The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1906-07-06
TONS OF MUSKRATS.
Are Eaten Every Year by High Livers
in New York
New York Tines

1000 Is not known to most patrons of
the game dealers Chicago, which is
its only rival as eater OF muskrats.
finds room for countless barrels of
swamp rabbit caught along the ia
nous marshes of Lake Michigan.
New York Muskrats come from
Chesapeake Bay. for the most part.
The trade is q large one There are
shipping points on the bay from which
10000 muskrat pelts are sent yearly
to fur dealers, The carcasses of two
thirds of these animals are barreled
and sent by steamer to Baltimore
commission merchants.
A barrel holds 200 muskrat carcas-
SEES. They are worth TO the shipper
from IS to SO barrel. and the trap
pers find that it pays to save the meat.
An ordinary season on an S0-acre
marsh will bring from 1000 to 1000
pelts, worth from $3.50 to $500. If
to this is added the bring" of from
$25 to $50 for the meat, a consider
able sum is added to the trappers'
income. A thousand rats a season
| is a small catch for a professional
trapper. Merit Robbins, of Blackwell
| er, on the east shore of Maryland
averages 200 rats a day during the
season on his marshes. He hires
from three to five men to tend his
snares and traps and shoot over his
decoys. Last year he cleared more
than $4,000. He ships a barrel Of
muskrats a day to Baltimore by the
steamers.
The meat of the muskrat is very
dark It's flavor is as delicate as a
rabbits. During the trapping sea
son muskrat flesh is on sale in all of
the butcher shops along the eastern
shore, especially at Cambridge, Chris
field and other water towns" GNne
butchers buy it from the trappers,
paying from two to four sents car
cass. The rats are then sold to town
people at the uniform price of four
for a quarter
The swamp rabbits or d" black
ducks" are served at all of the cheap
hotels and lodging houses once or
twice a week Sometimes they are
boiled, sometimes fried, and some
times baked Frequently the patrons
of the houses do not know what they
are eating, A party of book agents
in Captain Cannons hotel at Cam
bridge ate hungrily of the meat placed
before them. Cannon asked them
how they liked swamp rabbit"
Fine" was the answer but when
Cannon told them what it was, two
of the five left the table angrily.
In New York the knowing patrons
of restaurants search down the lists
of game in season" when seeking
muskrats. When they come to
swamp rabbit" or black squirrel
or Southern rabbits" they know what
to expect 1t is apt to be just plain
muskrat shipped from Baltimore.
Those who believe what they read,
order the animal under its temnting
name, and eat without harm to them
selves of a savOry dish
1t would be interesting to read the
restaurant lists in New York If they
were revised according to common
nomenclature 1t would be found that
much that passes for game" is really
humble muskrats and similar ami
mails served to suit the taste of those
who have never seen a muskrat on
its native grass. A sportsman who
frequents the fields as well as the
club rooms occasionally finds musk
rats on the menus of special game
dinners. Many housekeeper in New
York, ordering gray squirrels or rab-
bits dressed" unwittingly serves at
her table Chesapeake Bay muskrats.
There are, of course, many people
who know muskrats and eat them reg
ularly. In some of the foreign quar-
tiers muskrats are sold for what they
are. Italians buy them in large num-
bers. and the ingredients of sundry
Chinese restaurant dishes include
the dark meat of the water rodent
disguised only by its Chinese name.
OF the scores of barrels of musk
rats which come to New York during
the winter months few carcasses are.
wasted and few find their way into
the omniverous cutters of SOUP and
hash makers Between the butchers
who sell dressed squirrel and rab-
bits" and the men who are familiar
with the good qualities of nusl,rat
meat, the supply is cared for at fair
prices OF course people who believe
they ought to know what they eat
may object to eating muskrats under
another name but IN the long run. if
they eat nothing worse in their gus
tatory ramblines. they may consider