ENEMIES AND FRIENDS OF 

 ALFALFA 



GOPHERS AND PRAIRIE-DOGS 



The commonest enemies of alfalfa in the Central 

 West are animals and insedls. The animals liable to 

 ruin a good stand of alfalfa are gophers and prairie- 

 dogs. The cheapest means of getting rid of them is 

 poison. Take potatoes, peel, and soak them overnight 

 in strong poisonous solutions such as strychnine, 

 arsenic, or corrosive sublimate; drop these potatoes 

 into the holes of burrowing animals. Cover over each 

 hole so treated with a board or a chip, to keep the 

 runway open, and put some earth on top of this. Corn 

 soaked in a solution of lard and strychnine may be 

 used in the same way. Carbon bisulphide has been 

 used with success. It is rather dangerous to handle, 

 as it evaporates very rapidly into an exceedingly poi- 

 sonous and inflammable gas. If carbon bisulphide is 

 used, keep it in a closed vessel as it is being applied. 

 It can best be applied by soaking corn-cobs in the 

 liquid and dropping these into the burrows. The 

 corn-cobs should be quickly ' ' hooked ' ' out of the 

 liquid with a wire and placed in the burrow, which 

 should immediately be covered with earth, tamped 

 tight, leaving the runways unobstrudled. The gas 

 suffocates the animals, and the user must be careful 

 not to get the larger dose himself. Trapping has also 

 been pradliced. Where irrigation is available, the 

 best way is to flood the land sufficiently to drown 

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