AGIUCULTl^RAr. AIMMIOPUIATION MII.I., I'J'H. 325 



30 or to or ')() acn^s thov huvo just simpiv clcHncd it up in .me ni;;lii. 

 'llic jack rabbits in tiorthrrii Nevada and also in Ks«jibintt' \ allcv, in 

 Utah, liavc actually caused the settlors to abandon their ranclies; 

 t}ie\ coidd not raise crops. 



Mr. BiciiANAN. 'J'herc has been many a one there. 



Doctor Nki-.so.n. After the ])oisoninj^ campaign in northeni Nevada, 

 the peoi)le have gone back and there is a i)ros])erous community there 

 now. \Ve have ])oisoned the rabbits and shown them how, and thev 

 are abl(> now to <;o ahead. 



In the case of ])rairie doji^s, thev concentrate about the farms and 

 are e.\ceedin<jly destructive, and tliey also occupy an immense area. 

 Over 100, ()()(), 000 ac-res are occu])i(Ml by prairie <lo{;s in 12 western 

 States, and they probably destroy J.') ])er cent of the forap; in the 

 country they occupy. In some places they take it practically all. 

 They concentrate about the cultivated areas to such an extent that 

 they often destroy the fields, and occasionally they clean up so that 

 the man abandons the cultivated lands. In other ))laces tliey take 

 anv-Avhere from .5 to 50 per cent of the crop, and in many places, 

 before we poisoned them, they were unable to p^row cro]>s at all. 



It will interest you, no doubt, to know that we have made a final 

 clean-up of the prairie dogs in one area in southern Arizona, about 

 1 10 miles long and 15 to 20 broad. It was a very rich valley bottom, 

 in which the prairie do^p were enormously abunflant. and it was like 

 a desert. They had destroyed everything and kept the vegetation 

 right down to the bare ground. 



Mr. BuciiAXAX. I know all about those creatures. They are 

 fit for nothing on earth except to ruin the country they make a 

 town in. They have a regular city of prairie dogs. 



EXTR.^CTS PROM LETTERS OF PER.SONS BENEFITED BY THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST 



PRED.\TORY ANIMALS. 



Doctor Nelson. Mr. Hugh Campbell, president of the Arizona 

 Wool Growers' Association, wrote a letter August 3. He says: 



On June 23, 1922, the last prairie doji was exterminated from the counties of rochise 

 and Graham. This was a result of three years' united effort on the part of over 800 

 stockmen and farmers cooperatinji with two experts of the Biological Surrey. An 

 area 120 miles lon?^ and from 10 to 20 miles wide was actually cleared of this pest. 



Throe years atjo when I visited this <listrict I rode throujrh miles and miles of 

 prairie dog infestation, and bare, denuded lands lay on every side. To-day, after 

 these pests have been exterminated, the gra-ss i.s knee high. Fat stock and fertile 

 farms are to be seen on every hand and a prosperous community is in the making, 

 where heretofore at least 0.000,000 prairie dogs had their way and forever held in 

 check the development of that fertile valley. 



It is estimated that the increased forage now made possible will support at least 

 50. (XK) head of sheep, and farmers are now growing alfalfa and grain on ground which 

 was formerly so heavily infested with prairie dogs that it was quite im])ostiible to 

 raise anything. 



I think there is a good example of direct benefit derived from 

 that work. 



We have also cleaned up four counties in Kansas. We organized 

 there, or suggested to the State agricultural college, which is cooper- 

 ating with us, that they begin on the eastern border of the prairie- 

 dog infested area in Kansas and clean one county after the other, 

 moving west each time, in order that they mav make a final clean 

 up. They have been fighting prairie dogs in Kansas ever since the 

 farmers of the State went in there, and thev still have them. Bv 



