Arizona republican., 1896-01-22
A CROP OF SNAKES. >
An Iowa Man Who Raised Rat
 tiers for Their Venom.
Description of the Farm by a Traveller Who Visited It-Hnw the Farmer Obtained the Virus and Sent
 It to Market.

Several years ago, while travelling in Iowa, Chicago man happened upon a settlement in Tama county, and, while stopping there, heard of a rattlesnake ledge about four miles northeast of the town that had been preempted by man from Ohio Old Burnison's ledge turned out to be all it was painted says an exchange, and something more. It was mile and a half of rotton lime stone stratum turned on edge and stick ing out of the prairie sixty feet high, like big quarry that had got snagged in the middle of lake. Right on top of it, in grove of wild tern and dwarf sycamore, lived old Burnison, in log cabin he had built for himself about three years before, when he had pre- empted the quarter section.
 ''This whole bed of rock, lying in slanting and crumbling layers, much of it as crumbled as old cheese, was literally alive with rattlesnakes When l reached the place old Burnison had settled down to snake killing as busi- ness. He had gradually given up all attempts to work his farm and devoted himself to the ceaseless war of exter- mination. He said he had killed as many as fifty rattlers in day, but they were ''gettin' scarey of him now" and knew his step. Besides, sad he: q ain't as anxious to kill as I was, seein; as how snakes is a better payin' crop than corn"
 ''He and his boy must have been at this about year, it appeared, when some one wrote to him from Des Moines and offered to pay him for all the rattlesnal1e poison he could collect. This set him to work pulling the fangs out of the dead snakes. Itwas difficult and tedious work, but he succeeded in getting together a vial of the venom and sent it to his correspondent, with a complaint that it didn't pay to 'gether' it.
 What was his surprise to receive in answer lengthy letter from Chica- go firm, for which the Des Moines cor respondent was only an agent, thank ing him for the virus and remitting ten dollars, with specific instructions how to gether' the poison without 50 much trouble. He was to pull the fang be- fore the snake was killed and while his mouth was open. Of course,' said the letter, you can't very well do t after the snake is dead, because the fang is folded back and hidden in the folds of the maXillary gland. We send you by express to our Des Moines agcnss pair of forceps specially constructed for this work, winch we furnish to our agents
 Here the old man got up and brought long-handled steel instru- ment of the most delicate workman ship, and 1 accompanied him and his boy to see how it worked. We had not gone hundred feet through the plum grove before we heard the rattle of a snake, and the boy, turning aside into the bush, found his victim coilcd. with his head up, and in half a minute he had his forked stick over the neck of the animal, and the old man had the instrument fast on the little white fang that hung down visibly in his open  mouth.
 ''With dexterous jerk the fang and the venom bag together came out un- broken, and, after crushing the head of the serpent with his boot. he laid the trophy in the palm of his hand for me to look at.
 Afterwards he showed me a little box with glass stoppered vials laid in cotton, which the Chicago firm had also sent him. He told me that he was making a good deal more money by the snakes than he could get 'outen' his crops.
 II bought a vial of the viscid fluid from old Burnison and kept it for a long time for experiments, ultimately passing it over to Dr. Doremus."