The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-02-12
AN 0ID WooDoHUoK'S FATE.
A Long Island Farmers Experience-Pa-
 tieuce ys Instinct

| tFrom the New York Evening Post.l "Speakin' of woodchucks," said an 1 old Long Island farmer the other day.
 reminds me of some curious incidents
 with 'em. T'warn't more'n fifty years
 ago when they was as thick as flies on this island, an we ate them instead of
 rabbits, an made mufflers and mittens
 out of their skins. They was mighty
 warm, too, those old woodchuck nit
 tens and muffiers When man want
 ed big fellow he only had ter walk
 down into the nearest field and take his
 pick out of two or three. They was so
 plentiful that 1t was no trouble to kill
 lem. But they have been killed off now
 so that there ain't many more roun'.
 Onct in a while big fellow brings up a
 litter into the lower clover lot, and we
 have to root 'em out.
 "Ever hunt woodchucks? Waal,it ain't
 much eff they be young ones If you.
 wait long enough you'll catch them run
 min across the lot in broad daylight. If
 you are a good shot you can bring one
 down. They're tough, an big fellow,
 will carry away big load of shot. But
 if you get hold of big fellow. an old
 veteran, so to speak, you'll find it no
 easy job to dislodge him, He's too
 knowin' cuss to live. He'll only eat your clover at night, an Lord, how
 much he can get away with in one night! Tn the daytime he keeps close into his hole and laughs
 at you. Dig him out? Waal, yes, you can try it, but he'll dig good deal fas- ter on the other end than you will, and
 take it easy at that. Mind ye, I'm talk in of old ones, those who know all the tricks of the business. The woodchuoks that ye find on Long Island are wiser than those ye find anywhere else, cause they have to be cunnin' an shrewd not to get killed. They're so close to civil ization that they learn new tricks all the time.
 "A few years ago cunning old fel- low took up his home in that clover field just off the lower medders, an we had the hardest time to kill him that ye can imagine. l guess afore we got through with him he cost us bout $100 that is fur clover destroyed, and labor at $1.50 per day lost in trying to cap ture him. 'Twarnt any use layin' in wait fur him with shotgun. He was too wise to poke his nose out of the hole. But every night he'd come out and eat clover fast enough. He brought up sev- en filters of young chucks in that field but we killed 'em all except the old one. He'd bring a new mate with him to his home every season, but she'd get shot | in tryin to save her young ones, But ! we could never get a shot at the prime | mover of the trouble. We waited fur | him on moonlight nights and did get a | shot at him onct. But l guess we only | him, an he never ventured out | again except on dark nights. We had | no chance then. We tried to dig him | out, but after three days of steady work we got tired. Then we started to burn and smoke him out, but it ain't no easy matter to make smoke go down hill an get into all of the holes that a wood- chuck can make. Finally, we decided to drown the old critter out, We got together all the pork and oil barrels we could find an filled them full of water Then, when everything was ready, Si and Jake, my two sons, stood ready with pitchfork and shotgun, while poured the water into the hole. Waal 1 sir, that hole held more water than any It took the hull ten barrels sul to bring it up to the surface, and then, jest as I put in the last painful, hat pesky old chuck showed his nose. Si jabbed at him with the pitchfork, and Jake shot the handle to pieces as le banged away at the critter. But it wasn't no use. the water soaked away and the woodchuck went down again, grlnning at our failure.
 "But we warn't so easily discouraged. Next day we added five more barrels Ind all the tubs and pails round the louse. Then we began to flood that lole again. This time we had plenty If water, but there was no woodchuck o appear. The water came up 10 the urface and flowed out Of the whole, ut no woodchuck. We thought he had eft his home for good after his first ucking. But no; he came out again hat night, an ate more clover than us- Ial jest as eff to spite us. Waal, we