SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 
In the winter and spring trained dogs can follow the wild animals 
and often bail them up or kill them, and they may trace them back 
to the den where the pups are hidden. 
It is essential in poisoning that none of the ingredients 
used be touched by human hands; the baits should be laid from 
horseback, as a man’s tracks cause suspicion. If poison is put into a 
carcass (to which females in whelp and young dogs will often return) 
the poison should be placed in the flesh round the flanks and buttocks, 
the hole being made with a sharp stick, and only a quarter of a grain 
of strychnine placed therein; this will adhere to the damp stick which 
can be reinserted into the hole, and the poison will remain in the flesh 
when it is withdrawn again. Small animals, such as a rabbit, can be 
poisoned and laid on a trail, or balls of fat in which strychnine has 
been placed laid on the trail made by dragging a sheepskin. The fat 
or lard must be taken out of the pot with a spoon and the poison placed 
therein, and the piece dropped into a can of water, from which it is 
removed by a wooden spoon again when required. 
The catching of wild dogs is an art in which there is room 
for infinite variations, individual care and neatness of work, 
but the main considerations are: The traps must be free from human 
and iron scent; all rust must be cleaned off, and the trap boiled for 
twenty minutes in clean water, but a little unslacked lime in the water 
will make a better job. The subsequent handling must be done with a 
stick or other clean tool. Fasten the trap to a log weighing about 30 
Ibs., so that it can be dragged, otherwise the foot may be pulled out. 
If a large, strong dog is suspected put a little strychnined fat on top of 
the jaws of the trap so that the dog, in biting at the trap, will get the 
poison, and then, if the paw is bitten off as sometimes occurs with a very ° 
determined old dog, he will be poisoned in any case. If possible set the 
trap with hands gloved and feet encased in sheepskin shoes, or. drop a 
skin on the ground, dismount from the horse on to it, and set the trap 
while standing on it, and take away when remounted; if this cannot be 
done cover the trap with bushes for two or three days until all scent is 
gone, and then uncover and place the lure in position. 
Of course a bait is never placed in or on a trap, but usually a little 
distance away, and in such a position that a dog approaching the lure 
would walk into the trap. The dog’s attention is focussed on the lure, 
and a trap, if not smelt, is unsuspected. Almost anything of animal 
nature will do for a lure if the trap is near a track that the dog is 
expected to follow. Fresh dog dung is very effective, but if it is neces- 
sary to draw a dog some distance to the trap then a stronger scent must 
e used. 
7£ a dog is found to follow a certain path in going to and fro from 
the feeding grounds a log can often be found that by long habit he will 
be jumping carelessly over, and a trap placed on the far side of this will 
be successful. If there is not one handy, a log can be placed across the 
track, and although a dog will never jump over anything strange, still 
he will, when quite familiar with the obstruction, jump over it, and 
then the trap ean be placed in position. 
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