The Roswell daily record. [volume] (Roswell, N.M.) 1903-current, 1907-04-03
UNCLE SAM WILL GO
AFTER WESTERN WOLVES.

Uncle Sam has turned wolf trapper.
In response to the call of thous
alds of Western Stockmen who are
losing fortunes every year, owing TO
the increase of wolves, the govern
ment is appointing skilled hunters
and trappers, who make their bust
ness to end the existence of the pre-
datory beasts whose denS can be
found in every Rocky Mountain state
The first trappers to represent the
government in this strange capacity
were selected by the stockmen ear
Big Piney, Wyoming, the other day
Billy Postel and George Glover being
chosen as wolf eXterminators. Both
men are skilled trappers, and Mr..
Glover has been acting as forest rang
er. Each will receive a salary of $50
a month from the government which
with fees paid by stockmen, and with
the state bounty offered by Wyom-
ing for wolf peltS, should net a skill
full wolf hunter a handsome income.
Some of the "wolferS" as they are
called in the West, make from $4,000
to $4,000 a year in good times, when
state bounties are hign and when
stockmen are liberal with their fees
But, when the wolves are scarce, the
bounties are cut down, and the wise
wolfer quits work to wait until the
WOil llIDC lhCA ooCo SoA o"AH7 ~
the fact that state bounties have been
rather low for several years the wolf
pest in the West is worse than ever.
Enormous losses are being suffered
by cattlemen and sneepmen on the
ranges, and in the destruction of big
game on the national forest reserves
In fact. it the VOLTS wholesale destruc
tion of deer and other game that has
led the government to appoint wolf
ers for the work of determination.
Vernon Bailey, of the geographical
survey recently issued a government
pamphlet on wolves, their destruction
and the best methods of destruction
showing the t~horoughness with wnich
Uncle Sam is going into the work OF
extermi1ating this great pest
Wolf hunting is by no means easy.
in fact. it is little short of a science.
Nor can the science be acquired by
every Tom. Dick and Harry who max
es a study of it. They say in the West
that a wolf hunter is born. not made.
\ man may have the fine traps, and
be able to hide them cunningly, and
yet the wolf will avoid mis- pitfalls
The writer spent some time with a
wolfer in Montana, a man h made
enough in a few years to buy a fine
ranch and retire. This .wolfer had a
secret preparation which he smeared
on his traps, mt which killed the
scent of steel. 1t is a fact that a
wolf can smell steel even when it
is well covered with earth. The pre-
paration used by this wolfer killed
the scent of the steel, and as a result
the mans catches were the envy of
all his brother wolfers in Montana.
Every means vas adopted to discover
the secret of the preparation, but the
wolfer was too shrewd to divulge the
invention that had brought him such
success
Wolves are divided into two classes
the smaller coyotes or prairie wolves
and the larger ray, black or timber
wolves, generally known as the "lobo'
wolf. Tne large ray wolf of the plains
is the most destructive, and its chief
range is in the ranch country of Mon
tana, the western part of the DakotaS
and Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado
and New Mexico and Western Texas.
reports snow that in II years,
including 1906, 20,S19 wolves were kill
ed in Wyoming, and the SUI of $751;
S66 paid in ~bountieS. This does not
a large number of wolves kill
on which no bounties were paid.
In 1897 the loss to the herds in the
country of Western North Da-
kota was estimated at Is per cent of
III IOldI StOCh OA liz dhSV- IL . - /
hat one wolf, full grown,
kills $500 worth of stock in a ear. to
say nothing of the big game he de-
stroys. One cattle company in South
spent $500 for poison for wolv-
IS in 1896. as a result of which eighty
100 wolves and 200 coyotes were
1illed on the ranges of that one out
it.
Colorado has always suffered much
rom wolves, especially in the parts
II the state devoted to stock raising
Arthur J.. Tisweil, of the great Bell
Ranch in New Mexico-one of the larg
,st stock ranches ii the country-has
a special study of wolves, and
estimates that they have killed not
ess than 500, 900 cattle and sheep in
he West annually. principally calves
yearling cattle. One Mexican,
Who owned a small herd of cattle in
New Mexico. lost seventeen calves
n one summer. The black wolf is We
v numerous in the timbered region
4 eastern Texas, and the smaller red