accident that 
you had taken $10 or $20 worth of fur on his 
farm, might feel that you had robbed him of 
so much property; or again, ( if a farmer’s dog 
should unluckily get into one of your traps it 
is easy to make excuses if you are trapping by 
authority, and the farmer himself is likely to 
say that it served the dog right for being where 
he had no business to be. 
When you have decided where your traps are 
to be set and have asked permission of the land¬ 
holder to trap on his farm, it will be time for 
you to get your traps in order. In these days 
steel traps are used in most places, though of 
course deadfalls are cheaper, when one’s time 
is of no value, and are often very effective. 
Whatever traps you intend to use, get them 
ready and prepare also your stretchers; that is, 
the boards on which your skins are to be slipped 
to stretch and dry, so that they will get to mar¬ 
ket in good shape and bring the highest price. 
In preparing your traps look to it that the 
triggers are well smoothed—either by knife or 
file, as the case may be—so that if touched they 
will work instantly. 
If you are going to trap in Canada or in North¬ 
ern Maine, you are already late. There sable 
are prime by the middle of October and all 
other kinds of fur except fox by the last of that 
month. A little further south, mink and other 
furs are prime by Oct. 25 to Nov. 1, though fox 
are not strictly prime till Dec. 1. If, however, 
your trapping is to be carried on further south 
—say in Southern New York or Connecticut or 
Pennsylvania—your trapping may begin later. 
The end of December is early enough to put 
out your traps. Fur is at its best in the coldest 
weather, and March furs are likely to be better 
than those taken in January. You will get better 
prices for your late furs than for the early ones, 
and if no one else is trapping on your ground 
you will do well to begin late. If you discover 
that you have a competitor and you cannot agree 
with him to divide the trapping ground, you 
must get ahead as fast as you can, unless you 
can look up a new line for your traps and leave 
the old one for him. If you share the line, you 
will be likely to have trouble, unless your rival 
is someone that you know and like well, and in 
this case you will do well to make a partner¬ 
ship arrangement if you can. If the rival is a 
stranger, it may be best for your own comfort 
and profit to allow yourself to be driven off. 
The young trapper in a thickly settled section 
is likely at best to have some trouble. People 
may steal the fur out of his traps and even the 
traps themselves, and such thefts are very diffi¬ 
cult of detection. The best protection is to so 
conceal your traps that they will not be seen by 
the casual passerby. If, on the other hand, some 
one is making a business of stealing your traps, 
you will soon learn of it and can take measures 
to find out who the thief is, and to protect your¬ 
self. 
The art of trapping is more or less difficult, 
and is to be learned chiefly by experience. One 
can gain certain principles from books, but to 
apply these principles to the actual work of tak¬ 
ing fur is wholly a matter of practice. Skill 
will be acquired only by doing the work, and 
doing the same things over and over again. You 
wish to have your furs go to market in the best 
possible condition, and therefore you must take 
the greatest care on skinning and stretching the 
fur. Do not nail up your, pelts on the outside 
of the barn, exposed to the weather and un¬ 
evenly stretched. Do not shoot your animals. 
The shot cuts the fur and makes it unmarketable. 
You wish to cause as little suffering as p.ossible 
to the animals you trap; therefore, when it is 
possible set your traps so that the animals will 
fall into the water and drown at once. If this 
is not practicable, at least make the rounds of 
your traps daily, so as to kill and remove the 
catch. 
As already remarked, the prices of fur are this 
year higher than for a long time. Muskrats, 
which used to bring from six to nine cents, are 
now worth from twenty-five to forty cents. Good 
mink, formerly worth sixty to seventy-five cents, 
now bring from $5 to $10. Skunks are quoted 
at $3.50 for the best, and so it goes all along 
the line. 
There is some money to be made by trapping, 
but it is not to be made without work, care and 
attention to the business. Like every other oc¬ 
cupation, he will succeed best who works hardest 
and most intelligently. 
King Edward’s Hunting. 
Cinematograph views of English hunting were 
taken in the shooting preserves near the royal 
castle of Sandringham on the King’s birthday, 
Nov. 8. The members of the royal family and 
the principal persons of the Kingdom were as¬ 
sembled round the King to celebrate the event 
and the first views were) taken of the company 
leaving for the hunt as a part of the series for 
the first International Hunting and Field Sports 
Exhibition to be held in Vienna in 1910. The 
shooting began at 11 A. m., but not much hunt¬ 
ing was done and about 200 birds were shot. 
The King, the Princess and the royal guests 
had repaired to the preserves in motor cars and 
the King opened the shooting by a well aimed 
shot, for he is, as the films will show next year, 
an excellent shot. The shooting stopped at 2 
p. M. when the company, together with the Queen 
and the rest of the ladies who had joined the 
guns, repaired to a tent which had been erected 
on the hunting ground and took some refresh¬ 
ments. Then the hunting began again. 
On Thursday morning views were taken of 
Sandringham and the neighborhood, these pic¬ 
tures being intended as a present for the Ger¬ 
man Emperor. At half-past ten some splendid 
pheasant shooting commenced, of which first rate 
views were taken. The guns were placed in the 
form of a horseshoe*- in the middle of which 
stood King Edward, while the pheasants were 
beaten up from the opposite thicket. 
