24 



SPERMOPHILES OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 



In the State of Washington a large amount of money has also been 

 expended in poison for the destruction of Townsend's Spermophile (Sper- 

 mophilus totcnsendi). Dr. J. W. Lockhardt, of Saint John, Whitman 

 County, under date of June S, 1892 writes: " I think it no exaggera- 

 tion to say that the formers of this county [Whitman] spent 83,000 this 

 year for the poison for this pest and yet many acres of grain are already 

 destroyed. n 



Evidently a bounty can be but a temporary expedient for the exter- 

 mination of these or other animals. Even if a sufficient amount of 

 money were appropriated to completely exterminate a species in a given 

 locality, its numbers would soon be reduced to a certain limit where it 

 would cease to be profitable to huut the animals, and the bounty would 

 consequently become inoperative. 



•• Bounties offered for the destruction of harmful species seldom 

 accomplish the desired end. and if success does finally result it is only 

 after vastly larger expenditures than were at first thought necessary. 

 After a harmful species — the wolf, for example — has become rather 

 scarce in any section of country the offer of a bounty may lead to its 

 complete extermination ; and to attain such -a result, it is certainly 

 good economy to make the bounty large. Obviously, it is better to 

 pay a large sum at once for the last few pairs of wolves in a district 

 than to offer a bounty so small that it is little inducement to a hunter 

 to spend his time in their pursuit. In this latter case the wolves 

 easily hold their own for many yerfrs, or even increase slowly, while 

 the aggregate bounties paid will far exceed all expectation. In order 

 to be effective a bounty should be large enough to assure the destruc- 

 tion of the great majority of the individuals during the first year, and 

 this is especially true of species which are very numerous and prolific. 

 And yet the amount of money required for the payment of bounties in 

 such cases would be so enormous as to make the plan impracticable."* 



A full discussion of this phase of the subject may be found in a sec- 

 lion devoted to the question of bounties on the English sparrow.t 



METHODS OF DESTROYING PRAIRIE DOGS AND SPER- 

 MOPHILES. 



Experience has shown that in many ways spermophiles render val- 

 uable service to the farmer, but when they are numerous about grain 

 fields they must be disposed of orm some way prevented from attacking 

 the crop, else great loss will be sustained. Still, a wholesale destruc- 

 tion is not to be recommended; unless they do serious damage, spare 

 them for the good they do, and at least let them remain on the prairies 

 and in the meadows and pastures. 



The injury which they do to crops, however, is an evil of such magni- 

 tude over more than two-thirds of the total area of the United States, 



* Bulletin No. 1, The English Sparrow in America, 1889, pp. 153-154. 

 tLoc. cit., 153-163. 



