
Water snake swallowing black bass. 
member of the Board of Fish Commis- 
sioners of our state, and have been en- 
deavoring for a long time to interest 
sportsmen and fishermen particularly, 
to the necessity of destroying water 
snakes, as they are without doubt the 
most important enemy that the fish 
have in small streams. A number of 
fishing clubs and sportsmans organiza- 
tions in our state have become inter- 
ested, and have paid bounties of so much 
a head for all water snakes killed, the 
result has been very satisfactory so far 
as the subject has reached the attention 
of the sportsmen, and has created in- 
terest among Boy Scout camps and 
other boys’ organizations, so that many 
hundreds of snakes have met their de- 
served doom. ; 
LESLIE W. SEYLOR, 
McConnellsburg, Pa. 
Systematized Trapping of 
Muskrats 
DEAR ForEST & STREAM: 
HEN the State took hold of Marsh 
Islard in 1913, due to excessive 
shootine and trapping, there was very 
little game or fur-bearing animals on 
the property, less than 2,000 fur-bear- 
ing animals being caught during that 
year. Due to careful regulations of the 
trapping, and the positive closing of the 
entire island to all shooting, the in- 
crease in fur-bearing animals and game 
birds has been gradual and positive, 
and every winter has shown an increase 
in the game birds and the number of 
fur-bearing animals caught, including 
the winter of 1928.° 
Due to the unprecedented drought, 
which lasted all of the summer of 1924 
and has only just been broken by mod- 
erate showers (this drought, according 
to the United States Weather Bureau, 
being the most extensive recorded in 
Louisiana in ninety years), there has 
been a large decrease in the food for 
the game birds, due to all of the lakes 
and ponds not flooded by tide-water 
286 
having dried up. And the food in most 
of the lakes and ponds which are 
flooded * by tide-water having been 
killed, due to excess of salt water. 
There is also a considerable decrease 
in the fur-bearing animals, traceable 
directly to the drought. This will be 
especially noted in the number of musk- 
rats, for without a suitable amount of 
fresh water, muskrats do not propagate 
as extensively, nor does the grass on 
which they feed thrive as well. We can, 
therefore, expect during the season of 
1924-25 a decrease in the fur catch on 
Marsh Island, and a decrease in the 
number of game birds on the property. 
This decrease is traceable directly 
to the dry summer and fall, as above 
stated. 
One of the principal features in the 
handling of the trapping on Marsh 
Island has been to give the muskrats 
an opportunity to increase. As an in- 
crease in muskrats causes an increase 
in the water area, due to their killing 
out the grass roots, which killing out of 
the grass roots in turn,makes ponds in 
which food for ducks and geese readily 
grows. So the greater the number of 
muskrats the more suitable territory 
we have for ducks and geese, up to a 
certain point. If the muskrats increase 
too extensively they destroy not only 
the grass, but the plants on which the 
ducks and geese feed, and in that way 
they are a menace to the game birds. 
There is a happy balance to be struck, 
which I have attempted to maintain. 
In regulating the trapping of fur 
bearing animals on Marsh Island I have 
kept a man who has been taught the 
proper methods of trapping, constantly 
going over the property. Where an 
area seemed to be over-trapped we have 
closed that area and given the animals 
an opportunity of increasing. When an 
area has been too heavily stocked, we 
have required more intensive trapping. 
One of my regulations is that no traps 
must be set nearer than thirty feet to 
a muskrat house. By trapping at this 
distance, no young rats are caught, as 
they do not wander this distance from 
the home nest, thus leaving an ample 
stock of young rats for the next sea- 
son’s breeding stock. 
Under present conditions only about 
one-half of Marsh Island is suitable 
for game birds and fur bearing animals, 
the balance of it being either the wrong 
kind of ground or too well drained to 
grow the proper food. This situation 
can be remedied by a series of canals 
and levees, and it is to be hoped that 
part of the revenue obtained from ‘the 
trappers on this property will be de- 
voted to increasing the value of this 
property for both game birds and fur 
bearing animals. ; 
The demonstration that has been 
made on Marsh Island in the handling 
of the game birds and fur bearing 
animals, increasing greatly the general 
supply of game and giving employment 
to a large number of people during the 
trapping season, clearly demonstrates 
how valuable our Louisiana marshes 
are, under proper management. 
KB. A. McILHENNY, 
Avery Island, La. 
Urges Restraint in Letter 
Writing 
DEAR ForEsT & STREAM: 
eee I was only a boy, lecturers 
came about ‘with magic lanterns 
telling people of the wonders of the 
Yosemite and Yellowstone Valleys. 
Many people were incredulous and said 
so plainly. They could not comprehend, 
nor believe, anything so different from 
what they had personally seen and ex- 
perienced. I believe we are all more or 
less inclined the same way. 
For example, my home in New Hamp- 
shire is located in a very good raccoon 
country; thirteen were captured by 
three hunting parties on the night of 
October 11, 1924. In forty-five years 
I have known of two being taken 
which weighed about 28 pounds each. 
I have heard stories about 30-pound 
coons and there used to be a big joke 
about John B. Clark of the Manchester 
Mirror and Farmer concerning a 35- 
pound coon which no one believed, be- 
cause they had never seen one weighing 
even 30 pounds. 
Consequently, it is very difficult for 
one to credit stories from other parts 
of the country of racoons weighing up 
to 45 and 50 pounds. Still as raccoons 
hibernate about four or five months in 
the year up there with practically noth- 
ing to eat from the beginning of early 
winter until frogs begin to peep in 
April and in other parts of the country 
they are out of feeding all of the win- 
ter, I can understand that such reports 
may be perfectly plausible and accu- 
rate, 
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