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Show - SKUNK 18 fl : FRIEND TO AGRiCULTURE ;Sccretary of Agriculture of the United States Gives Out The Following -1 ' The skunk, "which is represented, repre-sented, throughout the country. by a number of varieties, genera, gen-era, and species, U ah animal of great economic importance. Its , food consists very largly of injects, in-jects, mainly of those species vhich are very destructive to garden and forage crops. Field observations and labratory examination ex-amination demonstrate that they destroy immense numbers of white grubs, grasshoppers, crickets, cutworms, hornets, wasps, and other noxious forms. The f alarming increase of the white grub in s6mV localities is largely due to the extermination of this valuable animal. It is a matter of common observation ob-servation where white grubs are particularly abundant in cornfields to note little- round holes burrowed in the ground about hills of corn. These are made by skunks in their search during the night for these grubs. During the recent outbreak of grasshoppers in Kansas it has ,L . been determined that in many cases a large portion of the food of skunks consisted of these grasshoppers. Some of the most destructive insects in agriculture are such as do their work below ground and out of reach of any method that the farmer can apply, and ' it is against many of these that the skunk is an' inveterate enemy. Notwithstanding alt ot this, there is probably not an animal that is as ruthlessly slaughtered as is this one, jV whereas ftia equally entitled to h &'k protecioiiywith, if nob more so, VLJL?: .- tbRHtte -of our birds which $fZIl--''v etojoy this prlvillage. " In some regions, especially in the Souhtwest, the bite of the skunk is supposed to produce . hydrophobia. This fear is un- I founded since it is proved that 1 the bite of a healthy skunk is no more serious than similar wounds caused by other agen- i , cie-j. I In connection with the work of the range caterpillar investigations investi-gations in northeastern New f,, - Mexico it has been found that f yjv skunks desroy a great many of jjr -"" the pupae of this caterpillar, and in fact, during-September and 1 October, when this food is easily . available, they prefei it to all jjwp other. About the middle of U September it was discovered m that many webs were empty, $ the pupae having been 'neatly ! extracted from the web and f either carried oft! or eaten. In many areas containing hundreds 1 - - of acres from 25 to 75 per cent of thepupae had been carried off, whjle in a few isolated places as high as 95 per cent the Hemileuca, Mexican range caterpillar, cat-erpillar, the pupae was gone. Ujj& ,, Following these observations, T1 - piles of skunk excrement were found which consisted in some ift v' cases almost entirely of pupae g shells. Subsequent counts made show the excrement found to Jfyt have from 60 to 95 per cent of '& ' its' contents consisting of these (f crushed shells. On the Crow ; tf Creek Ranch there was not an area observed but what had , . fo . some of the Hemileuoa pupae I ?;,. ..' destroyed by these animals. It v4' is thus seen that the conmon skunk is at the present time one ' of the moat important' factors t ' looking toward the control of ; ". Hemileuca outbreaks and should " be protected by the ranchers in i the infested districts. |