The Forrest City times., 1893-08-11
THEY RESPECT THE SKUNK
And Have Good Reason To. Up In the Hop-
 Growing Counties.

Growing Counties.
 I'll you want to get yourself thor oughly disliked in a community" said New York travelling man, ''go up into otsego county, or any of the hop-grow- Ing counties of the state, and talk mean about the skunk. You don't need to Kill skunk to get the people down on you. Merely talk mean about the ami nal and you'll get talked back to, and don't you forget it. The hop-growing counties are the only localities, guess, in the whole country where it is no sign Of disrespect to call a man skunk In every other place, when you want to say the meanest thing you can think of about some one else, you feel that you have done the subject justice if you call him skunk. and the man will doubtless think so too, and maybe lick you. But it isn't so in the hop counties. To call man skunk up there is equivalent to telling him that he is one of the most useful of citizens, and he'll thank you.
 Whatever benefits the hop grower in that belt of counties benefits the entire community. for everybody de- pends on the hop crop for his material welfare. And the farmers having made the discovery that the formerly de- spised skunk is the greatest friend they have in their business, that ami nal has become everybody's friend, and you want to be careful and treat the skunk with respect if you go into the hop country. They protect skunks up there as carefully as, if not more carefully than, they do song birds. The usual habit of this little animal is to hunt his living at night, which has given him bad name, the inference being that night providers are never after any good. The poor skunk has had to suffer many and many time for the work of two-legged chicken thieves. The ami mai hunts by night in the hop coun- try, too, but he also does the same by day, because he has discovered that the people recognize the fact that he has long been misjudged and dis credited, and he sees that they have now implicit confidence in him. So he may be seen any day in the hop fields, not infrequcntly walking along the rows of vines, if not in company. at least without any fear of the farmer who may be cultivating a row next to him.
 There is a grub peculiar to hop fields which is one of the most destruc- tive and insidious pests the grower has to deal with This grub gets his work in on the roots of the vines, gnawing them just below the surface of the ground, and killing every vine he works on Now, in this grub the skunk has found most toothsome and juicy morsel, just suited to his epicur- can palate, and he hunts the pest with such persistence and perseverance that it ,is estimated that last season he saved to the farmers of Otsego county alone the product of more than one thousand acres of vineyard which the prubs would have destroyed. It is in tercsting to see a skunk hunting grubs in a hop field. He stops at the very end hill of a row of vines, and. placing one ear close to the ground listens intently. He has an ear as acute as the wood- becker. listening for grub that is working deep in the trunk of tree, and if there is one of the hop pests gnawing at the root of the vine he hears it. He digs it out with his paw, de- vours it and then listens again. He never leaves a hill until he is satisfied that he has destroyed every grub buried there. then he passes on to the next hill, and thus works his way the entire length of row. coming back on the next row. and so on until he has taken out every grub. A dozen or so of skunks ,,,o,.l,;nor in a field soon relieve 1t of its grub pests.
 That is why it will not elevate you in the estimation of the people of the hop counties if you talk mean about the skunk, for he is one of their most useful and respected citizens. .'-N. \.