The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1890-06-26
vORAcIOUS WOODcHUcKS.
What the Creatures Can Do for a State
When They Are Feeling Good.

The woodchuck is of the same family
as the rat and the squirrel and the
prairie dog, and the latter is its nearest
relative, for the prairie dog isn't dog
any more than the woodchuck is hog.
While New York, Pennsylvania and
New Jersey are garden spots for the
woodchuck, some of the New England
States, notably New Hampshire and
Connecticut, are its paradise. In New
Hampshire the woodchuck has forced
the State to recognize it as an import.
ant factor in the political economy OF
the commonwealth. 1t has place in
the vital statistics of that State, for its
efforts in anticipating the farmer in
the gathering of his clover crop. his
turnips, his cabbages and many other
of his products. led few years ago tc
investigation that startled the econo-
mists among the local statesmen.
Woodchuck statistics computed at
the time by New Hampshire student
of economics laid bare the fact that one
healthy groundhog-and there are no
unhealthy OneS-would eat. between
the first of May and the first of Septem-
Der, 500 pounds of red clover, first and
second crops. An inside estimate
placed the number of woodchucks in
New Hampshire at 4S2.960. No one
made a business of hunting them there,
and if l. 600 were killed casually during
any one year, the number was large.
The statistician, to be generous, how
ever, figured on the basis of 40, 600
woodchucks, all busy during the four
months mentioned, cutting and NOW.
ing away clover throughout the State
to say nothing of the other farm pro-
ducts they saved the farmer the trouble
of gathering himself. If one wood.
chuck harvested 500 pounds of clover,
OF course, there was no way of getting
around the fact that at the same rate
each $50, 600 woodchucks gathered
crop of 235, 900, 600 pounds, the equiva-
lent of lis, 500 tons, every year, if the
season was favorable. Placing hay at
even the low price of Sc per ton, here
was the astounding exhibit. as plain as
the simple rules of multiplication and
division could make it, that the annual
tribute woodchucks were levying on
the hay fields alone of the patient New
Hampshire husbandmen amounted to
the stupendous sum of $705. 600 At
the next session OF the Legislature sup
preston of the woodchuck was the all
absorbing question before it. Some
eager Legislators were in favor of offer
ing % cents head for woodchucks,
but it was finally decided that the
farmers would be satisfied with a
bounty of 10 cents woodchuck for
clearing their farms of pests, and 10
cents it was. The woodchuck became
an outlaw with price on his head. 1t
wasn't large price, but 1t has served
as such an inducement to the hunting
of the woodchuck that bounties on an
average annual kill of 100000 of the
animals has been collected in this State
ever since. The local statistican re.
ferred to calculates that this big re-
moval of four-footed harvesters has
saved to the farmers not less than
Sl25. 600 annually on hay alone fol-
seven years. The farmers can't get
around the figures, but like the man
who quit smoking for year and saved
$500, they ask: where's the money!