284 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



of sage brush or grass for the day. In the latter retreat 

 they are a constant menace to stock. 



A frequent sight in our mountain grazing areas is a 

 cow or steer with nose fairly bristling with quills, due to 

 the animal having suddenly thrown its head down into 



PUlSU.N' BUAKDS l-UK i'(JRC L PIiX HS 



Porcupines love salty things and finding something saline in a newly 

 painted board chewed the board. This gave the author an idea 

 and soa]<ing boards in brine he sprinkled them with strychnine, 

 placed them in the forest and trilled many porcupines. 



a clump of grass or bushes only to land upon the barked 

 back of a slumbering porcupine. 



Nor is this all — the animal is extravagantly fond of 

 salt. Anything containing the slightest taint of salinity 

 is food for his teeth. A prospector's tool handles, ropes, 

 ore buckets, etc., are speedily gnawed to pieces, while 

 the homes of all mountain residents are rarely free from 

 their nightly maraudings from spring till fall. For years 

 the writer obtained some relief from their depredations 

 by the use of a shot gun or six-shooter at all times of 

 night, but the annoying destruction to buggies, sleighs. 

 boxes, barrels, etc., went on. and the work of burning 

 their bodies and clearing the premises of quills was still 

 more exasperating — for when a porcupine is shot or 

 struck with a missile or club the quills fly in all directions 

 ■ — a fact that probably gave rise to the story of our 

 grandfathers that a porcupine possessed the power to 

 throw his quills at an approaching enemy. 



Five years ago the writer moved into a newlv completed 

 house, but the quiet of night was soon disturbed by tlie 

 grind and rasp of a porcupine's teeth. I found that one 

 of them had discovered something saline in the paint 

 on a veranda railing. This gave me an idea and I carried 

 it out in the way shown in the photograph. A quart bottle 

 was filled with strong brine and a set of boards was thor- 

 oughly soaked with it. While still damp, stryclmine was 

 liberally sprinkled over them. (The photo shows the 

 boards, brine and one ounce of strychnine bottles, also a 

 small tree girdled and killed by porcupines.) These 



boards were distributed in two square miles of forest 

 area and had the effect of completely ridding a half town- 

 ship of the pests. 



Some of these poisoned boards were placed in their 

 winter dens ; others were nailed to trees above the reach 

 of horses or cattle or under trees whose low lying limbs 

 prevented stock from getting to them, while others were 

 fenced in. The poisoned faces of those used in small 

 tree areas were protected from rains and wet snow by 

 boards nailed across the tops. 



The dead porcupine at the foot of the large tree was 

 the third destroyed during May, 1910, at an expense of 

 about one inch eaten from the side of the board. The 

 tree was debarked by the rodents three years previously. 

 It was the only instance where one of them was found 

 near the boards. 



Porcupines are very tenacious of life, but it can be 

 taken as a certainty that when their teeth marks are 

 found on the boards a dead pest will be found in the 

 \ icinity. 



Complaints of the destructive work of these animals 

 are heard from all sections of our country where conifers 

 grow. I have read of instances where tree owners were 

 imying $1.00 for each porcupine killed on their grounds. 



The method I have used will quickly and cheaply put 

 an end to their work, and I would not have given it to the 

 public had I not reached the belief that this most repulsive 



THE PORCUPINE 



One of the many which the author killed by poisoning, strychnine being 

 placed upon the board nailed to the tree. Note how the bark has 

 been stripped from the tree by the animals. 



