The record-union., 1896-04-16

orally want to. That leaves but one
other mode of capture, to wit: digging
him out of his hole, and here his curios-
ity, which before saved him, is fatal to
him.
/ The digger digs away until he is with
! in reaching distance of the skunk, and
then he gets over behind and above the
| hole and waits. In a very few minutes
| OIL mas skunk or OF mis- skunk comes
shifting and peering out to see what it
| is all about, and just as its head gets
past the edge down comes a hand across
| it's neck, and that settles the freedom
of the skunk Carefully, then, the cap
tor draws the skunk out, slipping his
other hand along its body to the end,
when, with a quick jerk, he pulls 1T out
| and doubles it's head under its tail and
keeps it that way until he drops into
sack or box for delivery at the farm.
This doubling is to prevent the animal
from using it's chief weapon of defense,
because, as Mr.. Ballard says, hes got
| to hump himself before he can throw
his stink" The same results may be
| obtained by catching the animal by
| the tail, and holding it up, but tail
| hold is not always available, though
| Mr. Ballard and his son both picked
them up that way while they were feed
| ing, and I took a snap shot of the boy
| holding two up by their tails, but L
got away to a safe distance before he
| let them go.
Perhaps no animal in the world-cer-
| tainly none in Americas in as bad
| cdor in the community where 1t resides
| as the skunk is, and there is much rea-
| son for this, for there is no smell known
which is much worse than that of the
peculiar fluid or liquid a skunk dis
charges when provoked. 1t comes from
| a ring-Shaped sac at the interior eX-
tremity of the alimentary canal and is
discharged through three (Ballard says
three; the natural history says two)
needle-like apertures, and can be
| thrown with great accuracy to dis
tance of ten or twelve feet. 1t spreads
out in a vapor-like cloud, and is so pen
etrating that nothing escapes it, and IL
may be detected at a distance OF
mile 1t is of a reddish cast when
| thrown upon a white board, but IN
water it gives a greenish tlnge. Ihe
supply seems to be ineXhaustible, and
the cat is ready as long as life remains
It has remarkable curative qualities,
| but it's terrific odor prevents its use.
| Mr. Ballard cites an instance when ne
was suffering last winter with sore
eyes, of being struck square in one eye
by discharge from a car he was Try
ing to discipline in the pen, and the eye
was we'll within the week. Then ne
| tried to get a similar application for
| the other eye, but the odor was TOO
much for him and he gave it up. IL
| is said to be a cure for asthma also, out
the remedy is worse than the disease.
| Mr.. Ballard divides his collections
| into two classes-polecats, which is the
usual designation, and skunks-the
| skunks being all black, except a white
spot on the head, and the polecats with
! the peculiar marking Of two Whlte
! stripes starting from the head ana de-
| scribing an ellipse, meeting in the tail.
According to the books, however, MI.
Ballard's collection are all skunks, as
| the polecat is more like a black ferret,
with nothing like as much brush to MS
| tail as the skunk has.
| The first cat (they are called cats,
! though they are of the badger family,
rather. that is. incline and not feline)
| of this collection was a female, caught
| in April. and she added eight to her
| household in May. They are very pro-
| life. producing two litters year. May
and September, and litter contains
| from five to thirteen. Ten kits for
years product is considered average.
| At this rate it will be seen that Mr..
Ballard, with $50 cats now on his farm,
will have a pretty fair-sized collection
ir two or three years.
It costs about 30 cents per year to
| feed them, and they will eat anything,
having a preference for cooked green
beans, meat slightly tainted, eggs, corn,
| bugs-in fact, they are the easiest salts
| fed boarders that can be found any
| where AS their taste is ''gamey," their
| sense of smell is acute, and Mr.. Bal
| lard has given them a dozen bad eggs
with one good one in the lot, and they
carefully rolled the good one aside with
| their paws and ate the bad ones first.
One of their peculiarities is to discharge
| their perfume when feeding, but at
| that time it is almost odorless. Still
| not altogether, for they were fed while
| I was in the pen, and I am here to state
| that I would have known there was
polecat in the neighborhood, even if
I had had my eyes shut
They fight among themselves, but
rarely kill each other, but if a dead one
| is thrown to them they seem to be more
| eager to eat it than any other food that
| can be given to them. They will also
eat all the tobacco worms in a patch,
| but they tear the tobacco to pieces,
while they are at it, SO they have not be-
come popular in this role.
When the sac is removed they make
| dainty and beautiful house pets, and
| they are the finest ratters in the world.
| Mr. Ballard will make some expert
| ments soon in this line, and. if success
| full, will try to supply any demand that
| comes. In my opinion, he will have to
! change their name, though, for there
| is rose-by-any -other-name prejudice
| the farm is the raising of cats for their
fur the skins being worth from 70
cents to 50 so each, and they can be
readily converted into sealskin, Rus
| sian sable or anything else that the
skilled skin manipulation may desire.
| OF course no lady would wear a
skunkskin cloak, but she does it just the
same. Another object, and a greater
one, is the production of "polecat oil"
| for the cure of rheumatism and frost
bite For these complaints P. o. is de-
clared to be the sovereign remedy, and
| it sells at So a quart. AS cats Ghey
weigh from seven to twenty pounds
when faD will average quart of oil
each, with, say, 81 so for a skin, it will
be observed that there ought to be some
money in the business. Mr.. Ballard will