94 AlfiAtVJ: 



who have followed its diredlions claim is thoroughly 

 effedlive : 



"Put a stick of phosphorus in a five-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 constantly, two 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 

 adding the wheat add also fifteen to twenty drops of 

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

 in the mass, and it will become quite hard. Keep in 

 a cool place. Small pieces may be chipped off as 

 needed. Gophers may get too little strychnine to kill 

 them, but no matter how small a piece of phosphorous 

 they get it will finally prove fatal. Dig down to an 

 open hole, drop in a small piece, put in a clod to keep 

 the hole from filling, and cover over with loose dirt, to 

 exclude the light." 



It is said that using one-fifth the quantity of each 

 ingredient mentioned in this recipe will give as much 

 of the mixture as is likely to be needed at any one 

 time, and the smaller quantity lessens the chances of 

 poisoning animals other than gophers. Phosphorous 

 is one of the deadliest of poisons. 



GRASSHOPPERS 



The insedls that have been most injurious to alfalfa 

 are the various species of grasshoppers. When abun- 

 dant, they are liable to destroy fall-sown alfalfa. In 

 western Kansas they sometimes destroy the crop intend- 

 ed for seed. Professor Hunter, of Kansas, has shown 



