The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-03-14
County Commissioners Rescind
Order Paying Bounty.
Wish to Save People $500 to
500 a Year.
HAS FOUND FRIEND.
Long Despised Coyote to Be
Protected.
Said to Be Great EXterminatOr
of Jack Rabbits.

| Hutchinson, KAN March 14-No
| more will the diiigent farmer chase the
prairie wolf. the famed Kansas coyote
around sand dunes and through wind
| ing sloughs, Cor the pleasure of shoot
ing a few buckshot through his pelt.
No longer will the youth of Reno
county gaily pull the scalp from the
brow of the poor devourer of lambs and
llgh priced chicken fries. Even the lop-
cared hound will fail to stir from his
place under the bench by the door,
when the scent of his ancient enemy
comes drifting by on the breeze. All
will be quiet when the coyote boldly
strolls near farm houses and shifts in
terestedly at chicken yard gates Signs
may be put up welcoming the coyotes
to the place, and telling them to make
merry and feast on the fat cf the jack
rabbit. 1t is all because the board of
county commissioners. in legal meet
ing sitting, unanimously voted to re-
{ cind the long standing order on which
che dollar per scalp has long been paid
for each wolf scalp presented at the
Office of the county clerk.
Coyote Has Found a Friend.
One reason for this change of atti-
tude is that the county wishes to save
the $500 to 500 a year that has been
paid out for the last several years, for
coyotes scalps. Another reason, far
more important. is that the long de-
spised coyote has found a friend. In
fact he has found q bunch of friends.
Instead of being a hunted enemy or
mankind he is invited to become a CO.
worker with the farmer. He is invited
to make the farm his happy habitat,
and to gorge himself to his fat pleas
ure-on cotton tails and jack rabbits.
For a serious indictment has been re-
turned in the court house, against
Bunny Cottontail and Jack Rabbit
These two miscreants are said to be
multiplying and devastating the corn
fields, since the coyote nave been
tllinned out.
Commissioner NJ. F. Balm says the
rabbits destroy five acres of wheat for
him each winter. Five acres, at 30
bushels per acre. $50 bushels of wheat
$50 bushels at 81 03 per bushel, makes
$1545O. which the rabbits owe to Mr..
Balm for thinning out the wolves. Com
missioner Jim Bush. from the dells and
swelling hills of Albion township, says,
1.-The rabbits are destroying five acres
Of grain in each section of cultivated
land in Reno co'lnty. each year" Reno
has 1,200 square miles of territory
Count half of it as cultivated and you
figure 5000 acres of grain sacrificed to
and j. Rabbit. Counting the 5000 acres
Ealf wheat and half corn, at this years
yield and valuation. ana you have
about $53, 600 worth OF grain sacrificed
for the scalps of the coyotes surprised
out of the rest of their natural span
of years.
s'Thin Out the Rabbits"
And So when this array of facts
was presented, it was worse than los
ing the $4,000 which Mr.. Balm thought
he had made the county on the Hutch
ipson & Southern railway stock. Il
was such an outra geous waste of grain
resources that something had to be
done. 1t did not take seven minutes
to put that old bounty order with the
has-beens, and now the county board
would pass an order granting subsidy
to anyone who would run an incubator
for the Matching of coyotes. Thin out
the rabbits is the slogan now, and
henceforth the coyote is to be known
as the friend of man. while Bunny Cot
tontail and his uncle, Jack Rabbit, are
outlaws to be chased over hill and dale
and broken of the habit of eating five
ceres of grain from every cultivated
section of land in Reno county. Down
with the spoiler: To the dogs with all
rabbits!