Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-04-07
TRYING TO BEAT CALIFORNIA.

IhflhG ~ BEAT CALAronNiAs
|. Every little while some other portion of the
world seeks to establish its pre-eminence in the
minds of humanity generally by comparing
itself to California, or arraying some feat &C.
compiished elsewhere alongside of the method
in which it is done in the Golden State, and
accompanied with q sort of French shrug of
the shoulders, as much as to say, These are
the facts, gentlemen; judge for yourselves
where California is now" Of course all these
attempts are harmless, and only amusing, as
surveyed in the distance, while we sit under
our own vines ard fig trees and take in the
GLORIOUS climate" This subject is just now
called to mind by the following item, which
appears in the Chicago Herald:
A Colorado farmer has invented duck hunting
outfit which discounts the California mans
He stripped the hide from bullock and mounted it
on wire skeleton which looked as natural as
living animal He cut away the belly OF his wire
bullock for his body and made two holes in the
shoulders to take sight through When he wants a
duck shoot he drops his skeleton his head and
starts out for the tules He can walk right into a
flock OF ducks without startling them, and has on
one two occasions returned home with his hiding
place full of teal caught with his hands He never
fails to kill all he wants when he takes his gun, for
he marches into flock and turns both barrels loose
at time He usually bags the whole flock. He
has applied foi patent.
The custom referred to, of California hunt
ers walking up to flock of ducks or wild
geese by driving trained COW or bullock just
in front of the hunter, was, it is true, an
ancient device, and regarded in those days as
quite successful, but Is never used here now,
and is only referred to in disparaging way,
az a relic of the psst-very much as the
grandfather tells how he travelled fifty years
ago, when he emigrssed TO the far West with
an OK team and cart. The difficulty of the
50 COW method" of hunting, as it was called,
was that the hunter was able to kill but a
single flock of ducks or geese at time.
| That was satisfactory when the de-
mand for game was small, and
tie methods of hunting were in an I'M
developed state, but the California hunter
that was content with such primitive methods
at the present day would get badly left in the
race for supplying the game market. Be
| sides, cur connoisseurs, when enjoy ing fine
| duck roast, or anvas-back la mode, are no
! longer content to have the meat punched full
| of shot or chowdered up in shooting, but, if
necessary, would specify with their order that
they would do their own chewing. This has
led to various kinds of strategy and methods
| for capturing ducks and wild geese without
| the use of shot or gun. Perhaps the most
| successful VI tutbc lHcLuOuog duQ Oto uIlC nOh
most in practice, is that known as the ware
house trap" in use near Chico. One element
of profit connected with this method is, that
| when country warehouse is not in use for
storage of grain, it csn be rented during
| the game season to the professional
hunters at high monthly rate. The hunters
| operate by scattering some grain over the
warehouse floor and extending it through a
door, and short distance outside into the
field. a few tame ducks or geese are placed
in the inclosed field as decoys. and the first
wild flock of their species that comes along
dive down and help themselves to the grain.
| Soon other focks, of which the air is full in
| the game season of the year, are attracted
/ and led by the trail into the warehouse, and
continue to go in, under the we'll known habit
! of following those in the lead, until the en-
| tire building is packed full to the rafters. At
this iuncture the pressure within operates
| upon a simple automatic arrangement which
suddenly closes the door and locks it with an
electric paddock against the incursioHs Of I'M
authorized persons and tramps.
| Thus the hunter, without resorting to the
clumsy and diminutive methods in use in
Colorado, is ready to supply the fullest de-
fnanos OF the game market without firing a
gun. The hunter-or game proprietor, SIS he
is generally termed since adopting this meth
od-has then nothing TO do but to proceed to
Sacramento and San Francisco get up cor
ner on game and feathers, which having sue
cessfully accomplished, and obtained low
spot rates fo- transportation, he proceeds
with special trains to deliver his catch. OF
course the amount taken at single catch
varies in proportion to the size of the ware.
house, but taking the difference IN weight be-
tween wheat, and game before picked, an
ordinary California warehouse which would
hold 800 600 tons of grain will hold catch OF
about 179, S26 tons of vas-back ducks OF
gray geese.
This method of catching the festhered game
is what leads TO the puzzle and query of all
tourists from the East, when they are asked
in our California Delmonicos, whether they
will have their orders filed from game caught
by the " warehouse euchre, " or shot to pieces
| and mRnpled after the Eastarn STYLE