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Reluctant Taxidermist

Movie editor Bonn retired 27 years ago to enjoy his hobby but now he’s back in business.

By Peter Hill Gannet

TWENTY-SEVEN years ago John H. Bonn, then living in Portchester, N. Y., was a successful motion picture production editor with Paramount Pictures.

Taxidermy was only his hobby and at that time he was rather new at it. He’d been a fan only three years. It had always fascinated him, perhaps because of his love of animals and his appreciation of their beauty. It would be natural for him to try to duplicate nature’s handiwork.

Now his museum in Sheffield, Mass., about 25 feet square and built at a cost of $7,000 houses over 1,500 birds and animals ranging from a passenger pigeon extinct for 40 years to an unborn calf. Included are a Tragopan pheasant from Nepul, a huge king vulture from South America, anodd Paradise crane from Africa whose delicate wings touch the ground, an African crown crane with a stylish pompom, three birds of Paradise, a case of 66 native songbirds, an almost complete collection of North American wild ducks and geese and, in addition, over 800 animals. Such is his hobby. But Bonn is in business, too.

A hobbyist with a rare and valuable collection likes to show off his trophies and Bonn is no exception. The only trouble has been that almost everyone to whom he has done so, seems to have had a specimen or two he has wanted the taxidermist to mount for him. And the ex-movie editor is so adept and skillful in any mounting job he undertakes that his reputation has spread by worddia on a picture-taking expedition when the famous actor died.

Most of Bonn’s current business is, of course, from sportsmen who bring him their fish, deer, woodchucks and foxes and beg him to mount them. In 1953 he filled over 100 such orders reluctantly, because, since he is an artist, he devotes just as much meticulous care and painstaking skill to every job he undertakes, not only his own, and such an attitude does not make for production-line techniques.

He considers birds the easiest creatures to mount since the body consists of a wire frame with molded paper covering upon which the skin is stretched. And the feathers retain their natural color and need no doctoring. Fish are difficult, he claims, since the skinning must be done with as much skill as an expert surgeon employs during a delicate operation. And the body must be carved from balsa wood. For example, it takes him about two hours to mount a pheasant but far longer to do a workmanlike job on one of the finny species.

The taxidermist’s tools are a scalpel, scissors, draw-knife, arsenical soap, borax, needle and thread, paper mache, wood wool and wire —and an infinite amount of skill and patience. A deer head, for example, begins with the skinning and later shaving down of the skin with a draw-knife. Then the skin must be fitted to a mannikin head with the mannikin ears fitted in place. Then the horns are bolted on. Sounds easy? It looks easy, too, when one sees Bonn at his worktable. One imagines a young interne receives the same sensation while watching a famous surgeon’s nimble fingers at work.

Bonn’s prices? A deer head costs $30, a pheasant $10, fish from $20 up. A recent job was the mounting of a record 9-pound 5-ounce pickerel for which he charged $30.

They’re exceedingly low, proof that Bonn is a true artist and hobbyist, not a businessman. But don’t rush for a pen-and-paper to ask him to do your mounting job. He’ll probably refuse. But if you should be driving past his museum on the Sheffield road which stretches between Canaan, Conn, and Great Barrington, Mass. and should decide to drop in for a chat, and if he should decide to accept you as a friend, you might be able to persuade the reluctant taxidermist to reincarnate your trophy in all its vivid coloring and naturalness of true life.

Radiophone to Rid Siberia of Wolves

RADIO telephones placed at intervals throughout the wolf-infested regions of Siberia so that the whereabouts of these dangerous pests can be easily discovered is the latest means proposed by Soviet officials to rid the vast plains of the country of the wolf menace, long an obstacle to settlement and safe travel. These radiophones will be set up on posts and trees and will flash the howl of wolves by short wave wireless to a central station, thus indicating the presence of these animals within the radius of some station, so that a patrol of hunters can be dispatched immediately to the spot to exterminate the pack.

Howls of wolves running in packs are often audible for several miles over the silent Siberian plains, and as there are scarcely any interfering noises the radiophone system will have no difficulty in revealing the whereabouts of wolf pests.

HEN BRAVES FLOOD
ONE of the refugees in the recent Mississippi flood was an old Plymouth Rock hen who floated around on her box-board raft until she was rescued. The photograph shows biddy registering joy as her owner approaches in a canoe. The hen may be seen to be wearing a complacent, self-satisfied expression, but it must be explained in extenuation that it’s a rare chick which grows up to become captain, first mate, and roustabout of her own Mississippi steamer!

DOG SHOWS MUSICAL TALENT
EVERY now and then a dog is seen on the stage that seems to almost have human intelligence. This dog shows exceptional musical ability when he sits on the bench of an automatic piano and pats the keys, as the piano plays. That he has a musical sense of rhythm is shown by the fact that he pats the keys in time with the piece that is being, played. He is owned by a Berlin vaudeville performer.

TRAMP-METER

TOBY the elephant, despite all his lumbering 10,500 lbs., can stalk his prey more stealthily than any other four-footed creature in the circus. The “tramp-meter” proves it.

With the one exception of the snake charmer’s python, the only other circus member who matches the elephant in lightness of step is the 500-lb. fat lady.

On GE’s electronic vibration meter, Toby rings up only three mils per second vibration. The lion measures 12 mils per second, the hippo 14, the tiger 9, the polar bear 6 and the llama 7.5.

The giraffe, a sad sack who never utters a peep because he has no vocal cords, must speak through his feet for he planks ‘em down exactly twice as hard as the elephant.

The python, who recently proved to have the softest voice or hiss, also takes the prize for the softest tread—1.5 mils.

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When Wildlife Fights Back…

. . . the rabbit can become as dangerous as a raging lion, even a bird can commit mayhem and old Mother Nature turns all her fury upon the hapless hunter molesting her wards.

By Raymond R. Camp

tod and Gun Editor, N. Y. Times THE big brave hunter who arms himself with his trusty gun and journeys forth in search of prey, large and small, all too frequently winds up on the losing end of the game. Every once in a while Mother Nature gets fed up with having her wildlife become the target for scatter shot and copper-jacketed bullets and does a little table-turning. The Happy Hunting Ground is chock-full of nimrods who, if asked, would attribute their sudden demise to such harmless little critters as squirrels.

rabbits, ducks and the like. There are lots of others, still alive, who have been firmly convinced that the woods are just filled with vicious animals intent upon their destruction. And they can prove their point, too.

Take the case of the deer hunter last fall who was offered an opportunity to pick up a nice bear rug for his library. The big black ran across an opening in a beech flat and the hunter snapped a hopeful shot at him. To the surprise of both, the bear folded up. The guide, who had paused at a spring to quench his thirst, appeared at the sound of the shot, and seeing the prone bruin, congratulated his hunter. It was decided that the guide would take a photograph of the hunter seated astride the fallen bear, rifle in one hand and poised hunting knife in the other.

The hunter took his position, the guide began fussing with the camera and the bear, apparently only stunned by the bullet, came to life. The hunter, astride a bear that was now very much alive, had no option but to hang on. He threw away the rifle but clung to the knife, which was a mistake for when he finally lost his seat he buried it to the hilt in his own thigh. In addition to the wound, the incident had a psychological effect upon him and he relives the experience in a nightmare every few weeks, which does not make his home life any happier.

There are few instances on record in which the fox has managed to shed human blood. In England and parts of this country an occasional pink-coated foxhunter tumbles from his horse while pursuing a pack of hounds which in turn is chasing a fox. However, an upstate New York hunter who hunted these animals on foot is now convinced that there is some truth even in the antiquated theory that a worm will turn. Three hunters, each with a pair of foxhounds, met at a designated spot in the hills for the first hunt of the season. The hounds soon were off in full cry in pursuit of a big red fox and the hunters scattered to assorted vantage points. One selected a rocky knoll overlooking a narrow draw which seemed to be an ideal route for a harried fox. And his guess was a good one.

The cry of the hounds came nearer and nearer and in a few minutes the fox appeared at the mouth of the draw, looked quickly around, then scampered up the narrow defile emerging only 20 feet from the hunter who raised his trusty shotgun with dispatch. The fox rolled over at the double blast but a second later regained its feet and ran straight for the hunter.

Unquestionably the animal’s direction was guided by confusion rather than vicious intent but the hunter, having heard tales of rabid foxes, had visions of being subjected to a long and painful injection treatment. His gun empty, he decided his only chance was to outrun the fox. But his route also was influenced by confusion, for he ran right off the rocky ledge. Whether or not the Pasteur treatment would have involved more pain and inconvenience than a broken leg, three broken ribs, a fractured collar bone and the loss of half an ear is a matter for some | debate. The fox, having done his job, proceeded to drop dead of wounds a few feet short of the initial position held by the hunter. The frostbite sustained by the hunter as the result of exposure prior to his discovery by the others is hardly worth mentioning for he was unconscious during the painful period of this malady.

Although there are reputedly quite a few individuals who have traveled to that bourne where the woodbine twineth as the result of the kick of a mule, I have made a careful check of the records and can find only one man who met disaster as the result of the kick of a rabbit. A New England hunter whose pulse was unstirred by the excellent grouse and woodcock shooting in his neighborhood took every opportunity that offered to get out with a pair of beagles in pursuit of rabbits.

On his last hunt the rabbits were unusually plentiful. He and another enthusiast had hunting coats weighted with bunnies when the beagles jumped another cottontail and began driving it through the thickets. After a few moments the rabbit, conforming to pattern, swung back to the point where it had been jumped only to meet a charge of shot from the alert hunter. It crumpled but as the hunter bent down to pick it up, it gave a convulsive jerk and kicked the hunter in the hand. While the blow was not delivered with enough force to be harmful, the hunter decided to deliver the coup de grace by dropping the butt of the shotgun heavily on the animal’s head.

The blow was a solid one and quieted the bunny but it also had sufficient force to affect the gun which went off. The blast almost decapitated the hunter. One of the first precepts of hunting safety was violated when the gun was employed as a club.

Poems have been written and ballads composed on the gentle nature of the deer, especially the doe, which is reputed to have the nature of a saint and the big brown eyes of a friendly spaniel. Up in Maine where the doe is legal game, a hunter had spent several days in the vain search for a buck with a rack of antlers that wouldn’t go into a medium-sized barrel. In desperation on his last day he levelled his barrel at a big doe, touched the trigger, and watched her drop.

Arriving at his prone quarry, the hunter leaned his rifle against a tree, drew his long hunting knife and bent over it. He grasped one ear to raise the head in order to make a cut at the animal’s throat to bleed it out. At this point the doe, apparently only creased on the skull by the bullet, returned to the living and trampled all over the hunter who, in the excitement, managed to cut himself twice with his own knife. Although he was found almost immediately by another hunter who had heard the shot and came to investigate, he spent a number of weeks in the hospital and lost the sight in one eye as a result of the pointed hoof of this gentle creature.

A painful but not fatal incident took place last season involving a duck. There were two gunners shooting from blinds only 30 yards apart. One of these went to sleep and when the ducks finally swept overhead he was snor- ing peacefully. His companion, however, was alert and although he missed an easy incomer, he did manage to bring down a high passing teal. The duck folded up in the air and dropped with a resounding thud on the head of the man in the adjoining blind who had jumped erect, gun ready, at the sound of his companion’s shots. When the duck struck him, he pulled both triggers of his shotgun and the two charges made a perfect pattern on that part of his companion’s anatomy normally employed in sitting. A local doctor spent two hours with tweezers extracting sixty-odd shot.

Only last spring an ardent varmint shooter armed with a new .222 rifle guaranteed to be lethal to woodchucks up to 300 yards, set forth in search of one of these ferocious creatures. After driving the back country roads for a short time he spotted one feeding on a rocky slope and when the rifle cracked the chuck rolled over.

Eager to see whether the bullet struck at the exact point where it had been aimed, the man climbed the slope and bent over to examine the chuck. At the hunter’s touch the chuck’s muscles contracted involuntarily and one of the sharp teeth sunk in the man’s finger. The hunter’s muscles also contracted in surprise and he took a header down a rocky defile, knocking out all of his front teeth and acquiring a compound fracture of the hip and a concussion. The hunter was not found until the following morning and spent two months in the hospital besides a succession of unhappy sessions in the dental chair.

Take the two enthusiastic squirrel shooters who set out for an oak knoll armed with .22-caliber rifles. The first squirrel was a cinch and also the second. The third, however, proved as deadly as a hungry tiger.

One of the hunters, peering carefully up into the branches of the big oak, caught a fleeting glimpse of bushytail as he scurried to the shelter of a high fork. Pointing out the lofty sanctuary to his companion, he moved around the tree to the opposite side and lined up his sights on the gray bulge. When the rifle cracked the squirrel died but a convulsive jerk sent him clear of the tree.

The shooter’s companion, standing with his own rifle at the ready, jumped when the dead squirrel struck him squarely on the head with a considerable smack. His reaction was transmitted to his index finger which rested on the trigger. He shot and the bullet went straight through the heart of his companion.

In view of these circumstances and others too numerous to mention, be wary on your next hunting trip into the woods lest Mother Nature decide that she has had enough and that it’s about time for you to become the target for wildlife’s revenge. •

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How Circus Elephants are TRAINED

by M. W.MEIER
Who wintered with the circus at Peru, Indiana, headquarters.

How do they train elephants to walk a tight rope and stand on two legs? Mr. Meier, intimately associated with the circus business, tells you all about the tricks of the trade in this fascinating elephant story, and incidentally disproves some favorite legends such as ah elephant’s ability to remember an injury for many years.

WHEN you go to the circus this summer and watch the elephants walk the tight rope, do shimmy dances, balance themselves on tiny stools, and perform all manner of stunts seemingly impossible for animals of their bulk, give a thought to the hours of careful training which have been devoted to making these huge pachyderms polished circus performers.

For all their vast bulk and seeming awkwardness, an elephant is a gentle, willing, easily-taught creature. You may take “Cheerful” Gardner’s word for it. He has been training elephants for thirty-odd years, and today, as chief bull man for the Hagenbeck-Wallace circus, his expert knowledge is often sought by zoos and other circuses.

Once made aware of a trainer’s desire, elephants cheerfully obey the command, and when left to themselves will often go through their whole repertoire for sheer self-amusement!

Training elephants is naturally considerably different from training dogs or smaller animals. Mechanical contraptions such as block and tackle have to be used on account of the elephant’s bulk. For instance, one of the first things a young elephant is taught is to sit down and to rear on his hind legs. The youngster is lifted off his feet with a block and tackle and a leather belt and held in the desired position. The command word is spoken in advance, and in a surprisingly short time the elephant learns what is required of him. He also has the advantage of watching his elders go through their stunts, and he readily apes their movements.

Training usually begins at the age of two or three years. The first step is to teach the youngster his name. Next, he must “tail” or walk along holding the tail of the elephant ahead of him. This simple stunt is of vast importance while among crowds.

Certain finesse is required in the teaching of special stunts. If you’ve seen an elephant walk a tight rope, know that he was first taught to walk along it as it was spread flat on the ground. Gradually it was raised from the floor an inch or two at a time. This trick is not very difficult as the great beasts have a profound sense of equilibrium.

The “tight rope” is in reality a steel plank of narrow width, painted to simulate a coiled rope.

One of Cheerful Gardner’s most interesting stunts is to make Lizzie, boss of the herd, do a violent shimmy dance to the blare of a band. Knotted ropes, loosely looped around her body and see-sawed from side to side by attendants, taught her this in record time and today, it is her proudest accomplishment.

Cheerful’s most dangerous trick is to stick his head into an elephant’s mouth and allow himself to be lifted into the air by the teeth. A contemporary trainer recently tried it and is convalescing from a fractured skull in a Georgia hospital.

Circuses rarely bother to raise their own stock. Elephants take parenthood too seriously and for years, both male and female are overly devoted to their offspring and spend no end of time trying to educate them. So, it has proven cheaper to import young stock whenever required.

It is the Indian elephant which is chosen for zoos and circus work. The African species is too wild and treacherous to ever stand thorough training.

Acclimation is the first problem of an imported beast. The port of entry must be carefully chosen according to the season of the year. Accustomed to tropical heat, the new arrival must be taught to get along at 80 or so degrees. During inclement weather on the road, the elephant must be provided with blankets and often such things as overshoes. Frozen feet and ears have often happened. During winter months he must have steam-heat and plenty of it.

Food is an all-important problem. Used to such tropical foods as bamboo shoots and rice, the newcomer must be switched to hay, corn, oats, bran and alfalfa. Oddly enough, he must even be taught to like peanuts! To be able to feed an elephant a sack of goobers is the natural heritage of every small boy and girl, but the taste must be taught, for peanuts are not a natural food.

Of all the tidbits in the world, an elephant probably prefers a watermelon to anything. Try it the next time you visit a circus. Take lots of them or you may get mobbed. A full-grown elephant requires about forty gallons of water and some hundred pounds of food per day. The first cost is far from the last one!

Tricks, however, are not all that an elephant must be taught. Around a circus lot, one is more useful than tractors, motor trucks and dozens of men. It is the elephant herd which rears the heavy tent poles, works the big block and tackle and drags the wagons around. A full-grown animal can lift a thousand pounds in his trunk. His tonnage “push” has never been fully measured. Things “give” when he applies his tremendous forehead.

Elephants are always worked from the left side, and are forcibly taught to sleep on the left side to conserve space in railway cars and to facilitate handling.

Most of us are familiar with the old saw of comparison—”a memory like an elephant.” According to Cheerful Gardner, having an elephant-like memory is nothing to brag about. An absence of six months from any he has ever trained convinced him he had been completely forgotten! As with other wild animals, elephants must follow a daily program of activity to remember what is required of them.

Gregarious as humans in their herd-like tendencies, elephants always recognize one of their number as “boss” and this leader’s actions are readily followed. The position is gained by sheer dominance and circus men never interfere when a fight is going on for supremacy. Either sex may hold this position, for a female is always on par with the male, albeit nature gave her somewhat shorter tusks. Tusks, incidentally, are always removed from quarrelsome individuals. If the nerve is too sensitive for removal the tusk is capped with a ball.

An elephant has many human similarities. He lives to approximately the same age. From fifty on, however, their usefulness rapidly wanes. Blindness overtakes them and their limbs totter. Heart trouble is a frequent cause of death while pneumonia and rheumatism make fearful havoc in their ranks. Always they must be guarded from chills, dampness and indigestion.

Lice often infest them and their thick, cork-like hides to the contrary, mosquitoes and gnats are horrible pests. They always sleep with their trunk-opening closed to prevent insects from crawling in. Certain elephants which have turned killers in the past, were discovered to have had a cancerous brain growth. For this reason, they are always killed when manifesting a violent disposition.

The feet of an elephant require constant care. The nails must be filed every two months and all corns carefully removed. On each side of every elephant’s head is about an inch-wide opening to important glands. These openings must be kept religiously clean. In their natural state, an elephant does this for himself with jets of water from his trunk.

A trainer’s chief worry is to safeguard his charges from sudden shocks and fears. They are extremely nervous and subject to panic and hysteria. A shrill whistle, a fluttering bird or a snippy fox terrier is ever apt to send them into mad rout.

It was some such simple thing which threw 14 Sells-Floto elephants into a panic at Cranbrook, British Columbia, several years ago.

The whole herd took to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, leaving a sorry trail of ruin in their wake. Their own trainers found themselves helpless to cope with the situation and the circus hastily wired the rival Hagenbeck-Wallace outfit for the loan of Cheerful Gardner.

He was in Kansas at the time and made the 2200-mile journey by airplane. It took him a full month and the assistance of scores of Indian trackers to round up the herd. Some had climbed high among the peaks and others were helplessly lost amidst primeval forests. It was probably the most thrilling hunt ever staged on this continent. Gardner recovered every beast, although one soon died from exposure to a snowstorm.

“Elephants are the smartest and most lovable animals on earth,” Cheerful Gardner contends, “and the leading attraction at any zoo or circus. Heaps of people are deathly afraid of them, but that’s sheerly because they don’t know their real nature. An elephant is as affectionate as a dog to any one he likes and equally as faithful. He even grows attached to other animals kept near him and mopes when separated. In more than thirty years of contact I’ve never been injured in the slightest way by one of them.”

After maturity (30 to 35 years) a male elephant has a yearly “rutting” season not unlike a male deer. During this period, which often lasts for three months, he must be returned to his permanent quarters and kept securely chained, for he is a menace to everyone, including his trainers, at this time. He cannot be handled or shown on the road. Careful records are kept so that the trainers will be warned sufficiently far in advance to make their charges safe prisoners as this danger period approaches.

A circus regards its elephants as its chief attraction, yet they are at the same time its chief public liability because of their temperament and hair-trigger ways. Children and grown-ups alike give their allegiance to the elephant as the most interesting animal of the circus menagerie. Tigers and lions have a dangerous look; hyenas have repellent personalities, and a hippopotamus seems impractical. But everybody loves an elephant! Thrilling episodes with elephants are few and far between for Cheerful Gardner, who finds his work as humdrum and commonplace as most of us who work in offices.

Exterminating Rats With Deadly Automobile Exhaust Gas

“IF THE fumes from an automobile exhaust can kill humans, they should have the same effect on rats,” said the head of the Department of Health of Highland Park, Michigan. And so onto the exhaust pipe of a dilapidated Model T Ford discarded by the police officials, the health officers rigged up a rubber hose and established themselves as modern pied pipers.

The “hunters” first seal all the holes of the building to be operated upon, leaving just two openings. The hose is then inserted into one of these, the engine of the Ford coaxed to wheeze a bit, and the carbon monoxide does the rest.

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They Grub for a Living

A few wheat beetles in a sack of chicken feed grew into a booming bait business.

By Shep Shepherd

BUGS can be big business. Just ask Marlyn A. Palmer and Ray Wiseman; they’re up to here in them—80 million of them every year.

Palmer and Wiseman raise golden grubs and sell them to fishermen throughout the United States, Mexico and Canada, shipping as many as a quarter-million grubs a day in busy seasons.

The golden grub is the larva of the black wheat beetle. It hatches from an egg, remains a grub for a short time, then goes into the pupa stage from which it gradually changes into a mature beetle. The complete transformation takes about six months. It is the larva, or grub, that drives fish frantic and sends anglers flocking to the bait shops.

The whole thing began over a half century ago when a German immigrant truck farmer, living near Torrence, Calif., discovered some black wheat beetles and grubs in his wheat meal chicken feed. An ardent fisherman, he wondered if the lively little grubs wouldn’t look good to trout. They did, and the farmer went into the grub business. For 40 years he raised grubs and sold them to other fishermen with moderate success. The big change came when the old man’s health failed and Ray Wiseman bought the business. Wiseman’s original investment for a lock-stock-and barrel purchase was a little over $10,000, considerably more than would be needed to start from scratch, but the money bought the old man’s years of know-how as well. Later Wiseman took in Palmer to handle sales and distribution.

During his first year of operation in 1947 Wiseman produced over four million grubs, almost enough to return his initial investment after distribution costs were paid. Costs of production were, of course, still to be deducted from the gross figure.

The firm made no attempt at immediate expansion, prefering to grow slowly while perfecting a fool-proof mass production system and at the same time propagating a superior grub. They began to hit their stride in 1954 when the production rose to 40 million grubs. Present figures show that 1955 production will exceed 80 million. Several million of these will be held back as seed stock, but the remainder will still return a gross income in excess of $300,000.

Wiseman and Palmer have streamlined the business to a point where it has really become two separate operations. Wiseman produces the grubs, paying all his own costs of production. Palmer then buys the grubs from Wiseman at so much per thousand and pays all costs of packaging and shipping.

Putting the grubs in the hands of the dealer costs Palmer approximately $3.30 per dozen cans (1200) of grubs. This figure includes the grubs themselves, cans, feed, shipping cartons, advertising material (included in carton), label, tape and postage. It also includes the producer’s profit.

What are the potentials? “Take a look at the figures,” say Wiseman and Palmer. “There are 30 million fishermen in the United States today. To supply each of them with just one can of grubs per year would require three million grubs. Of course, we realize that not all anglers will buy them. On the other hand there are many thousands who will use from one to two dozen cans each season. That is the goal we’re shooting for, but if we hit only a third of that figure we’re still going to have to • produce more than ten times our present output.”

Experimentation and prolonged study in the early years established a number of facts about the wheat beetle. By isolating a few beetles it was determined that one female beetle produced approximately 2,000 eggs per year, the majority of which hatched into grubs.

The big trouble was that the grub remained a grub for a very short time. Too often the grubs were no longer grubs when they had reached the fisherman. That obstacle, and it proved to be the major one, was hurdled when it was discovered that the grubs would remain dormant at temperatures under 50 degrees.

A cooler room was built at the three-acre farm and a large refrigerator installed in the sales office on Culver City. That did it. Now the grub farmers could handle the larva by the million if necessary, without risking loss due to the processes of nature.

Once the grubs are removed from the refrigerator they become active again and renew the process of becoming a beetle. However, at any time they may be returned to the cooler where they immediately go to sleep again.

With the problem of keeping the grubs solved Wiseman began improving the breed. The largest grubs from each hatch were put aside in boxes containing wheat flakes and allowed to mature as rapidly as possible. From the beetles thus obtained the largest and liveliest were selected as breeding stock. In a surprisingly short time Wiseman was i able to produce grubs nearly twice as large as the average non-cultivated larva.

When the big grubs, which the partners call Golden Jumbo Grubs, attain their full length, man steps in to interfere with nature by cooling junior down so he won’t go into the pupa stage. The grubs are placed in trays containing wheat meal and kept refrigerated until needed for shipping.

Palmer has worked out the packaging and shipping system to a fine art. The grubs are sold in %-pint cardboard containers holding 100 or more grubs each.

The containers are lined with glassine so the grubs won’t chew their way to freedom during shipment or while in the fisherman’s pocket. Some 50 dozen of these special containers are laid out on a huge table with their perforated lids stacked nearby. Out of the cooler comes the trays of slumbering grubs. But they aren’t just poured into the cans—not yet. For the grubs, like snakes, shed their skins and no dealer or fisherman wants a can of bait half filled with old dried skins. So they are screened. .

This process consists of pouring the grubs onto a special sieve made of a loosely woven cloth similar to cheesecloth. Slowly awakening from their hibernation, the grubs, who don’t like light, immediately crawl through the holes in the cloth into a clean porcelain tray, leaving their old skins behind.

Into each can now goes a half cup of wheat flakes for the 100 grubs to _ chew on en route. Also a cubic inch of special Luther Burbank spineless cactus which furnishes enough moisture to quench their thirst. A thin layer of paper is wadded on top and the lid goes on. The paper is for the grubs to crawl up on when they are sated with wheat meal. The container will not be opened again until the fisherman is ready to wet his line.

Most of the grubs are sold through dealers, but you can buy them direct through the mail for a dollar a can. Incidentally, the U. S. Forest Service says that grubs discarded in the woods can do no harm there.

According to thousands of voluntary letters in the firm’s files the golden grubs catch bass, trout, whitefish, perch, blue-gill, crappie and sunfish when other natural baits fail. A fair share of America’s 30 million fishermen now keep a can or two of the grubs in their home refrigerators to be hauled out when the fishing urge strikes.

Ice fishermen especially love them for the simple reason that they are the only live bait other than minnows that will stay alive in the ice-cold water.

To supply the present demand the farm has 360 incubators in four large grub hatcheries producing a 100-per cent crop every six months, a total of 80 million grubs yearly. “Yet,” says Palmer, “it would require 30 firms as large as our to supply the estimated 30 million fishermen in America.” •

Gas Guns to Battle Wild Beasts on Galapagos Expedition

EQUIPPED with gas guns effective at 150 yards, a scientific expedition in search of new specimens will give battle to the animals abounding on the Galapagos Islands. Located about 500 miles west of Ecuador, these islands have been a magnet for scientists since Charles Darwin first obtained valuable data for his “Origin of Species” from study of its animal inhabitants. Since his visit, evidence has been accumulating tending to prove that the Galapagos archipelago was once connected with Central America. Similarity of fish, birds and land plants bear out this theory.

The new expedition numbering twenty-five members is embarking on a three-year cruise whose purpose is to erect a Darwin memorial and to carry on the great scientist’s work.

STRANGE in SCIENCE

Simian Lipstick is applied by Leon Walters, taxidermist of the Chicago Museum of Natural History, to a figure of Bushman, famous Chicago Zoo gorilla. In life the ape stood 6 feet, 2 inches tall and weighed 550 pounds. Age at death was 23.

Battle Casualties are Spot, the pup and Tiger, the kitten who are comparing their simulated injuries. The ASPCA says that hysterical animals can be quite a problem should an attack come and holds courses in pet first aid and control in N. Y.

Reaching in Vain is 34-year-old Storm Bergh, 34-inch midget of Malverne, L. L, who recently got a parking ticket for not feeding the meter. He was looking for somebody to help him deposit the coin when he was tagged, he explained.

Roller Skating Colt is one-year-old Jim who looks forward to his daily roll along the highway with his master, Albert McAlexander of Kiser Lake, Ohio. Special skates, designed by a blacksmith, fasten to the hooves in the usual manner.

Bull Blinkers keep Joe the Hereford from charging through fences in response to amorous glances from cows in the next pasture. Clifford Houp of Hagerstown, Md., who owns Joe, came up with the idea. Now his bull can look down to eat, but can’t see those fluttering bovine eyelashes nearby.

Pigeons Now Take Aerial Photos
AN automatic miniature camera strapped to the breast of a carrier pigeon is the latest method being employed for the making of aerial photographs in Germany. The camera is timed so that shutter is snapped at regular intervals in bird’s flight.

Tramp Poodle Wins Leather Boots in Long Hike Across the Country

UNLESS a tramp poodle dog is lucky as a hitch-hiker he needs boots for a cross-country hike. C. C. Maupin, of Philadelphia, left New York on a hike to Los Angeles. At West Newton, Pennsylvania, he was adopted by the poodle shown at the left and they continued the hike together. About 500 miles on the way, somewhere in Indiana, the poodle had worn off its claws, making further walking impossible. So the dog was carried until the hiker met an old cobbler who suggested the unusual shoes shown in the picture. They were made to measure out of bits of leather and uppers of women’s high shoes and fastened about the legs by snap fasteners. Incidentally the picture shows the second set of half soles. After a few weeks in them, the little feet healed. The poodle continued to wear its boots even after its feet were healed, thus preventing a recurrence of its disability which might have further delayed his long trek.

DOG COTTAGE transports tiny chihuahua from kennel-to-kennel when she competes for top honors in English dogdom. The lady’s snootful name is Dalhabboch Emima-Maud.

CASH CROP for you every week in the year raising Royal baby birds. Orders now waiting for hundreds of thousands. Easy to raise. You pet your money for them when only 25 days old. Particulars and picture book for three-cent TL S. stamp.

Write PR Company, 602 Howard Street Melrose, Massachusetts. Refer any bank.

Live Bees Now Mailed in Tiny Cage
THE postman now has a new and fairly dangerous article to be carried in his pack, since bees are shipped by parcel post. The bee is very carefully removed from the apiary, placed in a special box cage, which has a small supply of honey to keep the bee alive while in transit. The box has to be of a fair size.

Bossie Gets The Breaks
ABOVE we see a demonstration of the newly-invented diathermy machine for, applying heat treatment for adhesions and other ills to the udders of cattle. At the right, a contented cow peers out from behind an electric fly screen, the most recent device to save wear and tear on bossie’s fly-swatting tail.

The Cows Like It, Too
BRITAIN, expecting every girl to do her duty, is training an army of city girls to make themselves useful on the farm. Before being turned loose on defenseless cows, the girls must first practice on dummies.

Manhattan Game Warden

THE towering jungle of Manhattan’s skyscrapers is the last place in the world you’d look for a game warden. But for ten years now George Stamir has been prowling the Big City’s concrete canyons as a N. Y. State Game Protector. In a strictly noncamping business suit, Stamir patrols the streets from his office “camp” at 15 Maiden Lane—a spot that for 300 years has seen nothing wilder than a wilted white collar. He hasn’t caught a hunter bagging a buck in Times Square yet—but he does nab feather merchants for trafficking in eagle plumage and fish-market fishermen for selling small fry or baby clams.

PRICKLY PAIR

TWO sharp quillers from the Amazon Jungle moved in with Marion and Paul McMichael of Brooklyn two years ago just so the husband and wife could prove a point. You see, the quillers are prehensile-tailed porcupines named Gerald and Geraldine and the McMichaels had heard that all such animals were dumb—and dangerous. As a member of the New York Zoological Society, Paul didn’t think so and he brought a couple home to study..

“Affectionate and playful, Gerald and Geraldine are clean and do not destroy furniture. They do not shoot their quills as many hunters believe. But the quills are sharp as needles and overlay like shingles on a roof. They grow from five to six inches long and then are shaken loose. Removing them from the rug is the only tough job.

THEY CALL ‘EM “PIGLOOS”
SCIENCE has taken a look at the pigpen and devised a revolutionary new system to raise young swine. Developed by Nutrena Mills, Inc., Minneapolis, Minn., the Pigloo is a prefab wooden structure designed to increase the low-cost production of hogs by protecting them from disease. It is said to cut breeding costs over 50 per cent.

Doctor Makes Peg Leg for Porker

WHEN Oscar broke his hind leg some time ago it looked like it wouldn’t be long before some white-aproned butcher would be weighing him up as ham, bacon, pigs’ feet, etc. However, a doctor was called in and he decided that an operation was in order.

Oscar was given chloroform and slept while the doctor amputated his limb. Later a peg leg was adjusted on Oscar as the photo shows. The butcher will have to wait.

Scientific Explanation of the Mexican Jumping Bean

THE Mexican jumping bean, that playful little legume which many suppose to be nature’s attempt to furnish a concentrated meat and vegetable ration, needs no longer puzzle the uninitiated, for science has laid bare the secrets of its life.

It seems that a fly lays its egg in the pod of a Mexican bean. In due time the egg hatches and the larva develops into a good sized worm; then, instead of being able to escape from its tough pod it finds itself trapped. A small, active animal develops and finds itself encased inside the bean. It lives on the pulp, and becomes more and more active, especially under the warm rays of the sun or artificial heat.

When a bean is warmed up the worm within it curls up and then snaps out straight, causing the bean to tumble, roll over and move about as if by serious intention. Meanwhile, nothing but the husk of the legume is visible. Hence, the name “Mexican Jumping Bean.”

Safe Coop for Shipping Chicks
FORTY-EIGHT brooder chicks up to four weeks old can be shipped 1500 miles with ample food and water provisions in the new inexpensive portable coop shown below. Ridges on the top and sides prevent baggage men from shutting off ventilation when piling the coops.

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These Dogs Are Really “Hot”

Radioactive beagles are pointing the way to better safety devices for workers in atomic energy plants.

A PACK of 300 sad-eyed, floppy eared beagles are serving as canine guinea pigs in an unusual University of Utah project designed to investigate the hazards of industrial radioactivity. Financed by the Atomic Energy Commission and directed by Dr. John Bowers, the studies will show what happens to bone and tissue when radioactive substances are injected into the dogs. Beagles were chosen for the experiments because they are anatomically close to human beings, have a sound genetic pattern, ideal disposition and are easy to handle in the research laboratory.

Radioisotopes used in the injections are radium, plutonium, mesothorium and radiothorium. These materials have a particular affinity for bone structure. Lodging in the bones, the radioactive particles continue to emit rays which affect the marrow—part of the “blood factory” of the body—and eventually are expected to produce tumors.

Related posts

• The Truth About… Our Weather and the A-Bomb (Apr, 1956)
• A-POWERED TRAINS IN GLASS TUBES (Apr, 1956)
• What does Atomic Energy really mean to you? (Apr, 1956)
• IF Atomic Fuel Were Shared… (Apr, 1956)
• Splitting the Atom (Apr, 1956)

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WHEN LIZARDS RULED THE WORLD

These huge reptiles roamed the earth 100,000,000 years ago.

THE LIZARDS that ruled the world some 100,000,000 years ago were quite a sporty bunch, as you can see from the photos on these pages. These huge reptiles are one of the highlights of Warner Brothers’ film called The Animal World. The enormous creatures were carefully reproduced in their natural habitat through the efforts of leading paleontologists, zoologists, technicians and cameramen. Seventy-three days were required to shoot the dinosaur sequences. The film, which employs no human actors, was written, produced and directed by Irwin Allen and took two years to make.

Oil-Soaked Bricks Lure Lobsters

A NOVEL bait for lobsters has been developed by New England fishermen who, knowing that lobsters hanker for anything having an odor of oil, conceived the idea of soaking some common house bricks in kerosene for 24 hours and then placing the oil-soaked bricks in the bait cabin of the trap. Since the bricks are porous, they absorb quite a lot of kerosene and the oily smell clings thereto for several days.

More lobsters are caught in traps so baited than in those in which mixed bait is used. Due to the fact that the bricks retain their oily odor for several days, the work of baiting the traps is lessened and the expense is not heavy, for a gallon of oil will serve to “oil” a large number of bricks.

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Trapper a la car

These professional trappers of predatory animals cover their trap-lines via automobiles.

TO MANY, the name “trapper” conjures up a picture of a romantic figure, clad in a heavy mackinaw and fur cap, living in an isolated cabin near Hudson Bay, tramping over miles of trap-line on snowshoes, and making only rare trips to civilization by means of his dog sledge. This is Jack London’s or James Oliver Cur-wood’s trapper.

There is a different type of trapper, however, and though less romantic the work he does is more useful than merely covering milady’s curves with ermine or sables. He is the “California State Trapper,” whose job it is to control the predatory animals in the game refuges, and to set; that (he ranchers of the state can raise poultry and livestock without having all of their future steaks, chops and fryers disappear down the gullets of hungry bobcats or coyotes.

These fellows, instead of mushing great distances over crunching snow to inspect their trap-lines, leave their homes in the city about the same time that you and I go to work. They sit back in the comparative luxury of a light delivery truck, arid bounce and wind their way over the narrow by-roads that crisscross California’s sagebrush covered hills. Most of their traps are set within 20 or 30 feet of the road, so that little time is lost in seeing if a catch has been made. Although this appears to be a leisurely way of trapping, the results have proved it to be very efficient. In a single season one trapper’s catch consisted of the following animals: 2 mountain lions, 231 coyotes, 126 bobcats, 121 gray foxes, 58 raccoons, and 33 opossums, badgers, and skunks.

Unlike the fur trapper, who plies his trade only during the winter months when the pelts are in their prime, these men trap the year round, taking only a brief time-out during the hunting season to serve as auxiliary game wardens. Still, many of the furs procured are fashioned into smart wraps and coats for the ladies, as the choicest ones are sold at public auction, the proceeds helping to swell the state coffers.

Taking the animal’s pelt is but a part of the State trapper’s job however. He must also carefully label and send into headquarters the stomach of every animal caught. These are then examined to determine upon what the animal has been preying. A survey showed that in more than 8,000 cases, 20 percent of the animal’s diet consisted of deer, sheep, poultry and small game.

Even with ‘ this type of trapping there are occasional thrills and chills. Meeting a snarling, spitting mountain lion face to face, when you are expecting nothing more dangerous in your trap than a cowardly coyote, is guaranteed to make even the bravest person’s pulse beat a bit faster. —Stanley de Treville

Why Men Are Superior to Fish

THE reason why men have better brains than fish and why land animals have evolved so much more rapidly than sea animals is to be found, says the Russian biologist, Dr. M. A. Menzbier, in the ability of men and other land animals to turn their heads from one side to the other.

Most fish never turn their heads sidewise but must turn the whole body if they wish to see something not already visible to one of their eyes. The development by the first air-breathing lung-fish hundreds of millions of years ago of the method of breathing air through the mouth into lungs released these creatures from this rigid, stiff-necked condition and made it possible for their descendants, including mankind, to have flexible necks, mobile heads and both eyes pointing to the front. All of these changes aided greatly to exercise the brain and improve it.