Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-01-01
COON HUNTING IN KENTUCKY.
As Practiced Long Ago and is At
tempted Today.

wages of farm laberefs We're less than
they now are, there was a fair profit in
coon hunting as well as fair sport, and
nearly every "found-log', or hewn log
cabin boasted coon dog When six
bits day was the pay of strapping
farm iaborer, even in corn shucking
time, and coon pelts were worth a half
dollar, a really good coon dog could earn
more for the man who followed him than
could be earned in the field from sunup
to shutdown. 'Coons were plentiful in the
woods. A man with first-rate dog
usually cur which knew better than to
waste time jumping up rabbits, and
whose nose was set for the trailing of
"varmints' and with an ak to chop
down trees and a shotgun or cap-and-ball
rifle to use as occasion offered, was pref
ty sure to come home with more than
six bits worth of coon fur before mid
night.
Dogs trail coons more readily after a
light rain has fallen. When it is damp
in the woods and the various forest
scents mingle and form perfume mat is
grateful to the olfaetories of human be-
ings the raccoon upon his way from his
home in hollow tree to his fishing in
the shadows of the creek leaves more of
the perfume of his pads upon the fallen
leaves than is left upon dry night. And
If the clouds have blown away ana there
is a full moon the hunter is not put to
the trouble of getting the coon out of the
tree by climbing the tree or by choppinS
it down, method common enough Wien
timber was looked upon as inexhaustibie
and when axmen We're more expert than
they now are and did not look upon AK
work as intolefa able labor. Upon moen-
light nights the coon was usually dis
coverable to the hunter somewhere in
the "erotch" OF the tree or itattened out
upon the top of a large limb trying TO
hide All that was necessary was TO
walk about the tree keeping its branches
siihouted against the moon until the fur
of the coon was seen. The coarse hair
that grows longer than the soft short fur
upon the coon's back showed readily
against the moon, and sometimes the end
of a tail left hanging careIessly over a
limb would reveal the whereabouts OF
the animal whose presence was denoted
by the refusal of the dog to leave the
best until the heavy frosts have made the
raccoon put on his winter coat By that
time the leaves have fallen. leaving the
branches bare against the sky. man
accustomed to shooting squirrels from the
topmost branches Of ''shell-bark' HEX
cries with long rifle could pot coon
by moonlight by getting his fur against
the face of the moon. and hunters who
tf..,r
saved time by doing So a wild turkey
roost was sometimes found by hunter
while circiing a tree looking for coon.
Upon cloudy nights. or in the dark of
the moon, it was not worth while to car
ry a gun of any kind. The dog and the
ak constituted full equipment. The coon
freed, there was nothing to do but cut
down the tree or climb it. Cutting the
tree had one great disadvantage. An
eager dog would sometimes fail to allow
for the spread of the branches and get
killed by the falling tree. If the dogs
We're held, back, there was always the
possibility that the coon would get up
another tree before he could be caught.
And old and experienced animals some-
times managed to jump from the branch
es of a falling tree to standing one,
leaving no trail and sometimes eseap-
ing the eyes of the dogs. Climbing the
tree had also one great disadvantage.
The supposed coon sometimes turned out
to be a wildcat. 1t is safe enough to
stradde limb and make coon run out
to the end of it, where he may be shaken
into the jaws of the dogs below. But
wildcat is inclined to dispute possession
of the limb, and an enraged wildcat en-
countered in the dark by bare-handed
human opponent is somewhat more ter
rible than an army with banners. Be
cause of it's rapidity in action. the wild
cat also seems, in such situation. to be
as the sands of the sea for multitude
Old coon hunters used to tell grisly
stories of lend encounters with "eat-
amounts to which they would have been
glad to apologize in time if they had
known what manner of savage beast they
faced in the inky darkness of midnight
in the depths of the forests.
But Notwithstanding its drawbacks
coon hunting was regarded as good sport
by primitive ruralsts who had not been
lectured by the modern writers upon the
wickedness of cruelty 10 animals, and
who reished a finish fight between an Old
boar coon and a fearless dog which had
learned in a bloody school of experience
where to grip the coon and how import
ant il was to hang on. Only the dog
which has learned from trained coon
dogs how to get the death grip and hold
il is d match foe full-grown coon. And
if the coon is freed near water and can
manage to beat the dog to the creek the
inexperienced dog who plunges in and
tackles him IS pretty likely TO be drowned
by an animal who has a peculiar and
deadly knowledge of how to fight with
out swallowing water, and who he can re-
main under water for good while with
out drowning.
Nowadays coon hunting in the more
thoroughly titled sections of KENTUCKY
has become unpopular with the common
atty The game is not plentiful enough
to make the HINT profitable And really
good coon dogs-dogs that will not fol-
low the hunter instead of the trail. and
will not "lie,'' which means barking up
the wrong tree-are hard to find Coon
hunting has been tried as a diversion for
society" but as it is rough sport. pnr-
sued in the darkness and necessarily,
throuph thickets and briarS IL has never