The Winslow mail., 1899-09-07
RAZORBACKS AND MUSKRATS.
The Chief Brands of Live Stock
Owned by Fishing Bay
Squatters.

Razorback hogs and muskrats are the
chief sources of revenue to the -inhab-
itants of the borders of Fishing bay,
Md. The squatters-for majority Of
the dwellers are nothing more-are hos
pitable in their way, but are not more
advanced in civilization than are the
people who have always lived in the
out-of-the-way mountains of North
Georgia and Alabama. Few of the
houses have a habitable appearance,
and majority Of them were built from
lumber found drifting in the bay and
from timber confScated in the forests,
there being immense tracts of valuable
timber land along the shores. These
people believe they have the right to ap-
propriate whatever timber they may
need in the construction of their rude
cabins, and it is seldom that the land
owners interfere with them.
Like the -razorback hog and musk
rats, the people are prolific, and swarms
of children may be seen around the
cabins in any of the villages. Both men
and women are interested in making
l. fAISs dIIO tlIC CnI1Ql G1l dl I III GotI
to assist in cultivating the gardens and
truck patches: The male members Of
d family generally have all they can do
in looking after the miiskrat traps, and
the gardening is left to the care of the
women and children: Nearly all use
tobacco-chewing, smoking and dip
ping snuff. When times are hard and
hov tcCi,, from mir a
trees as a substitute for tobacco.
The droves of razorback hogs that
are to be seen about all the villages
will scarcely take the trouble to get out
of ones way. The razorback is breed
of hogs raised in the south before the
war and still abundant in the piney
woods of Georgia. This hog has an i'm
portant mission to perform in the Fish
ing bay settlement. 1t is the mission to
make way with the hundreds of car
casses of muskrats that accumulate, al
though the muskrat forms an impOr-
tant article of food for the muskratters
and their families. Indeed, the flesh
of muskrats is no doubt superior to that
of the razorback, the ham of which is
StlIOSI DIS I'll lIIG VI IL Oil LII
dog. But the people along the shore
say that they could not get along with
out the razorback. He is their sanitary
inspector and scavenger, and so long
as he is one of them they do not fear
an epidemic of contagious disease.
A few of the muskratters have made
money trapping the little animals, but
. M iOT,itu Of Thp111 ma n oil O
out a bare existence. While the musk
rat has his house in the ground, the en-
trance can only be made through water,
and the house is generally built two
stories high, the lower floor being
flooded with water. The trappers say
that the reason for the subterranean
entrance is that the rat has an exit
which will not betray him in time Of
danger. But his instinct does not warn
him against the trap his cunning and
persistent enemy places in the water at
the mouth of the entrance to his home
in the bank of the river. This trap is a
wooden box about three feet in length
and six inches in width In each end is
wire door, hung on hinges at the top.
the doors to rise, but they will notopen
from the inside.
This trap is sunk at the entrance to
the muskrat's house, and whether he
is going home or on foraging eXpedi-
dition he is sure to walk into it. A
muskrat cannot remain under water
indefinitely, and before he has time to
gnaw his way out of the box he browns.
An entire family of muskrats is fire.
quently caught in a single night in one
trap. During extraordinary tides on
the marshes the rats are forced out of
their houses and take refuge in the open
country, and then it is that the trappers
and hunters have no difficulty in locat-
ing them. While it is claimed that a
muskrat has instinct which foretells
rising tides and overfows, they are
frequently caught mapping and have to
make a hasty exit to high land.
At this season of the year muskrats
are very numerous and do an immense
amount of damage to the crops. Later
on they will have regular feast cut
ting down young corn in the bottom
lands Farmers along the shores are
kept busy devising ways of killing off
the pests, and regular trappers are re-
garded as public benefactors through
out that section of Maryland. However,
the trappers' razorbaclls and the farm
ers are often at war with each other,
the razorbacks insisting that they have
the right to assist the neighbors in har-
veStin0 their crOpS-N. Y. Sun