The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1897-05-05
Dogs and Sheep---How to Abate the
Nuisance,

A subscriber in Pennsylvania writes
me that he would like to keep more
sheep; that he has a billy farm, pretty
rough for a COW pasture, but we'll
adapted for sheep, but the dogs are 80
bad; they kill his sheep to such an x
tent that he is discouraged, and asks
how he can abate the nuisance. One
of the strange condolences of civiliza-
ton is, that in all countries, Just in
proportion as dogs increase sheep de-
crease. 1t don't seem possible for dogs
and sheep to flourish in the same coun-
try. l know that the removing of the
tariff on wool had much to do with the
diminishing of the flocks of this coun-
try, but in all the older settled parts,
the immense increase in numbers and
viciousness of dogs kept has had more
to do with this unfortunate decline than
~unfavorable tariff legislation. 1t seems
strange to nj that 30 sensible q people
as the Americans will become 80 en-
amored with the canine race.
But L started out to tell this friend
how he can protect his sheep and abate
the dog nuisance. He can put a dog
proof fence about his pasture. 1t can
be made of the Page or Keystone fenc-
ing, four feet high, or he can make it
of light strands of wire drawn tightly
on sx14 inch pickets woven in every
two feet apart. By making a tool to
slip along the wires, with q handle two
feet long projecting from one side, he
can, by pushing and pulling on the
handle, throw the wires and in, 80
as to take the pickets in like the rags
in the warp of a rag carpet, then by
driving small wire fence staples over
the wires and into the pickets he can
make q fence that no dog can crawl
through. If this fence be four feet
high and inclined or slanting outward
no dog can jump over it. These, if
proper put up, will any of them pro-
tect his flock, but it won't abate the
nuisance. 1 know there is a stringent
law against poisoning dogs, but / don't
care for that. 1 don't believe my
neighbours dog has any moral right,
whatever the law may be, to roam over
my fields and chase my stock, and
while 1 would not injure him in any
way, so long as he doesn't trespass on
my rights, if he comes on my premises
and gets any bits of meat l am 80 lib
eral as to drop about, he must do 30 at
his peril. If they don't agree with
ILL IL 10 hOb NY laulls oub lnC laws
are made by dog owners and are all
against sheep owners, 30 if he would
use poison he must not even tell his
wife that he has any around, nor is it
safe to buy it at a home drugstore.
Of course, he can shoot any dog if he
catches him in his flock, but dogs never
kill sheep in the daytime, nor when the
owner is present, and to shoot makes a
noise and if he is lucky enough to kill
he will have to bury the cur to get il
out of sight. Now the best thing to dc
Is when he is away from home to quiet.
ly buy a quarters worth of strychnine,
lake it home and lock it up in his pri.
vate drawer. Now get some pieces OF
meat as large as hens eggs, take a little
tissue paper and oil it and put a piece
of strychnine the size of a kernel o.
wheat into an inch square of the paper
. and make a hole into the meat and
push the paper into the hole. Drop 6
half dozen of these about the sheer
pasture and my word for it the dog nui
sance on his premises will be surely
abated. If he wants to make assurance
doubly sure he can take a piece of fat
bacon or ham and scorch it over the
fire until it can be smelled a half mile
| and drag that about the field, dropping
his pieces of prepared meat at con
venient places. The beauty of this
way of fixing the thing is that if the
| dog doesn't get the meat for a day Of
[ two the poison don't dissolve to make
meat so bitter he won't eat it. Ant
! then, when the dog gets it, he goes qui
| city home to the bosom of his masters
family and waits until the action of hi;
|! stomach dissolves the oiled paper be
| fore the poison acts and the sheep own
[ err don't have to bury the carcass no
! explain how he came to die on hi.
premises. S%trychnine is the sheer
| owners friend.-Practical Farmer.