Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1896-11-12
HUNTS skuNks ON A BICYCLE.
Maine Man Has Novel Way of Captur.
ing the Perfumed Animals.


Maine Man Has = Novel Way of Captur-
Ing the Perfumed Animals.
The wide meadows which stretch
from the Penobscot river east to Clifton
make Bradley, Me-, one of the best
skunk pastures in Maine. In ordinary
years there are ut least dozen fat
skunlis to every acre of land, and as
land is counted by the square mile or
township Whereabouts there in no end
seasons, when the grasshoppers are
plenty, skunks are fit to kill during the
full moon of September. Owing to the
scarcity of insects and the general de-
preston caused by hard times, the little
animals have not fattened up as early
as usual in 1896, and the general round
up and slaughter has been postponed
for week or more.
The few hunters who have been out
report game plenty and the fur in ex-
cellent condition. James Sinclaire, of
Eddington, who killed Al skunks in
three nights, says the pelts are heavier
end darker colored than they have been
for years. Gus Anderson, of North
Brewer, who has caught about 20 in
traps near his henhouses, went on a
skunk hunt the other night and brought
in IS large ones before daylight. Be.
fore this year Anderson has always
used a dog to help him find the tni-
mails. On Friday night, having no dog,
he lighted lantern and rode through
the moved grass fields on his bicycle.
Whenever he saw a skunk he dis.
mounted and killed it with club. He
likes the new method very much, and
says a good cushion-tired bicycle is
away ahead of any dog he ever saw. He
offers to bet five dollars that he and his
bicycle can capture 20 skunks any fair
night.
Boys who want to earn money with
which to buy guns and winter clothing
are the chief skunk hunters. Two wide
awake boys, accompanied by yelping
dog, go along the sides of fences and
brooks, killing all the skunks they can
find. If the dog is greenhorn he shakes
the animals to death and is sorry after.
ward. If he is an old hand at the sport,
he barks about his prey until the hunt
ers come up and do the killing with a
club. The animals are carried home,
and after the skin has been taken Off
and stretched on q board the carcass
is put over slow fire and roasted for
the oil. A skunk will yield from one
to three pints of oil, averaging about
one quart. This has always sold for
four dollars a gallon to the local drug
gists until the present hard times re-
duced the rate to 40 cents pint, or $500
q gallon. The price of skins varies from
25 cents for small ones that are nearly
white, to $1.25 for large, black ones;
rs cents is about an average. From the
foregoing figures it can be seen that
every skunk nets the hunter about 81 so.
AS two boys and dog frequently kill
Is or 20 skunks night it is a profitable
business while it lasts. Boys and bach
elors are the chief patrons of the sport
Few married men have tried to get a liv-
ing by killing skunks. Last year Ham
cock county judge decided that the
woman who was welded to a chronic
skunk hunter had good grounds for
divorce. This pleased the boys so much
that they say they are going to elect
that judge governor when they get bie
enough to vote.
Though cnterprising men in New
York and Connecticut have started
skunk farms of late, and are said to be
getting rich selling oil and furS, no
Maine man has yet made a fortune at
the business. Three or four years ago
farmer in Pittston, en- the Kennebec
river, fenced in some land and began to
grow skunks for the mar ket. Though
he fed his pets on liver and offal from
the slaughterhouses and tomcods
caught from the river, he found that the
animals did not thrive we'll in confine-
ment. More than half of them emil
grated to other towns. Those that re-
manned have picked up wonderfully
and produced large number of young
skunks, which will be big enough to kill
in another year. Last year Capt. Per-
klns, of Blue hill, fenced in three fe-
males and two male skunks and fed
| them through the winter. In the spring
he found himself the proud owner of
"A baby skunks, nearly half of which
were almost pure black. Fortune
seemed about to come and make her
home with him when he went out one
day and found that the father skunks
had eaten up all their offspring. The
captain changed the diet of his captives,
and, feeding them on the best the mar
let afforded, waited for the next litters,
| which cama o1pnU in Ann1lSt Tbera
were % young ones that time. They
got big enough to pla.' like kittens
when they all disappeared, dying from
the same cause that had killed the
former broods. After this the captain
used his fence for restraining hens, and
let the skunks shift for themselves.-N.
Y. Sun.