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Fall Catch Almost Dry Enough To Turn Vermont Hunter and Fox Skins Left for the Foxes to Devour A Good Runner Some Pet Foxes Silver and Black Fox Skins Live Silver Fox November Catch Awaiting the Trapper After the Chase Trap and Grapnel Caught in Maine Caught by a Missouri Trapper White Fox Skins A Rhode Island Scene Grey Fox Sacking Foxes Wire or Twine Snare The Wire Loop Spring Pole Snare The Runway Snare Set Some Canadian Reds Caught in a No. 1 Caught on His Own Farm Tennessee Trapper and Traps Thirty Silver Fox Skins worth 00 California Trapper Visiting Traps Pennsylvania Fox Trapper's Cabin New England Trapper's Catch Pack of New England Fox Hounds The Spring and Sod Set Odorless and White as Snow Canadian Trapper and Fifteen Reds Adirondack Trapper Fox Traps with Drags Killed Before Breakfast Result of a Three Day's Hunt Always Hungry Black Fox Skin Valued at 00 Northern Fox Trapper's Dog Team Fox and Other Steel Traps

INTRODUCTORY.

If all the methods as given in this book had been studied out by one man and he began trapping when Columbus discovered America, more than four hundred years ago, he would not be half completed.

The methods given on the following pages are principally taken from articles published in the H-T-T, and as the writers give their own most successful methods, the trapper of little experience with fox will find them of great value.

Their articles are from all parts of America, so that trappers from any section will find a method or methods that can be used. The red fox is the one most sets describe, yet what is a good method for one species is apt to be for others.

A. R. HARDING.

FOX TRAPPING

GENERAL INFORMATION.

Foxes are found in all parts of America, but probably most numerous in the New England States and parts of Canada. The range of the red is from Virginia to Alaska; grey, Southern and Southwestern States; cross, Northern New Jersey to Manitoba; black, Alaska, and the territories several hundred miles to the South and East; swift, the prairies or Great Plains; white and blue, the Arctic Regions.

While their fur has been one of value for many, many years, and they have been hunted, trapped and snared, yet their numbers are holding up remarkably well owing to their shrewdness. While many tricks are claimed for foxes that they never did, yet they are very cunning animals and also fleet on foot.

In hilly and mountainous countries they travel much on the highest ground, and have regular "crossings," where the experienced hunter or trapper often makes a kill or catch.

Foxes are carnivorous--living on flesh. Their principal food consists of rabbits, squirrels, mice, birds, bugs, eggs, etc. In some places where the food named is not plenty they visit creeks, lakes and ponds hunting crabs and fish. While they prefer fresh meat, they take stale and even decayed meats in severe weather.

Most wild animals can be attracted a short distance by "scent" or "decoy," and the fox is one of them. Several good recipts for scent are given, but if there are no foxes in your neighborhood you can use all the "scents" and "decoys" you wish on a hundred traps all season without making a catch. There is no "decoy" that will attract a fox a mile, but there are some that are good. That many of the writers made good catches is bourn out by the various photographs, and in some instances by personal visits by the author to the trapper.

Foxes should not be trapped or shot until cold weather. In the states bordering on Canada about November 1st, while to the north they become prime sooner, while to the south they do not become prime until later.

The pelt should be cased, that is skinned without ripping, and drawn upon a board. Several tacks or small nails can be used to hold the skin in place. Leave on the board only two to five days, according to the weather. When removed, turn fur side out. In drying, keep in a cool shady place and free from smoke. The number caught and killed annually is not known, but of the various kinds--red, grey, cross, white, etc.--it is several hundred thousand.

The following letters cover trapping and snaring pretty thoroughly, and all who read carefully and set their traps according to directions will probably be successful. While the No. 2 Newhouse, which is a double spring, is known as the fox trap, the No. 1 1/2 single spring will hold the animal. We have known of several instances where fine "reds" were caught in a No. 1 trap. In those instances, however, the trap was fastened to a loose brush and every time the fox made a lunge the brush gave. In using the larger size, we advise using a brush or clog that will give with every pull or jump of the fox. Traps should be visited every other day, if possible, but never go only near enough to see that nothing has been disturbed.

Owing to the wide distribution of the fox and the fact that they often have crossings near buildings so that their tracks are seen, etc., makes many inexperienced trappers think the number of animals larger than it really is. The fact that foxes travel during the coldest weather as well as any other time, gives the trapper an opportunity to show his skill when such animals as bear, coon, skunk, opossum and muskrat are "denned up." Fox skins at such times are at their best.

As mentioned elsewhere, the greater per cent of the methods published in this book are taken from the Hunter-Trader-Trapper, an illustrated monthly magazine, of Columbus, Ohio, devoted to Hunting, trapping and raw furs. New trapping methods are constantly being published in that magazine, as experienced trappers from all parts of North America read and write for it.

BAITS AND SCENTS.

I prefer cat or muskrat for bait, says G. W. Asha. Cut it in pieces as large as an egg, place it in a perfectly clean can, zinc, screw cover, place it in the sun, allowing the bait to taint. This must be done in July or August, or can be done about two weeks before using. In regard to using scents, many don't believe scent is a help to trappers, but I'm one that believes in scent, because if there's a heavy rain storm it takes the scent from the bait. If a little scent is added, your bait is fresh again. Even heavy frosts have the same effect in this case. You have seen advertisements saying that scents will call an animal a mile. Don't take any stock in it, because any animal can't smell at the most only a few hundred feet away if the wind is right, not half as far if the wind is not right.

If any of you are beginners trapping fox, scent is a great help, if you happen to tuck anything around the trap that have effect, if a little scent is added. A fox can smell only one thing at a time. If the scent is stronger than human scent, they will not smell the human scent. Too many accidents in this way have their effect because the fox is a forest animal in existence. I use for fall trapping the fox pure skunk glands and pure strained honey but clover or flower honey. Winter scent, pure matrix from the female fox taken in the running season during the heat, a little muskrat musk and pure strained honey. This scent attracts the male fox and is the strongest scent in existence.

Here is a first class fox decoy which can be made very easily, write Irving Brown, of Vermont. Take one half pint of skunk oil and the musk glands of a muskrat and one scent bag of a skunk, and you have the celebrated scent of Schofield, one of the first water set fox trappers in the East. This should be made in spring, but it is all right made at any time. It is not the best scent, however, but it is a most excellent one.

Here is the secret of the best and it is hard to prepare because you cannot get the female fox in the running season, which is February or March, in this climate very easily. Take the matrix of a female fox taken in the running season or, in other words, cut out the entire sexual organs and place them in a pint of alcohol, and the result will be the best scent ever made. Some do not use alcohol but salt the matrix. This is the scent you will buy the secret for .00, and you will be told that foxes are just crazy to get it. This is in a measure true, but a red fox will not step into a trap unless you use care in setting it, with any kind of scent. I don't care how frantic a fox is to get at the bait. They don't commit suicide if they know it.

There are many other ways to prepare for both mink and fox, all of them possessing merit, but my aim is to give the best, not those which are no use to the trapper. The more simple, as a rule, are the best. Some trappers are opposed to the use of scent, but you will find that man far behind others. The capture of fur bearing animals has become a science, as mink and fox become more wary so does man become more skillful in overcoming their shyness. We hear lots of secrets that were learned of the Indians. No doubt they had some good ones too, but the white trapper in the same place will outdistance any Indian I have ever seen or heard of. My experience among those people is that they are too lazy to use the care that a white man will use in either setting traps or stretching skins.

I have had a fox get into my snowshoes tracks and follow a long way because it was better traveling, says M. H. McAllister. Now that shows he was not afraid of human scent. Now about iron. How often does a fox go through a wire fence, or go near an old sugar house where there are iron gates? That shows he is not afraid of scent of iron.

Now I have a question at hand. In one place he is not afraid and around the trap he is afraid. Now, how does he know when to be afraid or not? I think because when he sees a piece of bait in a new place it is not natural. Once last winter I knew where there was a dead horse and I used to go by it, and one day my brother was with me and of course he knew I could get a fox there, so to please him I set a trap, and not another fox came near. Well I smoked that trap, boiled it in hemlock and then smeared it with tallow, but the fox knew and never came within ten feet of it again, when they were coming every night before. When I went by there before I set my trap I left as much scent as after, and how could he tell when there was a foot of snow blown there by the wind after I set my trap.

Now they don't appear to be afraid of human scent or iron in some places and around a trap they are, so now why should they know where to be shy? Well, because it may be in an unnatural place, unless it is instinct or good sharp sense. As for scent, I know that rotten eggs and onions are not natural, although the matrix of the female fox in the running season is very good. Also such as skunk or muskrat scent or fish, as it smells rotten and makes a strong smell.

One word to the novice fox trapper, and I will leave space for something more valuable. You must make things look natural around the spring and smell natural, and put before them the food that God has provided for them, and you will have success by placing the trap in the mud of the spring, and putting a sod on the pan of the trap that has not been handled by the hand of a human being.

FOXES AND ODOR.

Last winter I could not trap much because the river along which I do my trapping and the woods all around were full of lumbermen, and I was afraid my traps would be stolen. I did a little experimenting on foxes in their relations to the odor of man and iron, says Omer Carmerk, of Quebec.

The results of my experiences confirmed my previous observation that foxes are not afraid of the odor of iron, neither of the odor of man, but mighty suspicious of a bait connected with both odors. I made a trail about two miles long, scattered about it pieces of meat, chicken, rabbit, cheese, etc. I dragged a dead chicken, but I set no trap. Prior to my baiting the trail foxes were crossing it and following it without hesitation, but after I had put out the bait not a fox had ventured to cross that trail again.

One day I saw where a fox had come near the trail, stopped, wheeled about and bounded off like a frightened deer. Another day, a fox tried to cross it at three different places but could not summon up enough courage, and at last, by making a long detour he crossed it at a place where there was no bait, not 20 yards from my cabin. One time a fox walked parallel to the trail several rods, then came nearer to it, stopped and turned back at full speed. The same foxes which were so afraid of my trail were going every night on the public road to eat horses.

I will now relate one instance showing that the foxes smell traps. One day I chopped a chicken on a log. I threw the big pieces in the middle of three traps I had set the week before and left many small pieces on the log. The day after the snow around and on the log was all tramped down by foxes. One fox walked towards the big piece of meat, and when about two inches from a trap he stopped and turned back. I have no doubt he smelled the trap. When the traps are in the snow or wet ground the oxidation of iron produces a peculiar odor noticeable even to the human nostrils.

One day I was going to look at a trap in a swamp road. My dog was trotting ahead of me, and when about ten feet from the trap he stopped and turned around. He detected the odor of the trap for he had not seen me set it, and he had good reasons to avoid it because when young he had often been pinched.

Perhaps my experience does not harmonize with that of other trappers, but the ways of foxes as well as other animals are much influenced by their surroundings. I have observed that foxes frequenting the neighborhood of farms are less suspicious than those living in the deep woods.

For years, says a Southern trapper, I have invariably caught my fox, whether in a path, water or bait set; but can I swear my success is attributable to my extreme precaution? I always smoke traps to kill the smell of iron then handle them and everything around the setting with gloves, to erase human scent.

I have found the summer and early fall months the best time to locate the haunts of the fox, as they are sure to use the same territory in the winter season. While on one of my recent investigating tours, a few days after a rain, I observed some facts that will be interesting.

I struck an old road running through a farm, and readily noticed some fox tracks. Naturally I followed on and found they led under a wheat harvester, which had been recently left in the road and on under an iron gate, into the pasture beyond. All know that a harvester is largely constructed of iron and steel. Now if the fox is so afraid of this metal, as is supposed, does it seem reasonable that he would walk under such a mass of iron, or under an iron gate?

In fox trapping the smoking and smearing process is advocated as well as the handling with gloves and concealing under the ground. In the light of my observations, are all these precautions absolutely necessary? On this same trip, in question, I noticed a fox track, and as usual followed it. To my surprise the animal went within a hair's breadth of a plow, passing right on, seemingly not either to care for red paint or iron construction.

How is it, fox trappers? Does the iron and steel used in farm implements differ from that used in steel traps, so that the latter must be handled with such care as is advocated by many of the trapper's profession? Or is it the covering of the trap with earth that arouses suspicion?

A red or grey fox will cross through or under a wire fence over the public highway at night, although the roads are continually traversed by the iron bound shoes of the horse. Even the tracks of man are visible here yet we, when trapping, brush out our tracks with great care.

I have known a fox to follow where a plow has been dragged and have seen his tracks in the iron marked groove, just made by the locked wheel of a wagon.

Considering these facts, does it seem possible that the fox has so great an antipathy to iron and to the human scent as supposed?

CHAFF METHOD, SCENT.

Get some chaff, a bushel will do, and put it out in some good place where there are foxes, writes a Maine trapper, J. F. Miller. Put some small pieces of meat in the chaff, , and take a shingle and pound the bed down solid all over. Don't have any soft place in the bed, and don't handle any of the chaff with bare hands, or the bait either. Leave it in this shape until you go on, then get your trap ready to set, but you want your trap clean and free from rust, and this is a good way to do. Scrape with an old knife, then use a clean pan and boil in clean water for twenty minutes, and no fox can smell your trap. Set in edge of bed and cover in good shape, and make it look as natural as possible, and don't walk all around in snow, stand in one place and walk in same tracks when you visit this place, and don't go only every other day.

Now I will tell you of a good way to make a scent that will draw a fox to a trap. It will draw a fox a number of yards, but it will not draw them one mile or one half mile, and I doubt if it will one fourth mile, or any other scent that was ever made or ever will be. That is my idea of scents, but I know that they are good to draw animals to traps; they are like methods, some are better than others. This is not the best, but it is good. Take a cat, skunk and muskrat in April, dress them and chop them up fine and put them all in a glass jar. Put cover on and set them where it is warm so they will rot in good shape, and in the fall add a little fish oil and you will have something that will smell right loud.

Most anything that will smell strong is good scent, but no matter how good your bait and scent is, you must have the trap so the fox can't smell it, and know how and where to set it. Don't forget to set your trap where there are foxes. This is one thing to keep in mind, always set where you see signs. Some think they can set a trap any old way and place, and ought to make a catch, and then get discouraged. If you don't get your game the first night try again and keep right on trying; it is courage and grit that makes a successful trapper. Look for signs whenever you are in the woods, and study them and the animals that you want to catch. I always look up places in summer, and when the time comes to set traps I know just where every trap is going and how many I want.

I tried a great many times to catch a fox before I was successful. I remember one time I got an old horse for fox bait in winter, and put him in a good place. We had a snow storm a few days afterwards, and boylike I started with my rabbit dog and gun to look for rabbits and to take a look at my old horse to see if the foxes had begun to feed on him, and when I got to him he was a sight to behold. The snow was all trodden down solid around him where they had circled and stood around and fed on him. That was too much for me. It took the rabbit fever all out of me for that day, and I started for home to get six No. 2 1/2 Newhouse traps to set around the horse, and I could not get home quick enough to suit me.

I had always wanted to catch a fox so bad and I thought the time had come. I set them as well as I could and covered them up good, as I thought, and went home. It seemed to me that morning would never come. I knew I was going to have a fox, so I was up early and started after it. When I got almost to the bait I saw new tracks going towards the horse and that made my heart beat a little faster, as I was sure I had one, but they had gone as near as three feet and that was as near as they would go. They knew the traps were there as well as I did, and they never went there as long as my traps were set.

TRAPS AND HINTS.

My idea is that manufacturers make traps too strong for the animal it is made for, says C. F. Keith. Now the No. 2 is too strong for fox, and also it is very hard to conceal from view.

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