The farmers divided into two groups and proceeded to
minimize the population explosion of the species by driving two
wagons; one on each lateral side of a field of grass or pasture,
stubble or corn stalks, having a wire attached between them and
dragging it over the field while hunters walked behind the wire and
shot the Jack Rabbits as they jumped out of their hiding
The group that had the most killed rabbits was served a supper
by the losing group. Some of the rabbits were sent to markets in
the cities.
Incidentally, a Jack Rabbit travels faster than a traction
engine. Courtesy of Diedrick L. Dalke, 14 D Auburn Court,
Alexandria, Virginia 22305.
The farmers divided into two groups and proceeded to
minimize the population explosion of the species by driving two
wagons; one on each lateral side of a field of grass or pasture,
stubble or corn stalks, having a wire attached between them and
dragging it over the field while hunters walked behind the wire and
shot the Jack Rabbits as they jumped out of their hiding
places.
The group that had the most killed rabbits was served a supper
by the losing group. Some of the rabbits were sent to markets in
the cities.
Incidentally, a Jack Rabbit travels faster than a traction
engine. Courtesy of Diedrick L. Dalke, 14 D Auburn Court,
Alexandria, Virginia 22305.
The only other way out was up an extremely steep hill. We
started to pull this hill with the firebox full of slab wood. When
it came to the steepest part of this hill, the fire door would fall
open of its own accord. We had to put a block of wood in front of
it and stand on the block to keep it shut. Boy, I’ll tell you
that Reeves was sounding off and pushing coals out of the stack.
When a drive wheel would latch onto a good root for a bite, you
could see red in the exhaust.
We made the hill without any trouble except that we had the
leaves burning all around us in the woods and the fire was about
all pulled out through the stack. We pulled the front end of the
engine up on a little bank to bring the water over the crown sheet,
started the injector and then put the fires out in the woods.
I’ll never forget that pull as long as I live. There are a lot
of good hill climbing engines but the Reeves isn’t bad at
it.
Incidentally, some of your readers may know this engine. It was
bought by my father, Ben Jansen, in 1933 or ’34 from Jake
Marner at Arthur, Illinois. Courtesy of Virgil Jansen, Sigel,
Illinois 62462.