The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1918-01-04
Talk 0f the To,s,n
Eats oaehshundsar
on Msatlsss Day.

| eass Oachoh0ndoAr
On Msatlsss Day.
Rex is q brtndle fox terrier that
promenades the streets Of Nissoula.
Nouns Tuesday that meatless din
ners were called for on the mern
cards ne carefully buried a bone For
Wednesday and contented himself ,with
dog biscuit. 49,"
a pro-German daschund. iiyin~ a
| ways down the street from his ham
| WICK, wandered into the vari sim.
| rex was asleep and attempted "a me-
ION the treasure. He was discnvereN
at the atrocity and a fight ens,aa
more desperate than any single hand.
.o-nand encounter ever pulled Off n
european trench warfare. Mr.. Dachs
.,naiiy was disposed Of to the satisfac-
tlon OF his Yankee antagonist. losing N
| ear and his appetite as well.
The bone was re.buried ana NJ.
| soula again made safe for aor,oo-.s
and ham bones on Tuesday.
Snakes, Hawks, Owls
Help Uncle Sam.
a Kansas farmer recently printed
IN the Abilene Register, that state the
1olowing advertisement:
Notice. have put a bull snail. !.
my alfalfa field north of town "a. catc,,
the gophers. Please do not bother h,r,
or shoot at him, az he IL a rood ,.,.,,-
behaved snake and harmless ercant -
gophers and MICE"
Whereupon eastern newspapers
clipped 1t as a piece Of humor.
But there Is very definite food.
saving idea here. All over the conn.
try we have harmless snakes. capable
OF rendering the utmost service pro-
vided they are left alone. But even
country people find it difficult to let
harmless snakes follow, unmolested. n
snakes legitimate business,
There IL a certain big black snake
throughout the east common in fields
and around farmhouses. He Il not
only harmless but whenever one sees
him about the premises he In diligently
at work catching mice or cleaning up
refuse. But he looks deadly enough to
the inexperienced eye, and. moreover.
mas an unfortunate curiosity. When
he hears horse coming down a field
row hitched to a cultivator. guided by
a boy, his natural desire to know what
Is coming leads him to raise a quarter
of his length from the ground and
take look, and nine times in ten the
boy stops the horse and vjrtuously
slaughters Mr.. Snake, thus killing q
mouser capable Of catching more ro-
dents than any tabby cat.
1t is the same with hawks and owls.
The owner Of a flock of hens sees an
enormous hawk sailing over the barn
yard and brings it down with a rifle,
believing that he has destroyed an
enemy. But only two varieties OF
hawks in this country prey upon hens
and neither Of them sails over tbs
barnyard in that manner. for thsic
line OF attack Is stealthy. through
trees and brush.
Likewise, with owls which are moro
persistent destroyers of small animals
harmful to crops and food stuffs.
There was a campaigns Of owl .4aA
hawk killing throughou0soN NnsDmUs
years ago which went far to upset
the balance Of nature locally and bring
on a perfect plague Of mice. When
disease reduced the number Of coyotes
in the northwest some years ago, the
farmers JOY at what they considered
relief from a pest was soon turned
into alarm, as a plague OF jack rabbits
and gophers followed. the chief food
Of the coyote.
In the conservation Of food we need
these helpers, not merely In war. but
permanently, in the production and
Of food.