PRAIRIE-DOGS 159 



65,000 square miles of their scattered range in the 

 State contains, as seems probable, an equal number, 

 the State of Texas supports 800,000,000 prairie-dogs. 

 According to the formula for determining the relative 

 amount of food consumed by animals of different 

 sizes, this number of prairie-dogs would require as 

 much grass as 3,125,000 cattle. 



''In many places the prairie-dogs are increasing 

 and spreading over new territory, but on most of the 

 ranches they are kept down by the use of poison, or 

 bisulphid of carbon, or, better, by a combination of 

 the two. As a Texas cattle ranch usually covers from 

 10,000 to 100,000 acres, the expense of destroying the 

 prairie-dogs in the most economical manner often 

 means an outlay of several thousand dollars to begin 

 with and a considerable sum each year to keep them 

 down. The increase of prairie-dogs is clearly due to 

 the destruction of their natural enemies. . . . 



"In autumn the prairie-dogs become fat, but in 

 Texas they do not hibernate as they do to some extent 

 in the North. If their fur should become fashionable, 

 or roast prairie-dog an epicurean dish, the problem 

 of keeping them in check would be settled, and there 

 is no reason, save their name, for not counting them, 

 properly prepared and cooked, a delicacy. While 

 owing their name to a chirping or 'barking' note of 

 w r arning, they are in reality a big, plump, burrow- 

 ing squirrel of irreproachable habits as regards food 

 arid cleanliness. An old stage driver expressed the 

 idea in graphic words one day: 'If them things was 

 called by their right name, there would not be one 



