Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1893-11-22
THEY RESPECT THE SKUNK,
And Have Good Reason to, Up In tho
Hop-Growing Counties.

"lf you want to get yourself
thoroughly disliked in community"
said a travelling man to n. Y. san
writer, go up into the Otsego county,
or any of the hop-growing counties of
the state, and talk mean about the
skunk. You don't need to kill q skunk
to get the people down on you. Mere
ly talk mean about the animal and
you'll get talked back to, and don't
you forget it. The hop-growing coun-
ties are the only localities, | guess, in
the whole country where il is no sign
of disrespect to call a man u 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 done the subject justice if you call
him skunk. and the man will doubt
less think so, too, and may be lick you.
But it isn't SO in the hop counties. To
call man skunk up there is equival-
ent to telling him that he is one of the
most useful citizens, and he'l thank
you.
whatever benefits the hop grower
in that belt of counties benefits the en-
tire community, for every body de-
pends on the hop crop for his material
welfare. And the farmers having
made the discovery that the formerly
despised skunk is the greatest friend
they have in their business, that ami
nal has become everybody's friend,
and YOU want 10 be careful and treat
the skunk with respect if you 90 into
the hop country. They protect skunks
up there as carefully as, II not more
carefully than. they do song birds.
The usual habit of this little animal il
to hunt his living at night, which has
given him bad name, the inference
being that night prowlers 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 animal hunts by
night in the hop country too, but he
also does the same by day, because he
has discovered that the people recog-
nize the fact that he has long been
misjudged and discredited, and he
sees that they have now implicit con-
iidence in him. So he may be seen
any day in the hop fields, not infre-
quently walking along the rows of hop
vines, If not in company with, at least
without any fear of, the farmer, who
may be cultivating row next to him.
There is a grub peculiar to hop fields
which is one of the most destructive
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 a most toothsome and juicy
morsel, just suited to his epicurean
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 1000 acres of
vineyard which the grubs would have
destroyed. 1t is interesting to see
skunk hunting grubs in hop field
He stops at the very end hill of row
of vines, and, placing one ear close to
the ground, listens intently. He has
an ear as acute as the wood pecker,
listening for grub that is working
deep in the trunk Of a 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. devours 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 a row, coming back on the
next row, and so on until he has taken
out every grub A dozen or so of
skunks working in field soon relieve
it 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"