TRAPPING MINK
The boy that catches a mink is a pretty lucky boy in these days when those wily little robbers have grown so scarce. The price of mink fur made into muffs and collars is so high as to make a mink skin worth trying for. I can imagine the surprise and well-earned triumph of my young trapping friend when, after trying for a year or two to solve the mystery of the disappearance of his thoroughbred chickens, he finally succeeded in capturing a fine mink. A friend of his to whom he had taught all he could of the art of trapping caught another. And this happened within the city limits of the nation's capital! Who says now that the mink has disappeared?
The mink is a flesh-eater, and lives on what he can catch, varying his bill of fare with frogs, snakes, birds, mice, muskrats, and fish. It is always open season for trout in the mink's code of laws and though he is not a water animal his home is more than likely to be near a trout stream, on the bank, in a well-concealed place. It is not fair to trap mink in the breeding season, which is April or May. The young are at the mercy of all sorts of flesh-eaters, including their own fathers, who are a most undiscriminating sort. There ought to be some form of guarantee to a mink mother that while she is foraging for food for her young she will not be enticed into a trap. Later, when she goes a-hunting on her own account and the chances are even, she is legitimate prey for the trapper.
Steel traps are best, say the experts, and they should be cunningly concealed. Gouge out a sort of hole in the bank, conceal the trap at the front, and put the bait farther in so that the trap must be passed to reach the bait. Muskrat flesh, fish, or other meat is the bait used. A common practice is to scorch the bait, to make the odour more pervasive and attractive. The price of fresh mink skins varies according to size and condition from two dollars and a half to four dollars.