GINSENG MARKET.

A further improvement in the ginseng market was seen in October, the demand broadening, and incuding all kinds of root except the poor grades of cultivated ginseng

The higher prices paid for wild ginseng were due in part to the small collection this season and also to the better business conditions prevailing in China.

Cultivated ginseng shared in the improved demand, although prices did not advance so strongly as on wild root.

Cultivated ginseng is quoted at $5.50 to $6.25 for best quality; $4.25 to $5.00 for good quality; $3.25 to $4.00 for fair quality and $2.00 to $3.00 for poor quality Fibre, 60 to 70 cents per pound.

QUOTATIONS-WILD GINSENG.

Can., New Eng., N. Y., No. Pa.....$10.50 to $11.50 No. O., Ind., Ill., Cent. Pa...

Mich., Ia., Minn., Wis.

9.00 to

10.00

Cent. O., Ind., Ill. and So. Pa.

BOTANICAL DRUGS.

The botanical drug market has been very active since our last report; not in a long time has such a strong demand been seen for these goods and prices have advanced accordingly. This is due in part to the short collection, prices being low during the active season for collecting botanicals and those who do this work having no trouble to find more profitable employment than gathering roots and herbs. Moreover, many articles which were formerly imported from Europe are not to be had from that source, causing a further shortage.

Prices have advanced on most articles, notably echinacea, Jamestown leaves, senega, star root and yellow dock.

On the other hand, golden seal has moved contrary to the rest of the market, declining somewhat from the high prices reached a short time ago. This condition is said to be due to a less active demand and the prospect that a large quantity of cultivated golden seal will be marketed this fall.

The fur season will soon be here and furs ought to be prime by the time the season opens, as there have been some unusually cold nights for the season of the year (10th October).

I see that some are trying to change the fur laws for the state and it looks to me as if they generally don't know much about. furs and the conditions governing them. The fur industry is quite an item in Ohio alone and they need good protection, or the crop will begin to fall off under the prevailing high prices. I favor a closed season on all furs. Make the open season begin not earlier than November 10th on all furs and close February 1st on skunk, 'coon, opossum and fox and April 1st on rats and mink. The mink law

should close with skunk, only it is very hard to trap rats without catching an occasional mink. But even if the mink were exterminated there would no doubt be enough more rats to more than offset the loss of the mink skins. The prohibiting of digging out skunk is a good thing and should be enforced.

I also see that some figure on a trapper's license; this may be alright for persons over 21; but it is hardly fair on the boys, as so many of them really haven't the money to spare and may not be able to catch enough to much more than pay their license anyway. Another thing, I believe it be alright to make it unlawful to have a green skin of any kind in possession before open season, or 15 days after the closed season.

Then I believe that another thing that will help a great deal is for anyone that knows of anyone violating the laws to report to the chief warden and let him give them a little tuning up and they need not know who reported them and thereby I believe it would do a lot of good, as they have ample warning that if it is not promptly stopped and any more cases reported, that it will be looked after and they will invariably cut it out. It is not right that some can go ahead and catch out of season and violate laws just because they are not afraid and others stand back and let them do it. All of us were created alike, so why not fare alike?

If we have the right kind of fur laws we will have a good lot of furs for years to come and to do this I think the open season I've mentioned plenty long enough and then what furs are caught are of the best and we will have the balance to raise us a larger crop for another year. I've been in the business for several years and studied it over and believe I know what I'm talking about. and it is the duty of us Ohio boys to see that we get the proper kind of laws. All that faver what I've stated, clip this out and send it to your representative, or if you have any better views, present them and let's get better fur laws and try to have furs for years to come. But the way some are now proposing to have them, it will surely dccrease the crop every year until soon it won't pay to trap. Skunk and 'coon should by no means be caught in March, as it is their breeding time and the furs are beginning to show springy and shouldn't be caught anyway. Daniel Heft. Muskingum Co., Ohio. 444

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CARE IN SETTING TRAPS. Well, boys, here comes another lonely howl from the plains. My last season's catch was 41 skunks, 6 coyotes, 2 'coons and a badger. I experienced a lot of trouble last winter with hawks. When a hawk once locates a trap, he will steal the bait every day, from that moment on, until you get him out of the way.

While I have shot them in the very act of eating the bait, I find that the easiest way to get a hawk is by catching them in the trap. After a hawk gets to bothering a trap, by setting it lightly so it will spring at the slightest touch, I generally manage to get him in a day or two.

On one occasion last fall while setting out a few traps, I noticed, on my way home, where a hawk had robbed a trap that had been set only a few hours previous. The bait was all gone and the paper was showing, in fact when a hawk gets through with a set it is generally ruined even for skunks.

It being after sundown I knew he would not bother any more that day, so I reset and baited the trap. The next morning I got a nice short stripe skunk out of this set. Removing the skunk from the trap I reset it so that it would spring at the slightest touch.

On returning a few hours later, on my way home, I found Mr. Hawk caught by both feet. It is needless to say what I did to him; any way, when he received a blow on the head from my belt axe, he never knew what hit him.

Rabbits, too, continually get into a fellow's traps. They inhabit this country by the millions. I have set traps at the entrance of holes in which I know there were from six to ten skunks, but instead of catching a skunk would catch a cotton tail rabbit. Just how this is I do not know, unless the rabbits are the last to enter the hole in the morning and the first to get out at night. In this way they could stay in the some hole, providing they don't go as far back into the hole as the skunks.

To eliminate the trouble of catching so many rabbits I set my traps, when setting by holes, about three feet from the entrance of the hole in a direction that rabbit is not likely to take.

Then again, I figured that by setting the trap a few feet from the entrance to the den of the small fur-bearing animals, and baiting it, one will have a chance of catching a stray 'coon, badger, coyote or any other fur-bearer that is too large to crawl into the hole, when, by setting the trap in the entrance of the hole I would not have that chance.

Now I am not trying to tell any of the old timers how to trap, nor anything of the sort; but was just giving a few of my experiences and views on the subject.

In setting a trap for a skunk or any other furbearer, I always make the set as neat and exact as though I were making a set for a coyote. In this way I have got a chance of catching anything that comes along, be it a rabbit or be it a coyote. While a clumsy set, made especially for skunk and not intended to catch anything else, hardly ever comes above expectations.

In using the methods just described, one needs as near an all around trap as he can get. One that will hold the smallest fur-bearer without damaging the fur and also hold the largest. All of my traps are No. 3 Victors. Coyotes are the largest animal around here and skunks are the smallest. I have yet the coyote to see that can pull out of a Victor No. 3 when securely caught; neither have I ever had one to break a skunk's leg.

Come on with your experiences, you old timers of the trap line and trail, as we all like to read them. Ernest Frank.

Randall Co., Texas.

WHAT'S IN A NAME?

There is one name in the banking business, one name in the jewelry business, one name in the mail order business, one name in the meanest of all businesses, in fact, one name in every business, which in the popular opinion is the standard for reliability. There is such a name in the RAW FUR business, too. Write to us.

J. P. GLASSER CO.

158-160 W. 27th Street, NEW YORK

REFERENCE: UNION EXCHANGE NATIONAL BANK, N. Y., COLUMBIA NATIONAL BANK, N. Y.

TRAPPING METHODS USED.

By M. E. Moreland.

EING DESIROUS of adding my mite to the new department in Fur News, "How To Catch 'Em," and having about exhausted my modus operandi in previous articles along those lines, I will outline my methods in capturing this season's catch up to date. While hundreds have no doubt employed the same methods from time immemorial, a few of the younger toe-pinchers may run up against an occasional "kink" new to him; such, for instance, as preventing squirrels, rabbits, skunks, etc., from springing coyote traps, and heading off coyotes, cats and other like furbearers from getting into wolf and bear traps.

In order to wind up this incident right here I will state that when the trap is ready for business insert a stick, somewhat smaller than a lead pencil, which has been cut about halfway through in the middle, from the base of the trap up to the pan. A sure preventative for undesirables can thus be secured.

THE MOUNTAIN LION.

In May, this year, word was brought me that the lions had killed and were still killing horses "under the rim" on La Sal Mountain. Gathering up a few hurros I packed a light camp outfit, including 10 No. 42 wolf traps, and started for Kirk's Basin. After setting up camp in the most favorable spot to ward off occasional gentle breezes which visit that locality at intervals and make a "rough house" of everything movable, uprooting majestic pines and hurling them rods in every direction, I took a stroll down the cañon upon a tour of investigation. I hadn't gone more than 300 yards from camp when I came upon a trail branching out to the left and leading up to the rimrock immediately above my camp, among a mass of huge rocks. My first impression was "wolf den," but upon closer imspection I saw that it was a lion's trail. As no precaution was necessary in this case, I stepped into the trail and followed it back a short distance and found what remained of "Sliver," a saddle pony formerly belonging to Charley Lyons, my nearest neighbor. Sliver was what in this neck-o'-the-woods is known as a "rimrocker," and greatly preferred the sunnyside of a rim, with its nutritious grasses, with a shelving rock for a lodging room, to musty alfalfa by day and a hitching post in front of the school house every Friday night, snow or shine. It was upon emerging from under, or possibly entering, one of these providential shelters that Sliver met the shock occasioned by Mr. Lion leaping from the height above.

Procuring two wolf traps I so placed them that the lion could not possibly approach his victim without "getting his foot in it," and considering the locality and tracks it became imperative to guard against coyotes, bobcats and skunks, which I did with the aid of the stick propped under the pan, which proved a blessing,

as for three nights his lionship failed to show up, while his inferior comrades had repeatedly tramped all over my traps without doing any material damage thereto.

On the fourth morning I found one trap missing. and Oh! what a scene of devastation! Piñon and cedar trees chewed off near the ground and broken into small bits; other trees climbed into and the limbs and bark all removed. When I traced him up I found him calmly drinking at the creek, and upon his spying me he gave one ferocious growl and started up hill toward me, but changed his carniverous intention upon receiving a .30-30 bullet in the forehead. Reward, $75.00.

THE BEAR.

On the 10th of June, while hunting wolf dens, I stuck my camp up near a trail made by bears en route to the La Sal Mountains and thought I'd pinch just one to hang along side the lion skin. Having no bait, I found a narrow trail under the "slick rim," so narrow in fact that cattle could not travel it. Here I planted a No. 5 Newhouse and made the opening in the trail still more narrow. The clog attached to the trap was so placed that Mr. Bruin had to step over it and the trap did the rest. I sold 400 pounds of that bear's meat to ranches for $40.00 and received $35.00 from one cattleman and $15.00 from another, besides $20.00 for the hide. Bears were so numerous here this spring that I could have caught, on a wager of $100, 10 bears in 10 consecutive nights with one trap.

WOLVES.

Wolves in this locality are becoming so numerous, the $125.00 bounty to the contrary notwithstanding, that cattlemen are becoming awakened to the fact that the Jackson Hole cattle rustlers of bygone days were small potatoes and few in the hill at that compared to what the wolves are holding up their sleeves for future reference.

Last October I counted 12 in one bunch. It goes without comment that my rifle was in camp. It don't take any pumpkin head over an hour to figure accurately that there was a right smart increase during the past year. And yet, with the hundreds of trappers Colorado boasts of, none seem to think the game worth the candle. Did I say none? I'd almost forgotten Uncle Sam! Yes, the government is on the job, and through its agent the Biological Survey Service, is placing trappers at a salary of from $75.00 to $100.00 per month for a starter, and a very nice little enticer in the shape of $5.00 per month advance in case you can bring home the salt pork!

How To CATCH 'EM.

If you find a wolf's toe, or possibly two toes, in your No. 3 "See the V," don't blame the man who sold you the animal scent. Any trap under a No. 41⁄2 Newhouse is about as uncertain as the direction a bird will fly when about to leave the fence.

These wolf traps are each provided with a six

foot chain, with a two-pronged drag. Make the hole large enough to accommodate the trap and then dig out enough more from the centre to hold the drag. Place the drag through the chain, and, lastly, the trap in the hole; then cover with a sheet of paper Sprinkle lightly with dirt and a few sage leaves, if sage brush is indigenous to the locality. If not, be sure to have the same grade of dirt or sand over trap as that surrounding it. Place a small stick or brush on the spring from the direction you expect Mr. Lobo to approach. If you can swear, from appearances, that there is a trap there after you get through, your work has been in vain. For the wolf's eye can see things blinded where a microscope would reveal nothing to you.

The above set applies solely to the blind trail set. The only other dependable set is the scent or lure, which I successfully use as follows: Select a trail or runway passing through timber, if possible. At the foot of a tree and about eight inches from the trail place the trap as indicated above. Sprinkle the scent on the tree over the trap about eight inches from the ground. You understand what the result will be. I caught two wolves in August last by this latter method, but I make my own animal scent.

COYOTES.

In trapping this predatory scamp the same methods work like warm butter on hotcakes. During this August I trapped 16 of these animals for a $10.00 reward each from three different sheep outfits.

Where practical I make a drag, using the carcass of a sheep which I tow along behind me, obliterating my own signs and scent. This drag I "jump" or lift over trail sets previously made and keep on going to the next, finally setting a trap or two between brush surrounding the carcass. I also use a liquid poison of my own manufacture, which invariably kills on the spot. Mesa County, Colorado.

44 4

MINNESOTA TRAPPING.

Furs are rather scarce around here, a few minks and skunks. Weasel and rats are the only ones that seem to hold their own. I did pretty good last fall. I caught one red fox, one mink, 30 rats, 10 weasels and 10 civets.

I'll try and write of a few happenings along the trap line. I was trapping for rats along the old swamp creek. I had pretty good luck along this creek, as it was an ideal place for rats. One morning as I was walking along I noticed some mink signs along the north shore, right near a big bunch of willows. That's funny, thought I to myself, as there hadn't been a mink along here for two years. Well, I walked up the creek a little further and I saw some traps set there for Mr. Mink. I thought I would make a bid for that mink pelt anyway, so I set a few traps along the creek. I then walked up a little further. Here was a little spring running into that old swamp creek. It started right near an old willow and it was just the right width for a trap. So I set two more there. Then I started for home wishing it only was morning so I could visit those traps.

The next morning I was there bright and early. But the mink was still a free animal. Only caught a rat that morning in that little spring. I had a few more traps about five miles west of swamp creek. So I made a bee-line for them. Only two rats here. Well, thinks I, that is pretty fair for the last day of 1915.

New Year's morning was a drizzly day, just right for the trapper. I started out and was about halfway when it started to rain. I sure did get wet. I had looked at all the traps except those two in the little spring. Good luck Spring is the name I gave it after awhile. I looked around the willow and sure enough there sat the mink, caught by the two front toes. It was a big dog mink, the largest I ever caught. It sure was a good starter for the New Year. Nobles County, Minnesota. Bearcat Bill.