Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1907-04-23
trapping WILD ANIMALS
SHARED SO GENTLY THAT NO
BONES ARE BROKEN.
Inviting Muskrats to Suicide Tricks
of Foxy Foxes-A S25 Scent
Methods of the CIafiin Brothers,
the Best Trappers in Central Mass

tue DcSl lioPFStS ~ S~uttd al w 49,
achusetts.
The Clafin brothers, living in CEN
trail Massachusetts, are not only the
best but the genrlest trappers any,
where around. Nobody else. according
TO the Boston Herald, uses steel traps
so small and so gently tensioned that
they barely hold the animal and don't
break any bones. Nobody else springs
the jaws of trap simply because
there may be no chance of visiting
them the next day to get the cap
tured animals, or releases a stray,
laundering dog.
If a skunk is found in trap. a
few blows from a six foot stick finish
him. The mink goes the same road
The fox may be killed if his fur is
prime. If the season is early, Rey-
nard is brought back to q cage for
him made and provided in the yard back
of the Claf1in house. and there he
stays, well fed and cared for care
fully till the cold fetches the gloss
and thickness that tell the perfect
coat. Then the fox gets club on the
head, the skin is stripped off, turned
inside out and cured. A short tine
ago the brothers had eight foxes in
their wire coop waiting for the prime
of the coat and the killing season.
The muskrat is usually found
drowned. His first impulse when he
gets his foot into a trap is to make
for the water The chain OF the trap
is fastened to a knoIty stick tina,
leads down toward the bottom of the
brook where the brothers trap, and
it is easy for the muskrat to go down
fast
The knots prevent his return and
he browns long before the trappers
arrive The trap is always set near
the water and always arranged so that
the muskrat may commit suicide, for
he has an awkward habit, if he is in
a trap far from the water, of making
a sudden twist and getting away leav-
ing a foot behind him.
1t takes skill and persistence to
catch the fox. He will circle all
night a brushwood pile in which a
cackling hen is making a rumpus,
but he won't touch her, for he seems
to figure it out that there is a trap
of some sort near But if hen goes
astray or is thrown away, Reynard is
pretty sure to get the body.
The Clafin brothers always make
bed for a fox in an open field. They
dig a hole into the earth few inches
deep, at a gentle incline, put trap
at the entrance to the hole and the
bait at the further and covered end.
If Mr.. Fox goes for the bait by way
of the road prepared for him, he must
spring the trap-it is one of the little
problems of the business, however, to
make a fox go that road
Time and again foxes have been
known to walk up to the very edge
of the trap, sniff around and walk
away. Returning to the attack, they
begin digging in the ground, approach
the bait from the rear and get it all
out without disturbing the trap in the
slightest.
Or the trap may be showed out of
the way and Incl ientally sprung, with
nothing but dirt inside it. A piece
of muskrat or a Slice of hen is the
usual meal, but it is the seasoning
which really does the trick.
The Clafiin brothers paid an old
trapper s25 for the secret of the sea-
soning. Some of the books on trap
ping say that asafoetida scattered
around trap will draw wild animals.
but Neal Claf1in says that nothing
that comes from a store will ever
attract the nose of wild animal, and
the brothers rely on their secret prep
aration altogether. 1t is persistent
and not pleasant to the human most
rils.
Sometimes the trappers handle
their fox traps only with gloves, in
order to leave no human scent to
scare away the animals. 1t isn't that
scent, however, so much as tracks
and other little signs that keep the
foxes away from the trap, once the
$25 scent has drawn them.
In winter the brothers do no trap
ping if the ground is covered with
snow and the streams are frozen up.
The foxes will avoid the footprints
of the man in the snow, though they
may cross a hundred of them in the
back yard to get at a fat pullet.
One morning Neal Clafiin came
across a red fox trying to help an
unfortunate brother out of steel
trap. Shoulder to shoulder the pair
would go the length of the chain, the
free brother showing against the 9TH
er as if to draw the foot out of the
jaws.
The would-be rescuer was more
disturbed and more angry than the
other. The hair on his back stood
up stiff and straight, and his look of
slyness was lost in an appearance OF
fierceness. Time and again he leaped
along the length of the chain and
against the body of the trapped fox,
ana the 1llGulplS until MI
Clafiin was within a few yards.
The brothers have little use for
shotguns and rifles George w. Clafiin
bought shotgun one day and shot
at a mark. He didn't like the thing
and gave it away.
The brothers do all their trapping
and hunting without any gun sticking
picturesquely over their shoulders.
When Neal Clahin gives up trapping
for the winter and goes coon hunting
greatest thing in the world. coon
hunting. he says-he takes a firearm,
but it is only a revolver.
The prices they receive for their
skins vary A large prime fox skin
brings 81, and prices for others range
down to a few cents. 1t all depends
on the condition of the coat. The
best of brown mink skins sell from
81 to Sc.
A fine black skunk skin will bring
n GOD r,,,,cl-rat cI-inc arc worth