OBJECTIONS TO BOUNTIES. 



28 



of the passage of the law. The report received from Nelson County, 

 N. Dak., showed that $4,303.25 had been paid for the destruction of 

 spermophiles between April and July, 1887. The report states: "The 

 attempt to put down the gopher raid was a failure, as it was impossible 

 to follow the 1887 bounties without bankrupting the county* The 

 county has twenty-eight full townships and 227,000 acres Under culti- 

 vation, which gives too much gopher lands*'* The county of Griggs, 

 N. Dak., offered a bounty of 3 cents per tail for gophers during the 

 spring of 1887, and reported $5,200.60 paid oat before the bounty was 

 withdrawn. Mr. George R. Fralick, of La Moure, N. Dak., wrote in 

 1888: u This county [La Moure] has expended thousands of dollars to 

 destroy the Gray Gopher, and there are thousands of them yet to de- 

 stroy our crops." 



In Minnesota, under the act of 1887 Meeker County paid bounties 

 from May 1 to October 1, when the payments were discontinued as 

 it was said that there were as many gophers as before, although 

 $14,056.34 had been expended for the destruction of pocket and Striped 

 Gophers. In Nobles County the act of 1887 was accepted May 18, but 

 the bounty was ordered discontinued after August 28. During this pe 

 riod the amount paid was $1,997.24, about 90 per cent of which was 

 for Striped Gophers and the balance about equally divided between 

 pocket and Gray Gophers and blackbirds. 



Several counties reported fraudulent payments of bounties. In Ram- 

 say County, N. Dak., tails were received as evidence. This was unsat- 

 isfactory, as u it was proved that some of our clever young Americans 

 divided the caudal appendage in two pieces and claimed bounty for 

 each piece, or caught breeders, cut their tails off, and let them go, 

 so as to give them a chance to raise more bounty-producing gophers." 

 The report from Madison County, Iowa, which offered bounties on the 

 several species of gophers indiscriminately, showed that bits of gopher 

 hide with holes cut in them to imitate scalps were presented for pay- 

 ment. u This involved the county in lawsuits, and the bounty on scalps 

 was repealed." 



Dissatisfied with the effects of the bounty laws, the commissioners of 

 several counties in North Dakota offered poison free of charge to the 

 farmers for the destruction of gophers. In the year 1888 Benson 

 County distributed $100 worth of strychnine and reported the results 

 satisfactory so far as the extermination of the pests was concerned, 

 although some stock was poisoned. The number of gophers killed 

 during this year was said to be larger than during the previous year 

 under the bounty act. In the spring of the same year Nelson County 

 furnished $200 worth of the strychnine to the farmers, but reported 

 the experiment unsuccessful. Wheat soaked in a solution of poison 

 was used during May and June. These months were wet, and it was 

 supposed that the moist ground destroyed in some measure the effects 

 of the poison. During the years 1887 to 1889 Wells County furnished 

 $500 worth of strychnine and reported the result successful. 



