A PLAGUE OF SNAKES.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 220, 8 November 1880, Page 4

A PLAGUE OF SNAKES.

Perhaps the worst snake- Jen in the Middle fctates of America is on the Upper Sawkill Ulster County, among the foothills of the Cutskills, It is said

that copperhead and adder snakes are so thick in that region that in some places they seriously interfere with the harvesting of crops. The farmers say they do not dare to out the hay and grain from certain fields un til they have adopted all kinds of measures to exterminate the reptiles. Not long ego a farmer, named Eugene Britt, found a den of serpents, among which were racers, born*tail adders, grey adders, and pilots, in an old worked-out flag stone quarry, while be wbb picking blackberries, They were all coiled in : together, and when he disturbed them they meks a terrible hissing. He and an Irish boy, earned Andrew Ryan, who was with him, cut a stout hickory switch, and begun the work of destruction. One cut of the switch general ly sufficed to stretch the reptile out. They killed Ibirfcy-five o(*:he reptiles in lefip (hap a quarter of an hour. The snakt 8 were all sizes; from the six-loot white* colour ringed racer to the young adders of 12 inches, The farmers io thst neighborhood s»y they c»n detect (h< presence of snakes in & field by giving a quick shrill whittle, when they r&ie*' their heads above the grass so that they can be seen. Ooe day not long ago a tramp applied to a farmer on the Saw kill for work. He was informed th»t the ouly work to be done was to cradk a field of vats, and they were afraid tf> do it on account of tbe field being infested with oopperheads. He laugher at them, and B&id ha would reap the oats, and weultin't &&k any extra pay for it either. He then asked for a piece cf sheepskin with the wool or. Thii being brought ho bound it about hie legs as high up as hie thighs. Tbet he tor-k the cradle and went to work ii. the field as if there had never berc a snake in it. Wheu he finished the job, however, he had slaughtered every snake in the field, 18 in number — all pilots — and had five sticking fast in the sheepskin about his legs, where they had caught fast in the wool witb their fangs when they struck at him. Several of these the tramp brought to Kingston and exhibited in the streets. The idea of binding something, gener ally a thick wad of straw about the legs, has long been practised by the farmers as a protection when they are to mow or reap in ft field infested witb snakes. The reptiles strike their frnge into the straw, which generally holdi them, thus giving the farmer a chance to cut them in two with his ecythe. Copperheads are the worst snakes that farmers have to deal witb, as, unlike the rattlesnake, they give no notice of warning, and oftentimes the first thing a person knows is when they strike, which is usually about the lower extrinities. Their bite is very poisonous, »nd almost certain to cause death. No remedy is known for the venom but immediately to cut the wound out with a keen»3dged kcife before Ihe poison has a chance to spread through circulation. The farmers of late years have adopted a plan of turning their hogs ie the field as, soon as the crops are gathered, and if the hogs are allowed their own way they will soon exterminate every tniog in the- shape of •- unaser—JSeinCofWUJmes: