The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-09-13

He made the turtle captive, and got ball of candle wick, saturated 1t With kerosene, fastened it to the turtle's tail with a piece of wire two feet long, placed the turtle at the entrance of woodchuck's burrow and touched match to the kerosene-soaked ball or candle wick. The inflammable stuH blazed up instantly. The turtle felt the heat and at once started to get away from it, and dived into the Woodchuck burrow. The burning brand folloWed It, and the turtle kept right on into the un- derground passage, trying to escape. The farmer, armed with heavy club, stood at the mouth of the burrow, waiting results. He had waited but a few seconds when out rushed wood- chuck, wlld-eyed, and all caution gone' The farmer settled the woodchuck with one whack of the club and waited for more. They came, and in less than two minutes after he put the turtle and it's trail of fire into the burrow he had six woodchuclSs dead at the entrance. If the turtle ever came out again the far mer never saw it.
 After demonstrating the success of his highly original woodchuok eXterml- nator, the farmer spent all of his spare time looking for turtles; but as they were scarce he was unable to use his eXterminator as largely as he wanted to until he captured a turtle that proved to be a retriever of itself. This turtle invariably came out of burrow after circulating through it with it's ] fiery tail and driving the terrified woodchucks out to their death, so that it could be loaded again and turned into another burrow. This turtle served the farmer and his neighbors as a destroy CT of woodchucks for several seasons, until one day, while not on duty, it got In the way of a reaping machine in a field and had it's head cut off. The farmer never found another turtle that would return from burrow to be used again, and to serve his purpose he had to depend on the casual finding of such as he could get This made the work of woodchucl1 extermination desultory and consequently it has never been as ! successful as it otherwise would have | been.
 "The idea is all right" the farmer de- 1 clares to this day "but turtles is too scarce to keep it workin'."
 ] The result of this farmers success at | destroying woodchucks by means of 1 turtles and burning candle wick was l published in the newspapers and in
 time met the eye of farmer out in l Steuben county, who had been bothered l greatly by woodchucks. He resolved to ] give the thing trial himself. He sue ceeded in getting a turtle, and he turned | ;t ,J1,I,, o. 1 ging the ball of fire after it. The far
 mer had armed himself with an axe,
 and when the turtle went down into the
 ground with the blaze behind it he
 raised the axe and braced himself to
 smite the woodchucks as they came 1 trooping in terror from the hole. A long time passed. No grounding ap-
 peared The farmer lowered his axe to
 rest his arms. He had no sooner done
 so than out of the hole woodchuck
 rushed like a fash and it was flash,
 too for the wire that had held the blaz-
 ing ball to the turtle was fast to the
 woodchuck somewhere, and the daz-
 zling firebrand was sailing along after him like hot-air balloon.
 The farmer had been cutting his wheat the day before and it was stocked
 in sheaths in the field near by. Away
 the terrified woodchuck dashed as fast
 as it's loping gait would let it and
 plunged into one of the stacks of wheat
 evidently thinking to hide from the
 blazing pursuer. Instantly the dry
 straw was afire, and the woodchuck
 rushed out of the burning stack and
 wormed itself into the stack next to it.
 This one was immediately ablaze, and
 away the woodchuck raced for another
 stack, the incendiary ball of candle