Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-05-11
THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE Friends and Enemies
By Frederi j. HaSkin.

sive campaign of coyote determination control the
the jack rabbits have Increased 10
point where serious to crops, and IL -
necessary to start a the jack rabbits Dy
means of poison. There is question, however that
predatory wild animals do vastly more harm than
form, in fact of the leading sources Oh
loss to the western stock grower
There are some sections southwest where it Is
possible horses bece6se of the ravages OF
mountain lions. Gray wolves do great damage TO
cattle In glass case at the headquarters
biological survey there is kept the skull OF an
old gray wolf which ate $4,000 worth OF cattle before
he was trapped This wolf had only two toes
forefoot it possible to recognize his work by
the around each kill. There are doubtless
numerous other wolves the range whose meat bills
run as high.
The western states have fighting the predatory
animals without success for many years. Most of the
has done the bounty system. which offers
reward for the scalp of each wolf coyote In some
system in operation for twenty-five
years relative losses today greater than
they were in the beginning. In the last year the
biological has started work new co-opera-
tive method which promises to solve the problem The
system calls for the trapping and poisoning OF
animals by salaried hunters using the best meth
DDS, and doing away with the bounty system
The great drawback to the bounty system is the
fact that trapper living from the wild
animals, if kills them destroys his source
profit. Also kill the greatest possible
number of animals in the least possible time So he
against the young and unsophisticated animals
which probably kill many cattle anyway, and
the old and wary cattle killers alone because 1t
much time and trouble to catch them. These
animals bring forth filters of young each
and thus furnish trapper with fresh sources of
bounty season after season As official of the sur
vey puts it, it is like stock raising than animal
killing.
The survey has divided the twelve big western
stocrasing nine districts each under the
supervision OF inspector and worked by salaried
trappers, who draw bounty money and who are
judged solely by the results they get The catching
of one wise old wolf may harder job. and worth
more to the cattle trapping Of dozen
young and the inspector in charge knows It, and
gives accordingly Wherever possible the states
are being induced to revoke their bounty laws and
appropriation TO cooperate with the survey
instead. Three states already working this
system, and others expected to follow shortly. In
Montana in the last I'VE 100000 has been spent
the old system, and the losses big as ever
Dr. Fisher. who charge of the wild animal work
for survey the Montana sockmen that If the
survey had that amount of TO spend in five years
guarantee kill out all the wolves and most
of the coyotes. to be only matter of time
survey plan will be adopted all through the
west promises to solve the problem
The larger predatory animals only side of the
question OF animal control Prairie dogs and ground
SQUIRRELS hundreds of thousands of dollars of dam
age to crops every year The has worked out
of poisoning them at cost of cents acre.
destroying such species the gophers and
and the land crabs have been developed
The survey working toward that balance of nature
man; but of the most effective methods and the
one that calls for nationwide cooperation is the
preservation of the species that the species
that do the damage