16 



COMMON MAMMALS OK W I'.S'I 1,1! N MONTANA. 



should never be placed in ground-squirrel holes, for when so placed 

 they arc trampled into the dirt and are not eaten. When stock is 

 ranging in the poisoned territory the grains may l>e scattered a little, 

 not too much. 



TRAPPING. 



Next to poison, traps are the most effective means of destroying 

 the Columbian ground squirrel. In fact, only by their use can the 

 animals be exterminated in a given locality, for there, are always 

 some individuals which refuse to take poisoned baits or which escape 

 fumigation. But since trapping is more expensive than poisoning, 

 the two methods should be combined, as many as possible of the ani- 

 mals being hilled with strychnine and the rest caught with traps. 

 Systematic trapping has not, in most localities, been as much resorted 

 lo as it should have been. It can not be too strongly recommended 

 as a supplement to poison. 



The value of systematic trapping is well proved by the results 

 which have attended its use in the rolling wheat lands of "Whitman 

 County, Wash., where it has steadily advanced in favor and has now 

 hugely supplanted poisoning. One or two of the ranch owners are 

 operating 2.000 or more traps, and a number are nsing from 500 

 to 1,000. 



.Mr. Mert Davis, of Pullman, is more than anyone else responsible 

 for the introduction of systematic squirrel trapping, and his experi- 

 ence is valuable. Two years ago he began trapping on a newly pur- 

 chased ranch of 400 acres, all of which was very badly infested with 

 squirrels. Din ing the season of 1909 he used 1,200 traps, continuing 

 the work through 1 1H and into the spring of 1911, when only a few 

 scattered squirrels remained; and these were secured soon after- 

 wards. This ranch is now entirely free from squirrels, and. although 

 the surrounding fields have not been trapped, is protected from in- 

 vasion by keeping traps in the holes around the boundaries. Mr. 

 Davis believes that old rusty traps are at least as good as shiny new 

 ones. The squirrels caught were chopped up and fed to the chickens. 



METHODS OF SETTING TRAPS. 



There are two methods of setting squirrel traps, the " hole set " and 

 the " surface set." 



The hole sets are the ones almost universally employed at present. 

 In thi- method jump traps, or ordinary steel traps (Xo. 1 are better 

 than Xo. 0), are set in ever}' hole. (Fig. G.) If these traps are tended 

 every day, all the squirrels are sure to be caught. The principal ob- 

 jection to this method is the very large number of traps required, for 

 since there are often ten or fifteen times as many holes as there are 

 squirrels a large number of traps often cover surprisingly little 

 ground. Mr. Claude Haines, a Whitman County rancher, bought 



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