Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1890-05-27
WON'T BE FOOLED WITH.
so SAYS FAlRcHlLD HOUSE CIRCLE
ABOUT GROUND HOGS.

t perAences with tho Smart Animal
, oSn's Seem to Pay to Interfere vii
Him. Instances Where He Got Even.
z The sabject of ground hog came up /,
Q dissection at a meeting Of the Fairchil
+ house circle the other evening, said Jude
+ hen right: a" | had a little experience m,
< self With ground hog when / lived j
r Woodruff that set me to thinking that
= wasn't well to try any experiments O
e them One summer a cheeky chap of
ground hog set up shop in clover field {
mine and was "a four story nuisance with
mansard roof He defied all my efforts I
inducs him 70 die or leave the country.
was reading in my newspaper one EVENING
after long days work binding and stack
ing wheat, and came across an item thu
pleased me 1t was about man down I,
Jersey who had hit on plan to ameliorat
the condition Of farms suffering from
ground hog He had found that by catch
ing turtle and tying ball of candle wick
soaked with kerosene oil, to its tail. touch
ing match to the ball, and then putting
the turtle into ground hogs hole. th,
turtle would roam the corridors of tn,
burrow, trailing it's fire ball along with II
and strike such terror to the hearts of ths
ground hogs resident therein that they
would rush in wild panic for the surface
All the farmer had to do was to stand on
tho outside and knock the ground hogs in
the head al they came out.
THU FIRE BALL TREATMENT.
after reading the item felt / had that
big clover stealing pest of mine at my uaer.
cy at last. could hardly wait till morn.
ing, wanted to go out and get a turtle
so bad, put the kerosene and candlewick
uniform on him, and start him on the cam
paign against that ground hog. Before s
o'clock had the whole thing fixed, and
arming myself with an ak, went over to the
ground hogs hole. l put the turtle at the
mouth of the hole and Lit the oil soaked
ball had tied behind him. II blazed up
like small bonfire, and the turtle, fright
ened at the sight, diyed into the hole like
chpnuak, and by and by disappeared with
the ball OF fire into the depths. | braced
myself ct the side of the hole, raised my ak
in the air, AID smiled grimly as / thought
OF the vengeance was soon to wreak on the
destroyer Of my peace and clover. stood
there about ten minutes, and no ground
hog appeared. Then began to be tortured
with doubt, and as my arms were aching
with holding the avenging ak in the air SO
long, / let it down on the ground and
leaned upon it.
Il have reason to believe that the ground
hog was only waiting for that moment. for
had scarcely unarmed myself, as it were,
when the ground hog popped out of the
hole like n f1ash-and it was a flash, for he
had the string that had tied the blazing
candlewicS to the turtle tightly between
his teeth, and the dazzling firebrand was
sailing along after him like hot air bal
loon. Away the ground hog tore, straight
for my wheat field, where the golden grain
was stacked in plethoric sheaves. In less
than three minutes he had touched the
torch, which was to have lighted him to
his death, to my cleaning wheat stacks
and that edge of Steuben county saw such |
a bonfire as never lit up its hills before or
since | believe it was the firm intention
of the ground hog to set fire to my house,
too, but the candlewick exhausted itself
before he could reach the dwelling. and all |
had to remember the genius of the Jer-
seyman by was the ashes Of my seasons
wheat crop. gave mental quit claim
deed of the clover field to the ground hog
On the spot, and the last heard from there
le was still holding title to the property
DON'T TRY THE TRAP.
II don't know much about ground hogs
myself" remarked Thad Ross, the land
ord; my experience with beasts of bur
len and animals Of the forest and field
having been entirely with coons; but had
! friend that lived back of Penn Van who
an against a ground hog once and had an
experience with it that, actually, if a man
vas lying, he couldn't tell of one half "a
" md r15n d. L.. |
bout this ground hog experience of his,
hat ground hog looked like a chuckle.
Iead, but he's smarter than, a mustard
Easter. | never had the least idea in the
World of trapping for ground hogs. but
very time this friend of mine met me he
eemed to be under the impression that |
Ias about to engage in that sport, for he
ways began at me something like this:
Don't you ever trap for ground hogs
the first place, If you catch your ground
og you won't know what TO do with it,
Or the skin is no good and the meat will
poll soap grease In the second place, you
ill never catch one. You will only risk
our trap If you do try to catch ground
og, for the chances are that the sly old
ass will come out and spring the trap by ,
ltting the pan with g stick or tossing a :
one on it, and then lug it off mile or
20 and bury it,
Then this friend of mine would relate
hat happened to him in trying to rid his
lrm OF agroundhog that had been especial
annoying. He had set a trap for it, and .
le ground hog had limited TO him two or (
lree times that it didn't want the trap
ound his diggings by carrying it away
llf mile and hanging it on bush But
y friend thought he knew more what was
st for that ground hog than the patiently L
otesting animal did itself, and so kept -
yht ON setting the trap on the very thresh-
OF the ground hogs home. One morn.
g he went to look at the trap, and when
was within hundred yards or so of the
lie he saw the ground hog dragging the
up by its chain off across the field in the
rection Of my friends barn.
My friend thought he couldn't do any
ing better than just follow along and see
here the grounding intended to bury the
Up, as he supposed that was what the ami
u was up to. The ground hog dragged
!, trap straight to the barn, and my friend
'pt along in its wake. If the ground hog
v him it didn't let on, but took the trap
'und the corner Of the barn. My friend
valuable young bird dog chained in
.ennel behind the barn, and he hurried
and peoked around the corner of the
ilding. What should he see but the
'und hog steal up to one side of the ken
and shove the trap quietly in front of
entrance. Then the ground hog gave
J kennel kick with both hind feet.
t bounced the dog. He set both fore
in the trap, and snap she went. The
! was caught. While his master was re-
sing the yelping pup the ground hog
ode away, shaking its sides, my friend
Jared, with mirthfulness over the sue
J Of its little scheme. "-Hammondsport