St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1884-05-03
GRANDFATHER'S MINK,

GKANDFATHER'S MINK.
Sixty years ago the brooks in the
State OF Maine were the homes and the
nsg,-grounds of large numbers OF
minks. They had not then learned to
lear men, ami, simple and unsuspicious,
Ihey were easily enticed into the .'dead-
ran taps that the hunters set for
them, Nearly every farmers boy OF
tr-dt time was an amateur trapper. and
most of the boys were successful in Sc
curing substantiaipack of fur in each
of the long snowy winters.
But these warm-coated little quadru-
peds are much less numerous o-day
than they were sixty years ago, and are
not so easily trapped. They seem to
have learned something of the danger
Gus ingenuity of man, and to have be-
come wary. Like the partridge of the
cleared lands, they have developed
shyer instincts.
For this reason it often happens that
when the boy of to-day tries his hand
at trapping his success is not encour-
aging. Middle-aged or old men who
note his unsuccessful attempts, remem-
herring the numbers of mink they used
TO catch when they were boys, are in
clined to laugh at him, and to intimate
that he does not know how to do it. To
prove their assertions they sometimes
tell large stories Of the quantity of fur
they used to take in a single week.
such, at least, was the experience of
my Cousin Addison and myself when
we tried to trap otter and mink on the
brooks and ponds on the old farm in
Maine. We spent good deal of time
and took very little fur; and grand
father, who viewed our operations and
our frequent neglect of farm work with
a not altogether approving eye. rather
more than limited to us that the mantle
of his youthful skill as trapper had
not descended upon his degenerate
grandsons.
where in the world are those bows.
mother?" he would sometimes ask.
They are not husking. They have
hardly touched an ear of corn this week,
and they are not in the potato field more
than half the time; and those potatoes
ought to be dug
Il guess they re pottering round the
pond or the Mill Brook with their mink
traps" grandmother would say.
'.Mink-traps! Nonsense! A deal of
good it does for them to set traps! They
haven't caught q mink this fall, and
don't seem to have the knack for set
ting trap. Why, when l was boy,
I've caught over thirty minks in one
fall in that brook. only had a couple
of hours once in every three days, and
here those bows of ourn are fussing
round the brook half the time and don't
catch a minkr'
Cousin Nell reported this conversa-
tion to us, half out of friendlineSs and
half from the malicious delight which a
girl always feels in tormenting a boy
after she has learned his weak and most
sensitive points.
We were forced to bear these impu-
tations on our skill without reply. To
tell the truth, there was little to say.
We knew that grandfather, when a
boy. had caught large numbers of
mink. And when we once yenfhred to
suggest that mink were more numerous
and bolder in those early days than
they are now, grandfather cried:
Pooh! WHY, saw one only the
other day right out here in the brook
by the barn, playing round there in
broad daylight!'
And that was true. We knew that
mink very well. He had lived there
all summer. But neither we nor any
other living hunter could have got the
cautious little fellow into trap.
When boy. grandfather had caught
minks on the banks of this very brook
in common hoN-traps. such as we used
to set for striped squirrels. His traps
were of hard wood boards. three feet
long by foot in height. and were
baited with trout. They had a spring
button TO hold the drop" down when
it had been sprung.
But now we should as soon have ex-
pected to get mink into parlor stove
as into box-trap! They are much too
wary for any such clumsy device. This,
however, is a trait of development that
all old hunters are very slow TO believe.
No arguing, for example, could have
convinced grandfather that minks could
not just as readily be caught in box
traps now as they could have been
caught sixty years ago If only the traps
were made and set with the skill and
cunning that was used when he caught
them.
Tired at length with our lack Of sue
cess, he determined to make one of his
good, old-fashioned traps. and show us
our inetliciency by catching the mink
that frequented the brook by the barn
the one we had declared could not be
caught in any kind OF a trap.
He secretly made his trap at hours
when we were away from the house;
but Nell told us what be was doing. and
of course we were somewhat disturbed.
If he should happen to catch that