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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (April 18, 1915)
THE SUNDAY OREGONIAN, PORTLAND, APRIL' 18, 1915. 1 77 trA "iV .t """V xu .y.w rr B It iinmn i .'i 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 s mmA rr r r & x .i i i i i i i i t i in it i i i i i i i ; : . h WM 11 9 HMMnfiiWJt M" Bv M'MmmM ys Country. V Ml BY RENE BACHB. ONK of Uncle Sam's most difficult problems, relating to the preserva tion of wild same In this country, Is that of dealing with predatory crea tures, euch as wolves and wildcats. To keep down' their numbers the Govern ment for a number of years past has employed professional hunters and trappers. It Is mainly a forest problem, for most kinds of wild game are forest products. Probably three-fourths of all the Important same animals of the Western states dwell within the borders of the National forests, and the ques tion of their proper management and perpetuation Is one that has to be reckoned with by the Forest Service. The National forests are great nat ural game preserves, maintained by Government. Not only Is it sought to encourage the breeding and increase of the desirable wild animals within their borders, but "plants" are being made in them of buffalo, elk, prong horned antelope and other valuable species now threatened with extermi nation. The Wichita game refuge is one of the showplaces of Oklahoma, famous for its Bcenic beauty and, with its forest cover and rare game animals, attracts vilstors from far and wide. A herd of buffalo has been established there and, already numbering 48, is increasing rapidly. Also there are elk, antelope and wild turkeys. The elk come from the Yellowstone region, where there are actually too many elk. There is not grass enough to feed them, and so they perish in larg numbers of starvation. Hence the plan, first adopted four years ago, of shipping bunches of them to the National forests in Colorado, Wyoming and elsewhere. Already more than 500 have been planted in this way, and the success of the enterprise is marked. It Is popularly supposed that the elk In this country have been killed off by hunters, the result being that alarm ingly few of them are left. As a mat ter of fact, however, they have been "eaten out." In other words, the sheep and cattle have consumed their food supply. In Winter, when they come down into the valleys, they no longer find plenty of grass a natural hay, cured on the stem to feed upon. Cat tle and sheep have been before them, and the land is cropped bare. Suffering from hunger, they gather about the the farmers' haystacks, climbing on each other's backs to get at the hay, which is so protected that they cannot reach it. Consequently they starve and die. There are now in the Grand Canyon game refuge at least 10,000 deer, the Increase of their numbers being largely due to an active campaign waged by the Forest Service, against thetr nat ural enemies, especially the mountain lion and "bobcat." In this kind of l IV U II I I I II II, H 1 1 II J . . -iMr r tit work, all over the West, the Govern ment foresters work in co-operation with the Biological Survey, which Is the branch of the Department of Agri culture that has special supervision over all matters relating to birds and mammals. Predatory animals destroy not only game, but also domestic stock sheep, cattle, hogs and chickens. But the number of them grows smaller each year, and the damage they do is cor respondingly less. During the last year there were killed in the National forests 71 wolves, 60 pumas, 07 lynxes, 633 bobcats, 240 bears and 3166 coyotes. In addition, eight wolf pups were de stroyed. Wolves and coyotes are transient vis itors, freauenting the forests only dur ing months when game and domestio animal3 are most abundant. They are bred, born and spend most of their lives in the foothills and plains out side the forests. Under these condi tions, those killed in the forests are replaced by others from outside ranges, and this will continue until the Gov ernment institutes a general movement to destroy the animals throughout the length and breadth of the public do main. The most destructive of all beasts of prey in this country is the big gray wolf, which still roams over the thinly settled ranch country on Montana, the Dakotas and parts of Nebraska, Wyom ing, Colorado. New Mexico and West ern Texas, where stock-raising is the principal industry. In earlier days it was the buffalo wolf; now it is the cattle wolf. Bach wolf costs the ranchman $100(1 a year. Such an animal will kill a cow or calf every three days, or 100 head of cattle per annum. Its victims are mostly calves and yearlings; but. when these are not available, it will kill cows and even full-grown steers, attacking them from behind and lit erally eating them alive. Even If only slightly bitten they will die of blood poisoning. Hunting these wolves with dogs and horses is thrilling sport. No bound can overtake them in a straightaway run, and not even the fiercest and larg est dog is a match for one. Sometimes the wolf, if cornered by a pack of dogs, will turn and kill a number of them. The big gray wolf is animated by a lust for blood; be kills for the love of it. His Ingenuity in. evading traps set by the most experienced trappers is almost beyond belief. To avoid leav ing a trail, he will travel over the roughest places, and it is next to im possible to get him with a poisoned bait, so suspecious is he, and so keen to distinguish the scent of a man. The successful fight made by the Government against predatory animals infesting the National forests and ad jacent ransea ha encouraged settler : fMfiwm i r JMwimMM, w1 m to take up the business for themselves. Not long ago, in Oregon, there was an epidemlo of rabies among the coyotes, causing widespread apprehension and resulting in serious losses of livestock. At the request of settlers, officers of the Wallowa National Forest were as signed to destroy the brutes, and so successful were their efforts that the sheep with lambs were, soon grazing unattended a condition of affairs without precedent. The gray wolves are becoming stead ily scarcer. They are retiring before civilization, and. eventually will be ex terminated. With the small prairie wolf, or coyote, it is quite otherwise. He may be said to welcome civilization and thrives in, the midst of it. The stranger who visits Santa Fe. New Mexico, or many another Western town, may hear coyotes at night howl ing about the hotel in which he is lodged. The coyote makes himself at home in well-populated country, raises his young under the settler's nose. and. in spite of poison and traps, increases. In Spring he follows the sheepman's herd up into the mountains, there to prey on lambs or even ewes. In Autumn he ' comes down with them and winters close to the farmer's feedlot and chicken coops. While the individual gray wolf is most destructive, the coyote, by reason of his numbers,, is the worst enemy of game animals and domestic stock. The amount of damage he individually does has been estimated all the way from 100 to $250 a year. As the settlers express it. he is "pizen on sheep." He will kill them for sheer devilment. To catch him is difficult, for he is ex tremely cunning and can outrun any dog. Inasmuch as the female produces from eight to ten young in a litter, coyotes multiply with enormous rapid ity, if allowed to breed, and the busi ness of keeping dpwn their numbers is expensive and troublesome. On the other hand, oddly enough, there are well-informed persons who contend that the extermination of coy otes would be a misfortune. They are the principal natural . enemies of prairie dogs and Jackrabbita. In Cali fornia, not long ago, a bounty of $5 was voted by the Legislature for every coyote killed. Seventy-five thousand of them were destroyed during the fol lowing 12 months, but immediately thereafter a plague of rabbits followed and it was claimed that the balance of nature had been unwisely disturbed. The puma, or mountain lion, ia an other beast of prey which officers of the Forest Service are obliged to take into serious account. It is very fond of deer meat. But. above all, it is a killer of horses. There are regions in the Rocky Mountains where it is al most impossible to raise horse on open ranges, because thes great cat i lKfl-vy HI. ri'f Si .-' .vJ Tif! Ak tl W if 2-rS f k A V-:!i t Ufe kill the young colts as fast as they are born. The mountain Hon is very keen of scent and hard to trap, but to human beings it is harmlees. When run down and exhausted it will lie flat on its back and spit and snarl, but may then be dispatched without danger. Will C. Barnes, an expert of the Forest Service, told the writer of an occa- sion when he chased a puma for half an hour around a clump of trees, part of the time on foot, trying to rope him. Wlth the wildcat it is much the same aratr Th. xp.ntitr. D rl -a if .7 a fierce, but will never attack a man. mals therein. There is money in the together, and they are destroyed by At the same time it is a dreaded killer business, the pelt of a coyote, for ex- P'son or traps. Meat alone is of llt of sheep, and especially lambs, destroy- ample, having a present market value use as ba,t: there muat b some ing them for the pure lust of blood- of 5. With a view to extending the thing else to attract them, and the shedding. - Mr. Barnes knew a wildcat work as much as possible, the Forest worse It smells the better. Old trap to kill 90 sheep in one night in an Service makes it a practice to lend Pers. for this purpose, allow half a Arizona camp, tearing open the throat traps and even to give poison to Bet- pound of raw beef to decompose in a of each victim and leaving it. Next tiers and other private individuals. wide-mouthed bottle; then add oil tried day the animal was run up a tree by The prairie dog is hardly to be out of Prairie dog fat, with half an dogs and killed. - classed as a predatory mammal. Never- ounce of assafoetida dissolved in al Wildcats (otherwise known as bob- theless. he i recognized as very harm- cohol, and one ounce of tincture of cats) and lynxes are easily exterml- ful, and the Forest Service is co- Siberian musk. This mixture is applied nated by trap and dogs. Commonly, operating with the Biological Survey to grass and weeds near the trap, so they are chased Into trees, knocked for the destruction of the species, which that tie coyote may roll about and down with stones and clubs and beaten is being successfully wiped out over ' Bret caught. to death, Bears, with, the. sxcepUon great area, Whola counties la Kan- Syen, by. such, means the bl gray. , i: - 4. . ,y 3 z : s 5 - it of the grizzly, are not dangerous, and do comparatively little damage, though nuw a" lnen "c aquues w-e mutton or pork, and makes forays upon sheepfolds and pigpens. The black and Dea" do no harm worth men- "" 10 m? or DeasI. eyon? bing an occasional campers outfit of CL,a-1 The recent rise in the price of furs has attracted many professional trap- pers, who have either sought employ- ment from the Government in the Na- tional forests, or have obtained per- Trtita Ifl hunt It Tl (1 t rill) nredatorv ani- LxteriTti nation s r V- r i , j sas, long abandoned to the "dogs," have been redeemed for stock-raising. It is estimated that 250 prairie dogs will eat as much grass as one cow. Thirty-two of them will eat as much as would feed one sheep. Inasmuch as no use whatever has been found for the dogs, it Is impossible that such a condition of affairs should be toler- ated. Not only do they eat the grass, but they convert the territory they occupy into a bare desert, on which there is no further growth for many years afterward. Having used up one area in this way, they move on to another, extending mischief in- definitely. It has been found that the most effective way to deal with prairie dogs is to feed them poisoned grain, a tea spoonful of which is placed near each burrow. With one bushel of wheat are mixed three ounces of sulphate of strychnine, half a pound of cyanide of potash, a teaspoonful of oil of anise, and two quarts of heavy New Orleans molasses. This is used in February, when the little animals are hungry. Tnree men on horseback, shooting a Bpoonful at each burrow. and working across country and back as a farmer wouId ,ow wneat can put out four ,,, , a )lav baltlnK 16 000 holes, dispose of nearly all the prairie dogs, and any boles tbat show BlgDa of occupancy may be ,lmj;ariy treated the following season. The really serious problem, where predatory animals are concerned, has to do with wolves or coyotes. The lat ter usually travel In packs, sometimes as many as eight or a dozen of them SAazottct s or as wolves are rarely taken; and thou In dividuals which are trupped are uku ally young ones, less than a year old. Kxperlence has howu tliat the bout way to destroy these cunning and de structive animals Is to find and kill the young In their dens. Knowledge of their habits, their season of breeding, etc., renders It comparatively easy to discover their home quartern. The young are born in March or early April, in caves, among rork, or In old badger holes which the wolves have enlarged. Ordinarily the opening of a wolf den is big enough (or a man to enter by trawling and the mother. If present, sneaks off. making no u nipt to de fend her pups. How Baked Earth Is Useful TERRA COTTA means literally baked earth. Jt is usually em ployed as though it meant only archi tectural ornaments made of baked clay. Yet Michael Angelo mad stamps of it; the Japanese use it cleverly painted as "imitation bronze" for busts, tea Jars and bowls, and the ancient Greek children had terra cotta dolls, with movable legs fastened by wooden pegs. In the trade today pieces of clay work for architectural ornament over eight Inches sijuare are called terra cotta; under that size they are called ornamental brick. The famous Delia Robbla ware of Italy was of terra cotta covered with opaque enamel, and painted. England used it much. From the time of Henry VIII it was popular in largo buildings, and since Queen Anne's day it has been used for ornamenting smaller houses. For a while it fell into disuse, but since the use of iron and steel in bulld- ings has come Into fashion good archi tects are employing terra cotta as a more honest material, and hence in bet ter taste, than galvanized iron sanded to simulate stone. It Is common to build the lower stories of a house of stone and the upper stories of brick, with terra cotta decorations, Terra Cotta can be produced in a variety of colors, und while rain leave stone surfaces dingier, they brighten surfaces made of the clay. It is a durable as stone; it can be produced in more shades and colors; it can be molded into a great variety of designs; it can be given more delicate outlines than stone'; it is lighter than stone. Well Gushes Hot Water I N THE: Flathead Indian Reservation, well containing hot mineral water, said to be the only one in the world. Around it. within a mile, are other artesian wells in which the water Is clear and cool. A few years ago the Government threw open the Flathead lie nervation, and those who were successful in the drawing now own fine ranches fertile valley. Artesian wells hav in a have been truck at a depth ranging from 90 to 365 feet. In the Bummer of 1913, on a ranch within a mile of one of these cold wells drillers were at work when, at the depth of 244 feet, hot water gushed upward with such force that the drill ers were forced to flee. In a few days the rush of hot water had washed a large hole, with the drill still in, though incapacitated. The well was finally curbed so tbat It could be used. The water is 120 Fehrenheit, flowing at the rate of 60 barrels a minute. N. O. S. Martial. Philadelphia Ledger. "Why are you flying your flag up side down, Suburbs?" "To let the neighbors know that the cook's gone and all invitation are off,"