Chapter 5 WORK AND PLAY WITH TRAINED ANIMALS

DAIRY COWS

If the boys and girls of the farms are looking about for a big thing to do, the very best place for them to look is at their father's herd of cows. Even if it isn't a strictly dairy herd it is kept partly for dairy purposes. Every cow demands stabling, pasture, feed, and attention. She is supposed to give value received for all this. But how many cow owners know which cows pay their board with a bonus, which barely keep even, and which are eating their heads off? The margin of profit when feed is high is too small to risk feeding an unproductive animal.

If your father has not been in the habit of keeping accounts with his cows, you can make him open his eyes. You do not need ledgers and daybooks for your simple statement of facts. Bring every animal face to face with her record. On one side of the account put the cost of what you give each cow. On the other side what she gives in return. You will have a page like this:

Roberta Grade Holstein 5 years

DEBIT

To feed (at prices you would have to pay if you bought it) $

To stabling, estimate $

To care (so much an hour) $

CREDIT

To milk, so many qts. at so much $

To calf $

To compost $

You will have to reduce the item "feed" to many items, and remember that hay produced at home is not free hay. It is worth to feed to Roberta just what you would have to pay wholesale for it if you had to go to the feed store, minus the cost of cartage. To work this out is good arithmetic, better than covering acres of blackboard space with examples in "partial payments." Now Roberta may give a good quantity of milk but of poor quality. At first you might think that didn't matter; it brings just as much a quart. But does it, when your mother and sisters make it into butter, for example? Or, if you sell cream, wouldn't you want a cow whose milk tested high in butter fat? Your customers would, whether they bought milk or cream, I know.

Photograph by Julian A. Dimock

Holding a Conversation

The boys and girls in many of the great dairying states, notably Illinois and Wisconsin and New York, are learning in school how to test milk for the butter fat it contains and the chances are that every agricultural college in the United States is ready to instruct boys and girls by letter in this important part of dairying. Many of them send out printed lessons giving careful directions about using the Babcock testing apparatus, and I have seen a class of boys and girls in a country school testing milk from their fathers' cows.

It is astonishing how many cows are kept on farms purely for ornament-or maybe to give the boys plenty of chores. These cows consume as much food as good ones, but they are idlers. It isn't their fault but the farmer's. Can your father or you afford to keep money invested in any cow that returns him less than a dollar a year over and above the expense of feed? A good cow may cost twice as much to buy, but a good cow will make thirty or forty dollars a year clear gain. These figures are not guess-work but facts.

So I say again to the farm boy and girl-if you want to do a big thing for your home place and for the neighbourhood, reform the dairy herd. Keep a record for every cow. Weigh the milk of each one separately every day for a week, then again two months later, and so on through her milking days. Take an average of all these weights as the weekly weight of milk and multiply by the number of weeks the cow gave milk. This will give the total number of pounds produced. Learn how to test for butter fat. Your neighbourhood creamery tests the milk with a Babcock test and you can learn how. Persuade your father to sell all the cows which fall below a fair standard and buy good ones. Test the milk of the cows he thinks of buying. A poor cow often looks as well as a good one. The Illinois Experiment Station shows by tests that twenty-five of the best cows in the state produce as much butter fat as ten hundred and twenty-one of the poorest cows, while eating only one fortieth as much food, to say nothing of the stable room, the time spent in milking, etc. And a quarter of the million cows in the state of Illinois are making their owners only seventy-seven cents a year apiece. Can your father afford to keep that kind of a cow?

CLEAN HOME MILK

I know what milking is on the farm. Take it on a frosty October morning about sun-up, when you make the cow get up from her bed so that you can stand in the "warm spot" to warm your feet. It gets no better from that time on, even if you do milk in the cow stable. But the boys that do the milking do not realize how perfectly filthy the milk often is when it gets to the house.

Take a milk pail from the shelf, go down to the cow barn. There is the cow. Throw her down an armful of hay to chew on while you milk, brush off the stool, rub off the cow's bag with a wisp of hay if she is especially dirty, never mind your hands or the open pail, throw a stream of milk onto each palm and begin. Is there a little hay and dust in the pail? Never mind; it will strain out. When you get through, set the pail down while you drive the cows out to pasture. To be sure, they will raise a lot of cow-stable dust and the smell is pretty bad in there, but if you set it outside the pigs would get into it. It is nearly school time and you have other chores to do. Take it to the house and strain it. Mother always doubles the strainer cloth, but it takes an awful time for it to run through that way. There, you said the dirt would strain out, and look at it there in the cloth!

This is a cold-hearted picture of one of the chores the farm boy particularly hates. Compare each item with your own methods and improve on each. Home milk is not always clean milk.

Sanitary milk pail

The boy that milks ought to do a better job than this. He ought to bring clean milk into the house. How shall he do it? A clean place to milk, a clean cow, a clean boy, and a sanitary milk pail; these four things are within the reach of every farm that can afford a cow.

I have seen a good many patent milk pails, mostly in stores, seldom on farms. The sanitary milk pails keep the dirt out, they don't strain it out. Here is one described by the man who invented it for his own use. This pail is tin, holds ten quarts or so. On one side is a spout two and a half inches in diameter and three inches long. The spout has a tin cover like a baking powder can cover. To keep the dirt out of the top of the pail the man bought a tin pan, just the size to fit tight into the top of the pail. Just above the bottom of the pan on one side he had a tinner cut eight or ten small holes, like a collander. Scald the pail, double the strainer cloth and lay it across the top of the pail. Press the pan down on the cloth till it goes down into the pail tight, taking care that the edge of the cloth comes up all round. Do all this at the house. With this pail, a clean milker can milk a clean cow in a sweet smelling place, and get clean milk. This may look like a pound of prevention, but think of the tons of cure it will save.

MARKETING MILK

There are lots of boys delivering milk in towns and cities. Most of them do their part well. But I believe they would like to do it better. Driving from one house to another is pretty dull business for a live boy and unless he has something to think about his mind wanders. Why not put some thought on the very business he is engaged in? Does he know what milk is? That children's lives depend upon the care he gives it? Does he know that dirt in ice and dust from streets may be deadly if they get into milk? If dust gets into that little puddle that ought not to be on top of the bottles does he wipe it off with a dirty rag, ignorant of the danger? If he thought of these things and studied out ingenious ways of keeping his bottles free from dust, life would no longer be dull but interesting. He would be well started toward good citizenship.

TRAINING PET ANIMALS

Trained pets have a greater market value than those which have no education. Parrots, for example, with nothing but their native harsh squawk, can be bought for very little. But every word added to Polly's vocabulary can be expressed in dimes added to her price. There are very few domesticated or tamed animals so lacking in wit that they cannot be taught. But it takes a particular kind of patience and persistence.

Some animals learn very quickly; mice for instance. One trainer has taught them to walk the tight rope, climb ladders, swing in a trapeze, pull tiny wagons, and do other little tricks.

We have all seen trained animals in shows and have marvelled at them. It is hard to believe that they are real. It takes genius to train fleas, for example, or geese, yet these animals are tamed. Every boy has a little spark of such genius and with use the spark would grow.

Dogs are about the easiest animals to train. Teach a dog first to obey. He must learn to understand just as a baby does. How long does it take a baby to learn what "no, no" means? A bright dog will learn to "charge" about as quickly. When he knows what you mean and that you really do mean it and are not fooling, he will suit the action to the word or signal. A little training every day will do the business. Rewards in the form of food or caresses appeal to the dog's understanding. Never forget to give the reward. You may sometimes have to punish a dog, but you should be careful to make certain that he associates the punishment with the crime. Whipping a dog to "get even" with him is not the way to make him a good dog. He may take his chance to "get even" some day. Do you blame him?

Most children expect a dog to learn too fast. For instance, a boy wants his dog to draw a wagon or sled. The dog is big and strong and there are leaves to be gathered or kindling to be brought in. Don't make a harness, force it onto the dog, hitch him up regardless of his protests, and expect him to trot off like a pony. Ponies are trained to the feel of the harness from their youth up. Your dog will rebel, not angrily, but none the less emphatically. He will lie down or slip the harness or otherwise rid himself of the burden. Or he will balk. Train him gradually, just as you would a colt or calf. He will learn faster than either.

Dogs are sometimes trained to carry baskets or bundles and can even be trusted to go on errands alone, if, by going over the same route daily, their minds are impressed sufficiently.

Training a dog should begin in puppyhood. Make commands in single words and accompany the word with a sign. Use always the same easily interpreted sign with the command word. Teach him his name first, then to come when called. After these commands are thoroughly learned, teach him to come "to heel," "charge," and similar commands. A poor teacher will make a poor dog, so teach yourself patience. Your voice should be firm but never loud or high-pitched.

A young dog will learn to herd cattle, sheep, or goats more easily from an old dog than from you. He will follow his leader at first, then later he can go on ahead driving the herd on his own responsibility or in obedience to a command.

Photograph by George G. McLean

Gyp Has An Ax to Grind

Did you try to teach your dog to retrieve by ducking him? How silly! How soon would you learn to swim by that method? Begin by letting him think he is bringing you his play-ball, although really you are pulling it by an attached string. Insist on his giving up the ball every time. Do it again and again till he is out of the primer class. Throw the ball a few feet at first, then farther and farther away till he has that trick "down fine."

When the water is well warmed by the spring sunshine, take him to the shore and repeat the same lessons patiently, a little each day. If you have an old retriever with you the youngster will be ambitious to "go him one better" and will learn more quickly.

It is necessary in training dogs to consider the inborn instincts of the breed. A terrier is a "nat'ral ratter" and needs little training for that, but you would have to train a long time to get a spaniel to catch rats.

A dog on the farm can be trained to save the boys a lot of steps. We had a shepherd dog once which was a famous runner. When my father suspected that the cattle were breaking into the cornfield, he would go first to the top of the knoll by the house, hold Nimp up in his arms, point in the direction of the cows. Nimp would whimper and squirm and when let down was off like a streak of brown lightning. He would not go in a bee-line, but followed first the road, then the line fence to where the marauding cattle were at work. By the time my father or one of the boys on horseback reached the break in the fence the fleet-footed dog would be hustling those cows. If he didn't actually get them back into pasture he kept them moving so that they got no more green corn than was good for them. "Good old dog" was all Nimp expected for little deeds of kindness like this. He wagged his head, hung out his long pink tongue, and almost smiled with satisfaction. There was no doubt that he was pleased with having outwitted the cows, for which he had small respect.

Teaching a collie to herd sheep or goats is a special sort of business; experienced shepherds can teach you how it is done. Training hunting dogs is also a work for experts. Anybody knows that a poorly trained dog makes the difference between real sport and disgusting failure. A young man with a real aptitude for training dogs for various forms of hunting can find opportunities to turn this genius into cash.

TRAINING YOUNG HORSES

"Breaking colts" is a phrase handed down to us, I think, from the days way back when our pioneer ancestors used to go out and catch a wild horse and break it to saddle and harness. On ranches where colts range over vast areas and never get acquainted with human beings except at branding time, it is little wonder that they must be broken. They do a little breaking on their own account, too. But on the small farm where three or four colts a year or fewer are raised, no colt should need to be "broken." All should be trained, which is one way of saying taught or educated.

Everything depends upon the colt's learning each thing right first. If you put an old, worn strap on him, or a fraying rope which he can break, he will just as likely as not become a halter and bridle breaker.

A little colt starts out without any habits. All the bad ones as well as all the good ones are learned. Every bad habit harks right back to some mistake. You can manufacture balky horses by overloading a wagon for your team of colts. I have seen boys tease a colt "just to see him kick." That strikes me as lacking in "horse sense."

Every time you go out with your father to visit the two-year-olds and the yearlings, be sure that you pet and caress them. Don't attempt to mount one till you have accustomed him to the feel of a burden on his back, a very small weight first, then the saddle of an old harness, then a very light saddle. Don't act as if you were in desperate need of a saddle horse. His training cannot all be done in one visit. A yearling must be taught to lead, then to be driven.

After a two-year old has been accustomed to the feel of a harness, one part at a time, he can safely be hitched with some old stager to a light wagon, and taught what pulling means. He should already know that a pull on the right rein means "gee" and on the left means "haw"; never give the command "whoa" to a colt, unless you have the muscle to make your command good. A runaway may not break any harness, nor any vehicle, nor any bones, this time, but a runaway horse is an ill-trained horse.

It is almost an impossible thing to train an old, high-spirited horse to regard an automobile or a trolley car with anything but disfavour. A young horse can learn easily. Soon after a colt is well "halter-broke" he should be led around where the farm machinery is at work. He must be held with a strong hand and not be allowed to bolt when the mowing machine starts. Break the automobile to him gently. Lead him up to a quiet one. Have a bit of his favourite dainty to offer him from the seat and see to it that he is convinced that the automobile is harmless. (Would that it were true!) Speak reassuringly to him. If he jerks back, don't get mad and whack him, just to vent your impatience. He will associate your whack with the automobile, and you will have your work to do over again. I have known of a colt being made "trolley-wise" in an hour and he never has forgotten; he would no more shy when one whirls by than he would at his own mother hitched to a load of hay.

TREADMILLS AND CRANKS

How a boy does hate the sight of a crank. Turning the grindstone, running the washing machine and churning are part of a country boy's daily life. He may do these things cheerfully, because he knows they are boys' jobs or because he hates to see his mother doing them even worse than he hates doing them himself. But that doesn't prove that the boy's tastes run to crank turning.

Why not train a dog or a sheep to turn the crank? That's a scheme. It's fun to train an animal and then it will be more fun to see him do the work while you read a book and watch him.

Here is a picture of a big wheel from which a belt runs to a grindstone out under a tree. In the wheel stands a good dog; by his bright eyes, his erect carriage, and the "near-smile" on his face, you can see that he is no brow-beaten labourer. A man at the grindstone holds the axe and the wheel is ready to turn. This fine dog knows that a certain signal means work. He does not skulk off and hide, nor yawn and look limp. He steps up into the wheel, waits for the signal, then begins a steady tread. On Mondays he does the washing, on Tuesdays and Fridays he churns, on other days he helps grind the axe, the sickle, the scythe, or the butcher knife. When the job is done, at a well-known signal, the dog stops, steps off the wheel, and waits for the kindly pat of his mistress or the "Good old fellow" of his master.

MAKING ANIMALS HAPPY

In training any domestic animal you will find their greatest weakness is fear, just as with wild animals. You do not want to develop this but to win their confidence. With horses taken right from the range or wild, the men who are most successful are those who train by kindness. A horse whose spirit is broken and who does his task because he is afraid not to is not a safe horse. I wouldn't trust him in an emergency. A horse who lives in a state of fear has very little sense.

Photograph by Julian A. Dimock

A Group of Happy Farm Animals

One blow, yell, jerk, or even a threatening motion will often obliterate all the work you have done. So the animal trainer must not lose his temper, especially with dogs and horses. The more intelligent the animal, the more kindness and gentleness are required. On one farm, you will see the calves trembling when coming for their food, trying to keep one eye out for sudden blows while drinking; the horses jerking timidly up as if expecting their tender mouths to be yanked; the cows kicking the milkers; the colts hard to toll in from pastures; the dog with tail between his legs; the cat on her way up a tree. Do you know the owners of such animals? How are the boys of the family liked in the neighbourhood? Are the girls popular and good-natured? Has the mother the sweet and patient look that the best mothers have?

Every domestic animal ought to be kept happy. A happy hen will lay eggs, a happy cat will purr and rub your leg in passing, not because she wants anything out of you, but because she thinks you are a good fellow and that's her way of expressing herself; she will catch mice for you, too. A happy cow will give down her milk; a happy pig will lay on fat faster than a miserable one, a happy horse will almost trot at the plough. So really it pays to keep animals happy. Having creature comforts alone is not enough for most animals. They like attention, caresses, and even seem to enjoy and understand conversation.

Boys that train animals will find that the animals train them. If you have a hot temper and can keep it in enough to train a dog to draw a wagon, you will find it isn't so hard to hold in when you are playing ball. Self-control is one of the biggest things in life.

The training of a calf or colt should begin early, just as with other animals. If the animal has never been frightened the task is easy. Begin gradually. Petting for a day or two will get him used to being handled. A rope may be knotted round his neck and worn for a day or two, or a rope halter put over the head; something that slips on easily so that you don't have to hold the youngster's head. When he is accustomed to the feel of the halter, you can lead him to his food without his realizing it. Unconsciously he gets used to the pull on the rope.

A pair of well-matched oxen, trained by kindness, taught to "gee" and "haw" at the word without reins or goad, with no bad habits like kicking or turning in the yoke, are worth between two and three hundred dollars. They started out worth four or five dollars a head for veal. Training and grass have done most of the rest. If trained in kindness, they are docile, gentle, industrious, and though less spirited than horses, they are also steadier and far better suited to many heavy farm tasks than horses. The harness for oxen is very simple, costs little, and seldom needs mending.

Every county fair ought to offer prizes for animals trained by boys and girls. I believe boys train animals more often than girls do. I wonder how that comes. Practise on the hens, girls, and on the cat. I know of a cat which picks up nuts and puts them in a basket quite as a child might. This cat treads a wheel, too, to turn the churn.

If all the animals were happy and earned their living, helping do the work, as well as reproducing their kind, farm life would be less dreary and hardships would seem less hard and the country would be a better place to live in.

TAMING WILD ANIMALS

All little children are interested in animals. It does not take much argument to convince a boy that he needs a dog or the girl that she needs a canary bird. If, as they grow older, they seem to lose their pleasure in the companionship of animals, it means that something is wrong. Probably home conditions are such that an intimate acquaintance with any animal is inconvenient or else some unnatural lessons in natural history have been forced upon the children at school and their interest in the real things has been deadened. I have heard many boys and girls say that they dislike zo?logy. Take these same boys and girls out on an excursion, with an opera glass or with an insect net, or show them a rabbit's tracks in the new snow, and who will say they are not awake and interested?

The first thing you want to know about an animal is its name. The same is true of a new neighbour or a new schoolmate. The name does not tell you much about the animal or the boy. When you know them better you will give them names that fit. The new boy's name may be Reginald. When the boys get to know him they may call him "Piggy," or "Chief," depending on what kind of a boy he is. But a name is a great convenience.

Next after the name you want to know where he lives, how he lives, and above all what he can do. After all "what he can do" is the boy, and the same is true of other animals.

How are boys and girls going to find out what animals can do, how they live, how they make a living?

The good old natural way to find out what an animal can do and will do is to catch him and watch him. Some small neighbours of mine did not catch grasshoppers and throw them into the water because they were cruel, although their mother berated them for cruelty. They wanted to find out whether grasshoppers could swim or not. The boys who catch squirrels and rabbits and birds and put them in cages want to take care of them and teach them tricks.

But, seeing the wild ones unhappy and drooping, most boys will voluntarily let them go. There is no good word to be said for the practice of caging wild creatures merely for the entertainment their misery will afford an irresponsible and curious crowd. I am glad to know that those horrid whirling cages in which squirrels used to be shut have become less common.

In these days of hunting without guns, there is also a good deal of taming without cages. This is the real thing, and has everything in its favour. There are two sides to it. From the animal's side the tamed one has nothing to lose. He, and for his sake, all his fellows, receive protection, consideration, care. If he tells any secrets, his confidence is not betrayed to the enemy. He comes and goes at will and pays his debts by keeping true that balance which existed in nature before mankind upset it. From the human side taming wild things is a delightful though not an easy way to learn to be patient, persevering, and gentle. You simply have to practise these virtues or you will fail. Furthermore, the domestication of wild animals useful to man results in very great practical value. From the naturalist's point of view, this is a most fruitful method of discovering the true habits of the wild creatures, about which so much is yet to be learned.

Most efforts to tame full-grown animals result in complete failure. Taken when young, almost any of them can be tamed.

No one ought ever to have a pet of any kind unless he sees one thing clearly: Forcing his pet to become dependent upon his protection and care involves a real responsibility. When I consider the number of cases of neglected pets I am inclined to discourage children from keeping them. It is a very good method of developing responsibility, but, if the method fails, the innocent pet suffers. The uncaged pet has an advantage over the caged one in that he can, if neglected, return to the wild and shift for himself.

BIRDS

A great many famous people have made friends with our native birds. John Burroughs could depend on an audience of robins to perch on his knee. They would listen politely while he remonstrated with them for stealing his grapes, well assured that the next forkful of earth he turned would yield worms enough to repay them for waiting. It is not uncommon to see photographs of birds perching on the hands of children or grown people. One noted naturalist is pictured with a piece of bread in his mouth, out of which a bird is taking a bite. To really tame a full-grown bird is practically impossible. To gain its confidence is difficult. It means that the person has never in its presence made a motion sufficiently sudden to startle the timid creature nor lost his patience or self-control once during many trials. A bird is not tamed in an hour nor a day. A quick wave of the arm or a sharp noise is enough to undo all that has been accomplished in long, patient hours spent in establishing friendly relations. The photographs are records of triumphs.

Professor Hodge encourages the taming of young birds in the interest of increasing our valuable bird life. He says: "It is a rare lesson in gentleness to capture a young bird without frightening it, but, if successfully done, your bird is practically tame. If even a young bird is caught after a severe chase, it is likely to be days, weeks, and even months, before the effects of its fright can be obliterated. If they can be picked up without frightening them, they will often immediately perch on the finger and feed from the hand. I have tested this with young vireos, chipping sparrows, orioles, grackles, and repeatedly with young robins, which some even put down in their books as untamable. Think what a monster the open hand must seem to a bird!"

Those of you who have read Mrs. Stratton-Porter's story of Freckles will remember how he tamed the wild birds. They were residents of the great primeval woodland and had not learned yet from sad experience to hide from men. They swarmed about the gentle Irish lad because he had made himself a part of the forest. To them he was like some new kind of beneficent tree, yielding nuts for the nut-eaters, grain for the grain-eaters, and bits of suet or scraps of meat for all who came for it. He called them all, "Me chickens." Was there anything wonderful in this? Yes; so thought the Scotch woodsman with whom Freckles lived. And no, because anybody can do the same who will follow the same tactics. If you read on in the story, you will readily believe that his relations with the birds and the forest helped make Freckles the lovable boy and the fine, sweet-natured man he grew up to be.

How to do something toward domesticating wild birds in order to make the country a better place to live in is treated more fully in a later chapter.

Humming-birds are said to be entirely without fear if tamed when nestlings. They sometimes fall from the nest and are, of course, helpless so far as feeding themselves is concerned. They will take sweetened water from a spoon, but should not be expected to thrive on this diet alone. Their natural food while growing, and probably afterward, too, is largely insects. A supply of these should be given the young birds. They become very tame and perch on the hand and on the flowers in vases. They will visit your best hat, too, if it has flowers on it, and will even try to collect nectar from the flowers on wall-paper or curtains.

TOADS AND THEIR KIN

One is really surprised at the long list of wild animals that have been successfully tamed. That is, they are sufficiently tame to come to the tamer, eat from his hand, nestle in his pocket, follow him about-in short, to show perfect confidence and little or no fear.

The toad for example, "ugly and venomous," (we have Shakespeare's word for that, but he was mistaken)-, a very useful animal and absolutely without disagreeable traits. It has been carefully estimated that every toad is worth twenty dollars to the garden he lives in. Yet how seldom one hears of a tame toad. At best they are tolerated, but not often encouraged by protection or by a little attention. To tame a toad, one only needs to feed him. Frogs, salamanders, newts, snakes, turtles, and fish have all been tamed in the same fashion. As nearly all are insect eaters, we are benefiting mankind when we encourage them.

Photograph by Charles W. Miller

The Crow May Be Tamed When Young

Photograph by Chester K. Reed

The Skunk is an Amiable and Well-Mannered Pet

SQUIRRELS

Tame squirrels are amusing. It takes very little encouragement to make them tame enough to eat from the hand and even to rummage the pockets for nuts. I remember a case when the red squirrels made so free with the books in a great man's study that he became positively annoyed, although he had himself encouraged them and had enjoyed their friendliness and tameness. The case got so bad that he was forced either to vacate or to get rid of the squirrels. He finally had a trap set. The first squirrel that came in ran straight into the trap. The great man had really not counted on any such circumstance. He was nonplussed. In all his diplomatic career no such a situation had arisen. He gave the matter earnest thought. He considered all the pros and cons. He weighed all the evidence. The squirrel was guilty!

When asked by a friend what penalty he pronounced, the great man replied: "I read him such a lecture as he will never forget-and turned him loose!"

The relations of the red squirrel with the birds are such that we are pretty sure they should be discouraged. They are, alas! egg-suckers and nest-robbers. The gray squirrel has not been caught in this nefarious occupation. If plenty of nuts, fruit, and water were supplied for red squirrels, maybe they could be cured of their bad habits.

The flying squirrel is to me the most beautiful member of his family. He is said to tame easily, but I remember the only pair we ever caught were shut in a convenient closet "till morning." When morning came there were only a little pile of gnawings and a hole under the door to tell the story. They had flown, nor could I blame them.

RACCOONS, WOODCHUCKS, AND SKUNKS

A raccoon is a most satisfactory pet and will afford about as much amusement in the back yard as a cage of monkeys. Raccoons are more numerous, especially in New England, than formerly. They are extremely fond of green corn, but corn in any form is eaten greedily. Also, I regret to say, they are nest-robbers. In fact, they will eat fish, flesh, and fowl, as well as vegetables and insects. This makes the food problem for a pet 'coon a very simple one. But we can not afford to encourage them, because of their bird-eating habits.

Sometimes a hunter finds a suckling 'coon in the woods. He cannot let the helpless thing starve, as it certainly would if left. When he gets it home, he will realize that its natural food is 'coon's milk. Some bright member of the family will suggest that a bottle of cow's milk with rubber nipple will do the trick. Having no such convenience as a rubber nipple, we once successfully brought up a baby pig on a bottle. We took a goose quill and wrapped it with a strip of clean old cotton cloth till we made a stopper for the bottle. This was fine, and I can recommend it for suckling lambs, pigs, fawns, 'coons, and other young mammals. There are well-authenticated stories of baby 'coons being adopted by cats whose young have been "disposed of."

Photograph by E. S. Kane

A Bottle Baby

A 'coon is a most mischievous creature, and if you tame one you should really not expect your mother to feel all the enthusiasm you do about him, for his mischief is sometimes exasperating. An animal enclosure in the back yard may be necessary, but that means more work for you to keep the 'coon and his mates happy.

Tame woodchucks are said by experienced boys to be a great success. Young ones are easy to capture, for they are not allowed to "hang around" the home nest after the parents decide that they are big enough to earn their own way. In "American Animals" there is a good story of a tame 'chuck for which the author traded an old fish line with a broken hook and thirteen cents "to boot." This little chap was brought up by hand and developed most interesting traits. He made life miserable for the family tabbies by nipping their heels, and he tunnelled under the door step till he made the earth cave in. A wild woodchuck will show fight when in danger of capture, but the tamed ones are not vicious.

The last creature I should ever think of becoming familiar with is the skunk. Yet I have a photograph of a lady feeding a full-sized one from her hand. The account that went with the picture said that this skunk was in "perfectly good working order," too. Several naturalists have tamed these little animals, and there is no doubt that they make amusing and well-behaved pets.

Prairie dogs, chipmunks, badgers, fawns, 'possums, crows, and many other native wild animals have been successfully tamed. You may have read of "Red" Saunders's pets, the bob-cat, the snake, and Judge, the hawk. Whether you would call them tame or not depends. They certainly had "wild, wild ways," though they frequented the kitchen and slept under the stove, one at a time. The same methods must be employed, no matter what the creature is. Gentleness, patience, and common sense will succeed almost every time with young animals.

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