The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1897-05-01
A CROP OF SNAKES.
An Iowa Man Who Raised Rat
tiers for Their Venom.
Description Of the Farm By q Traveller
Who visited It-HoW the Former
Obtained the Virus oAd 0ant
It to Market.

y
Iowa, Chicago man happened upon .
settlement in Tama county, and, while
stopping there, heard of rattlesnake
ledge about four miles northeast of the
town that had been preempted by q
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 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 q grove of wild tern and dwarf
sycamore, lived old Burnison, in q 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
i 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, SAL he: 81
ain't as anxious to kill as l was, seein'
as how snakes is better payin' crop
than corn"
''He and his boy must have been at
this about year, it appeared, when
- - H.
Moines and offered to pay him for all
the rattlesnake poison he could collect.
This set him to work pulling the fangs
ont of the dead snakes. It was difficult
and tedious work, but he succeeded in
getting together 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 a 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 so 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 we'll do it 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 agent pair
of forceps specially constructed for
this work, which we furnish to our
agenta.'
Here the old man got up and
brought long-handlsd steel instru-
ment of the most delicate workman
ship, and 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 q
snake, and the boy. turning aside into
the bush, found his victim coiled, with
his head up, and in half . 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 q little
box with glass stoppered walls 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 vial Of the viscid duid
from old Burnison and kept it for a
long time for experiments, ultimately
passinQ it over to DR.. Doremus."