Campaigns for Control of Ground Squirrels. 7 



exterminated upon thousands of acres. Over 98 per cent of 

 the animals have now been killed by the first application 

 of the poison. 



The support of county commissioners and township super- 

 visors was enlisted in several counties where it was desirable 

 to undertake the control of native rodents, and funds were 

 provided by them to purchase poison supplies in large quan- 

 tity, thus obtaining much more favorable price quotations. 

 Experts in rodent control detailed by the Biological Survey, 

 aided by county agricultural agents, interested and organ- 

 ized the farming communities. Entire counties were organ- 

 ized in this systematic voluntary warfare upon the rodents, 

 using the township as a convenient working unit. Poisoned 

 grain was prepared in quantity, placed in plainly marked 

 containers, and distributed to farmers, who then applied it 

 according to directions about the ground-squirrel burrows 

 upon their farms. More than 5.000,000 acres were treated 

 with poison in 1916. 



During the spring of 1917 more than 16,000 farmers in 

 North Dakota joined in this movement. The ground squir- 

 rels were poisoned on 4,500.000 acres, resulting in a practical 

 elimination of the pest in the areas treated and a saving in 

 the year's crop of more than $1,000,000. Including hire of 

 labor to distribute the poison, the cost averages less than 5 

 cents per acre under North Dakota conditions, and where 

 landowners perform the labor the actual cash outlay per acre 

 is materially reduced. As a small amount of follow-up work 

 serves to exterminate the animals entirely and thus to free 

 the land permanently from their depredations, the increased 

 production becomes an annually recurring one, effected at a 

 total cost much less than the loss formerly experienced dur- 

 ing the single year. 



The continuance of this campaign, which is planned pro- 

 gressively to cover the entire infested portion of the State, 

 will at the p resent rate of progress practically exterminate 

 this destructive pest from North Dakota in about five years. 

 The achievement in this systematic campaign marks a dis- 

 tinct advance in procedure for the control of rodent pests 

 in agricultural regions. It has conclusively demonstrated 

 the possibility, when local, State, and Federal agencies co- 

 operate heartily in meeting a real agricultural need, of 



