52 BULLETIN 475, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



(ground together in a mortar) over about 4 quarts of the dampened baits, 

 stirring to distribute the poison evenly. 



The runways, which are usually from 4 to 8 inches beneath the 

 surface, can be located by means of a probe made of any strong 

 handle an inch in diameter and 36 inches long. One end should be 

 bluntly pointed. Into the other should be fitted a piece of three- 

 eighths-inch iron rod, protruding about 12 inches, and bluntly 

 pointed. A foot rest aids in probing hard soils. By forcing down 

 this iron rod near gopher workings, or a foot or two back of fresh 

 mounds, the open tunnel can be felt as the point breaks into it. The 

 blunt end of the instrument is now carefully used to enlarge the hole, 

 a bait or two is dropped into the run, and the probe hole closed. 



One soon becomes expert in locating the runs, and a man can treat 

 from 300 to 500 gopher workings in a day. Baits need be placed at 

 only two points in each separate system or group of from 10 to 30 

 mounds, which is usually the home of a single gopher. Baits placed 

 in open underground runs have invariably killed the gophers, and 

 the method has found great favor wherever it has been introduced. 



At the Converse Nursery, in California, wood rats or " pack " rats 

 (Neotoma) have been found responsible for a considerable part of 

 the damage to transplants usually ascribed to rabbits. 



Wood rats eat little or nothing of the trees they cut, but carry the 

 green tips into their nests to store away, as they do mam^ other 

 things for which they apparently have no real use. These animals 

 are rarely killed by any of the baits which have been described, 

 though they pack away such baits readily enough. Effective results 

 were obtained by dusting baits liberally with finely powdered strych- 

 nine, as the rats were killed in packing them. Dry oatmeal biscuits 

 one-half inch square and one-fourth inch thick, cut from a stiff 

 dough of oatmeal and water after rolling it in sheets, proved to be 

 especially successful baits. Raisins and whole corn ma}' also be used. 



Though both cottontails and jack rabbits fall victims to poisoned 

 oats during periods when their natural food is scarce, this poison can 

 not always be relied upon to destroy them when it is most important 

 to check their depredations. Green or ripening grain heads of barley 

 or wheat are among the most attractive baits in summer. Soaked 

 for 48 hours or more in a solution of 1 ounce of strychnine sulphate 

 and one-eighth ounce of saccharine in 2 gallons of water, such baits 

 have occasionally proved very successful. They should be used only 

 in locations where live stock is not endangered. 



Investigations oh the Pike National Forest by Forest Expert H. S. 

 Reinsch have developed the fact that on that Forest hulled oats is the 

 grain most relished by mice and hulled barley is the most desirable 

 grain for poisoning all species of rodents. On the Arapaho National 

 Forest groats is considered superior to wheat for use in poisoning. 



