Lore salesman can't make as much from natural blind sets.
Early on in here I was told by several "regulars" a lured dirt hole
was better than crossing set.
I learned a bunch right there.

Definitely some gems in the old books.

EJ mainly trapped the Adirondacks.

Reading some old trapping books lately...right now I'm on one about EJ Daily. One of the things that I noticed is how often the trappers of that bygone era found sets as opposed to constructing sets. Trails, stumps with holes around them, hollow trees, and actual dens, crossing logs and so on. Sure they used dirt holes, mainly for fox, but they mostly just set where the animals already were traveling. It's so much easier to teach someone how to make a set then how to learn animals habits and make sets that might take a little construction, but are mostly created by nature and animals movements.
But often the natural sets are better producers.