62 



Station (Bulletin No. 25, April 1803). Many of tliem are clum.sy and expen- 

 sive, and few, if any, can compete witli the common steel trap when the latter 

 is properly used. 



Poisoning. — Poisoning is a simpler and more expeditious method of 

 destroying gophers than trapping, but is more laborious than the use of 

 bisulphide of carbon. The use of poison is always attended with danger, for 

 in spite of all precaution, other animals than those for which It was intended 

 are liable to get it. 



The usual method is to insert a small quantity of arsenic or floured 

 strychnine into a piece of potato and push the potato as far as possible into a 

 fresh gopher's hole and then close the opening securely. The Honourable J. 

 Sterling Morton, Secretary of Agriculture, has found arsenic on white potatoes 

 and apples efficacious in destroying pocket gophers at his home in Eastern 

 Nebraska. 



rhosphorus has been u.sed extensively in California, Washington and 

 Oregon, in destroying ground squirrels, and to a less extent for pocket gophers. 

 Mr. Allen Chattin, of Charter Oak, Iowa, states that he has entirely extermin- 

 ated the gophers from his own and several neighbouring farms by the use of 

 phosphorus. His recipe is as follows : — 



Put a stick of phosphorus in a 5-gallon can with a little cold water; next 

 pour in hot water, not quite boiling, until the can is half full, and stir with a 

 stick. When the phosphorus is melted add, while the water is stirred con- 

 stantly, 2 pounds of sugar, and immediately after the sugar is dissolved 

 thicken to a stiff batter with corn meal and flour, half-and-half. Now add 

 wheat and stir until stiff. While addiug the wheat add also 15 to 20 drops 

 of oil of rhodium. The wheat will soak up all the water in the mass and 

 it will liecome quite hard. Keep in a cool place. Small pieces may be chipped 

 off as needed. Gophers may get too little strychnine to kill tliem, but no 

 matter how small a piece of phosphorus they get it will finally prove fatal. 

 Dig down to an open hole, drop in a small piece, put a clod to keep the hole 

 from filling, and cover over with loose dirt to exclude the light. 



It should be borne in mind that pho.sphorus is one of the most deadly 

 poisons. I do not wish to be held responsible for recommending the use of 

 this or any other poison on the farm. 



Carbon Disulphtoe as a Squirrel Killer. 



The use of carbon disulphide (or as is more commonly known, carbon 

 bisulphide) as a solvent for grea.se and oils has been known for many years. 

 Likewise its use as a germicide and insecticide in agriculture, uniseums and 

 herbaria has been recognised for a considerable period of time. It has been 

 employed for several years in the extermination of rats, gophers and prairie 

 dogs, but I know of no one who has made careful use of it in the extermina- 

 tion of ground squirrels and then checked up his work. Therefore, I deter- 

 mined to give the substance a most careful test this spring, as my experience 

 with it in former years had been of too haphazard a character to warrant its 

 being placed in a press bulletin. Whenever, during the past two years, I had 

 dug out the run-ways or dens, after employing the disulphide, I h.id found the 

 squirrels dead, but I had found too few of them to .say that it nl,va,)s kills 

 thMu. After a trial this .spring, I can state with certaintv, that' where 



