GROUND SQUIRRELS AND GOPHERS 495 



into the holes. A small quantity of bisulphide of carbon poured into 

 the hole, and the hole closed with dirt, is probably the most effective 

 squirrel killer, when the ground is wet, so that the vapor is held in the 

 burrow. Smokers are also most effective when the soil is moist. When 

 the ground is dry, poison is the best means of reducing squirrels. The 

 following is an exceedingly effective preparation, of which a few grains 

 should be placed in or near each hole : 



Take strychnine, one ounce ; cyanide of potassium, one and one-half ounces ; 

 eggs, one dozen; honey, one pint; vinegar, one and one-half pints; wheat or 

 barley, thirty pounds. Dissolve strychnine in the vinegar; and you will have to 

 pulverize it in the vinegar, or it will gather into a lump. See that it is all dis- 

 solved. Dissolve the cyanide of potassium in a little water. Beat the eggs. Mix 

 all the ingredients together thoroughly before adding to the barley. Let it stand 

 twenty-four hours, mixing often. Spread to dry before using, as it will mold if 

 put away wet. 



What is known as the "government formula," being used by various 

 departments of the United States government in the effort to eradicate 

 ground squirrels from California, is as follows : 



Strychnine (pulverized alkaloid), 3 ounces. 



Starch, ]/ 2 pint. 



Barley, 13 gallons. 



Water, 3 pints. 



The water is placed over a fire and heated to boiling; the starch 

 is dissolved in a half-pint of cold water and added to the boiling water, 

 which is stirred carefully to insure uniform consistence. When the 

 starch has become clear, remove it from the fire and add the strych- 

 nine. Mix this poisoned paste with the barley until every kernel is 

 coated. 



To keep squirrels from gnawing fruit trees, or climbing and getting 

 the fruit, tying a newspaper around the trunk of the tree, letting the 

 paper extend out four inches at the upper edges, is said to be effective 

 by some growers, though this is denied by others. The rattle of the 

 paper when the squirrels attempt to get over it will frighten them. 



GOPHERS 



Gophers can often be destroyed by the use of r^'soned wheat, 

 especially prepared with a little oil of rhodium, which . eems to be very 

 attractive to all rodents. Pieces of fruits or vegetable, or the succulent 

 stems of alfalfa, into which a few grains of strychnine have been in- 

 serted by making a cut with a knife-blade and then squeezing it together 

 again, are also handy conveyors of death to gophers. There are two 

 ways to put poisoned materials into a gopher runway. One is to look 

 for fresh open holes and put in the poison as far as possible with a 

 long-handled spoon ; another is to take a round, pointed stick and shove 

 it into the ground near the gopher mounds until it strikes their run- 

 way, then drop in the poisoned bait. Close up the hole with some grass ; 

 level down mounds, so that if the poison does not kill all the gophers, 

 you will soon discover their new mounds. If there are many mounds, 

 put the poison in a number of places. 



