Trapping in Alabama.
Well, comrades of the trap line, as I am getting well up to the
seventy notch, and as the chills of zero weather chases one after the
other up and down my spinal column, like a dog after a rabbit in a
briar patch, and as I am unable to shake off that desire for the trap
line, I concluded to go south again to trap. I began an inquiry in
several different sections, in states of the South, and finally
decided upon Alabama, where a gentleman and a brother trapper by the
name of Ford had invited me to come. On the last days of October,
1911, I arrived in Alabama where I met Mr. Ford, whom I found to be a
gentleman in all respects, and a member of the M. E. Church.
My first day's outing after reaching Mr. Ford's place was on the
Tennessee River, raising fish nets, and putting out a few mink traps
to ascertain what the complexion of the inner side of a mink's coat
was. I got a mink the first night, which I found to be of fairly
light color, but not quite light enough to my liking. The setting of
more traps was delayed for a few days and we spent the time in
tending the fish nets.
I have whipped the streams and drowned earthworms for brook trout and
other fish, from my childhood days to the present time. I had never
done any fishing in large rivers with nets, so you can imagine my
feelings when one net after another was raised which contained many
fish of different kinds, such as yellow cat, channel cat, buffalo,
pickerel, pike, carp, suckers, black bass (called trout in the South)
and many other kinds. These fish ran in weight all the way from
one-fourth pound up to twenty pounds each, and occasionally a buffalo or
yellow catfish much larger. Mr. Ford informed me that often on trot
lines they got sturgeon, weighing more than one hundred pounds.
We intended to put out a trot line and catch a sturgeon that I might
get some oil. It is said that the oil from a sturgeon is a sure cure
for rheumatism in the joints, but it rained so much, keeping us busy
adjusting our traps, that we did not get any time to get the bait and
put out the trot line. So I did not get to see one of those large
fellows.
Mr. Ford pointed out corn and cotton fields where the corn and cotton
was still ungathered and told me that he had trot lines set out all
through these fields last spring and caught hundreds of pounds of
fish--it hardly seemed possible as the water was then fifteen of
twenty feet below the banks of these fields. But in December when it
began raining nearly every day, and the water rose so suddenly that I
was obliged to leave many of my traps where I had set them around
ponds and banks of streams and in the swamps, I could then readily
see that it was perfectly possible for the fish to get out into the
corn and cotton fields to feed.
The rainy season set in nearly a month earlier this season than
usual, causing the rivers and streams to rise so as to flood the
whole bottoms (it is called the tide by the people in Alabama).
I will not give my views of the country and conditions in northern
Alabama--it would not look well; it is sufficient to say that the
greater part of the land is owned in large tracts by a few men and
leased out at from $3.00 to $4.00 per acre. Corn and Cotton are the
main crops. Any land lying above the overflowing sections requires
heavy fertilizing in order to make a crop. The fertilizer is the
commercial sort, and all the crop will sell for is put onto the land
in the way of fertilizers. These lands are mostly leased to colored
people--in fact, I was told that the landlords did not care to lease
to white men.
The poor white man in northern Alabama is worse off than the colored
man, for he is looked upon as neither white nor black. In this
section the population is largely of the colored class. All of the
landlords have a store, so as to furnish their tenants with goods of
an inferior quality at exorbitant prices.
There is no good water to be found in that part of Alabama. The water
that the people use is something fearful--of course the wealthy class
have cisterns. The soil is mostly red clay, and terrible to get about
in when the least damp. The roads are only names for roads.
South of the Tennessee River is what is called the Sand Mountains;
the soil is of a sandy nature, freestone water, and the people are
all white--in fact, it is said that they will not allow a colored man
to live there. I heard it stated that they would not even allow a
negro to stop over night in that section.
The Sand Mountain region is a piney country with a sandy soil. The
land is not as fertile as the bottom lands along the Tennessee River,
but they produce a finer grade of cotton, which brings a cent or two
a pound more than that of the bottom lands.
As to game in north Alabama, there is but little large game to be
found. In the extreme northern part of Madison county, well up to the
Tennessee line, there are a few deer and wild hogs; it was said that
there were some bear, also plenty of wild turkeys. There were plenty
of ducks, and a good many quail.
There is still some lumbering being done, mostly in oak of different
kinds, though a good part is white oak. The logs are cut and hauled
to the Tennessee River and taken by steamboat to Decatur in Limestone
County, and worked up into lumber and manufactured articles. There is
still quite large bodies of cugalo gum left in the swamps, though
this timber is not yet used to any great extent.
I wish to say that if the trapper expects to ship his camp outfit by
freight to any part of the South, he should start it from four to six
weeks in advance of the time that he will arrive at the place where
he will use it. The trapper, as a usual thing, is too shallow in the
region of the pocket book to afford to ship an outfit of camp stove,
cooking utensils, tent and a hundred traps or more of various sizes,
by express. Of course, he can take his bed blanket and extra clothing
as baggage in his trunk.
Now to make this matter plainer, I will give my experience of the
last two seasons. In 1910 I trapped here in Pennsylvania the first
two weeks of November before going south. So shipped my camp chest by
express to Cameron, N. C, started it four days before I started so as
to be sure that it would be there by the time I arrived. But when I
got to Cameron there was no express matter for Woodcock.
Five days later while I was standing on the depot platform at Cameron
waiting for the eleven o'clock express train, along came a freight
train, stopped and put off my camp chest. Now, the express charges on
this chest was something over ten dollars on 180 pounds.
The next season I concluded that I would not give the express company
another rake-off, so started my camp outfit by freight for Madison,
Alabama, four weeks before I started, so as to again be sure that it
would be there when I arrived. Mr. Ford met me at the station nine
miles from his place with a conveyance to take baggage and camp
outfit to his place. And boys, imagine my feelings when I was again
told by the station agent that there was nothing there for Woodcock.
About a week later, I got the goods. So boys, take the hint and start
the outfit well ahead if you wish to get it on time. I have had other
similar experiences.
On our way back to Mr. Ford's place the day he met me at the station,
he called my attention to several different places along the road to
mink tracks in the ditches and in the road. I thought that it would
be no trick at all to take three or four mink each night, but I was
not reckoning on the disadvantages I had to contend with.
This section of the country is very thickly settled with colored
people, and each family keeps from one to three dogs, which are out
searching for food all the time. These people never think of feeding
their dogs. Nearly every night these colored people are out hunting
in droves of five or six, and with six or eight dogs. They think it
no more of a crime to steal a trap, and anything found in the trap,
than they would consider it a crime to eat a baked 'possum. A trapper
must keep a good lookout when setting his traps to see that there is
no "dark object" anywhere in sight. If there is, you may expect that
that particular trap will be missing the next time you come that way.
In setting a trap, the first thing to do is to select a place where
the trap is to be set, then look carefully around to see that no
"dark object" is in sight; then go into the bush and get the trap,
stake and everything that you will use in making the set. Then you
will again look carefully for that "dark object," and will proceed to
make the set, provided that yourself is the only human being in
sight, stopping your work often to look about you. Do not think that
this caution is not necessary, for it sure is. The writer had nine
traps taken at one time within an hour after he had been over the
line.
We went into our first camp, I think, on the 5th of November, at a
place called Blackwell's Pond or Blackwell's bottom, I am not sure
which. The first day after we got to camp, Mr. Ford went out and put
out a few traps, while I stayed in camp and fixed up things.
The next morning we went out to look over the ground a little while.
Mr. Ford went to the opposite side of the pond to set a few more
traps, and see parties who owned land along the pond, for we found
that the land had been posted "No Trespassing." When Mr. Ford came in
that evening I think he brought in five rats. We set nine traps that
day and went south along the pond to look over the grounds.
The next morning we had one mink and one coon in the nine traps. I
think Mr. Ford brought in four rats and had one coon foot. That
evening Mr. Ford went home to raise his nets, and when he came back
he brought in two mink; I got two coon. Mr. Ford went home again and
made arrangements for a team to come in and move us out to "pastures
new." He also brought another mink, and I believe that we got two or
three coons that night. I think we got nine rats, four mink and eight
coons in the three nights with about twenty traps.
The land about this pond had been leased by Mr. Edmon Toney, a
wealthy young man living near the place. While Mr. Toney is wealthy,
he insists in indulging in the meek and lowly occupation of the
trapper. We know Mr. Toney to be a successful trapper, for he caught,
while we were in camp at that place, one of the wealthiest and most
beautiful young ladies in that section. Mr. Toney is a reader of the
H-T-T.
Our next camp was on Little Indian creek, at the edge of a large
cugalo swamp not the pleasantest place that one could wish for a
camp.
[Illustration: E. N. WOODCOCK AND SOME OF HIS ALABAMA FURS.]
The next day after we went into Camp No. 2. I set a few traps near
camp. Mr. Ford went down the creek toward his place and set a few
traps, and went home to look after his fish nets, returning to camp
that evening. Mr. Ford had warned me that the mink in that section
would foot themselves equally as bad as muskrats, but as I had never
been bothered with mink footing themselves, I paid no attention to
his warning.
The next morning Mr. Ford stepped outside of the tent--it was about
five o'clock and called to me, asking where I had set my first trap
on the creek, and being told, he replied, "Well, you have caught a
mink." When asked how he knew, he said, "Come out and hear him
squall." I ate breakfast and hastened down to release the mink, but
my haste was unnecessary for the mink did not propose to wait for me,
I found only the mink's foot--the mink had gone.
I had never had a mink foot itself in this way before and did not
think that the mink did, although here in Alabama, we had two mink to
foot themselves in one night. Had I heeded Mr. Ford's warning, I
would have been several mink pelts ahead.
While there was considerable fur to be found in the vicinity of Camp
No. 2, it was a hard place to camp, owing to the scarcity of camp
wood and the inconvenience of getting water, so we moved on to Beaver
Dam creek, in Limestone county, where we were in hopes of finding a
few beaver and quite a plenty of mink and coon. But we were sadly
disappointed; we found but little to trap, but found trappers and
trap-lifters in abundance, so made haste to get out of that country
while we had our boats left. Our catch was only two mink, twelve
rats, five coon and one or two 'possum.
We moved from this place back into Madison County and pitched our
camp at a point known as the Sinks, where we did a better business.
But the rainy season soon set in, so we were compelled to break camp
and get out, leaving a good part of our traps where we had set them,
now under several feet of water. We shall never see them again.
Well boys, you will excuse me from telling just how many coon we got
in an hour and seven minutes. I can only state that during the
five weeks that Mr. Ford and the writer were in camp that we got
twenty-six mink. I do not remember the number of coons, opossums and rats
caught.