462 Squirrels and Gophers. 
thodium. Heat the water to boiling point and let it stand all 
night. Next morning stir in flour sufficient to make a sort of 
paste. The rabbits eat it with avidity if scattered about. 
Another preparation is half a teaspoonful of powdered 
strychnine, two teaspoonfuls of fine salt, and four of granulated 
sigar. Put all in a tin box and shake well. Pour in small 
heaps on a board. It hardens into a solid mass. They lick it 
for the salt, and the sugar disguises the poison, which kills great 
numbers. 
GROUND-SQUIRRELS. 
Ground-squirrels are poisoned by the use of the poisoned 
wheats which are sold in the markets, or by use of bisulphide of 
carbon, or “smokers,” which are arranged to force smoke into 
the holes. A small quantity of bisulphide of carbon poured 
into the hole, and the hole closed with dirt, is probably the most 
effective squirrel killer, when the ground is wet, so that the vapor 
is held in the burrow. Smokers are also most effective when 
the soil is moist. When the ground is dry, poison is the best 
means of reducing squirrels. The following is an exceedingly 
effective preparation, of which a few grains should be placed in 
or near each hole:— 
Take strychnine, one ounce; cyanide of potassium, one and one- 
half ounces; eggs, one dozen; honey, one pint; vinegar, one and one- 
half pints; wheat or barley, thirty pounds. Dissolve strychnine in the 
vinegar; and you will have to pulverize it in the vinegar, or it will gather 
into alump. See that it is all dissolved. Dissolve the cyanide of potas- 
sium in a little water. Beat the eggs. Mix all the ingredients together 
thoroughly before adding to the barley. Let it stand twenty-four hours, 
mixing often. Spread to dry before using, as it will mold if put away 
wet. 
- To keep squirrels from gnawing fruit trees, or climbing and 
getting the fruit, tying a newspaper around the trunk of the 
tree, letting the paper extend out four inches at the upper edges, 
is said to be effective. The rattle of the paper when the squirrels 
attempt to get over it will frighten them. 
GOPHERS. 
Gophers can often be destroyed by the use of poisoned 
wheat, especially if prepared with a little oil of rhodium, which 
seems to be very attractive to all rodents. Pieces of fruits or 
vegetables into which a few grains of strychnine have been in- 
serted by making a cut with a knife-blade and then squeezing it 
together again, are also handy conveyors of death to gophers. 
There are two ways to put poisoned materials into a gopher run- 
way. One is to look for fresh open holes and put in the poison 
as far as possible with a long-handled spoon; another is to take 
a round, pointed stick and shove it in the ground near the 
