4 



SEED-EATING MAMMALS AND B KFOKESTATI ON . 



HOW AND WHEN TO PUT (ll T POISON. 



Ordinarily in distributing poisoned wheat, about 20 kernels should 

 be dropped every 3 or 4 feet along parallel lines ."> yards apart, an 

 extra quantity being left under logs and shelving bowlders. At this 

 rate a bushel of wheat is sufficient for about 40 acres. In certain 

 dry regions, however, where vegetation and the mammals subsisting 

 upon it are mainly concentrated on favorable slopes and along 

 streams, waste of bait may be avoided by putting it out in larger or 

 smaller quantities according to the varying numbers of the pests. 

 Where they are scarce, it need be put only under logs and stones and 

 in similar retreats. The particular kinds of rodents likely to do 



mischief and the way they 

 are distributed in any 

 given locality may be de- 

 termined by careful ob- 

 servations and a little 

 preliminary trapping. 



Poisoned bait may be 

 protected from rain and 

 guarded from birds or 

 poultry by placing it un- 

 der pieces of bark or little 

 piles of stones. Such 

 shelters are favorite 

 haunts of small rodents. 



Mice and chipmunks 

 are more easily poisoned 

 in spring, when food is 

 scarce, than when seeds 

 and fruits are ripe and 

 insects plentiful. It is 

 advisable, therefore, to 

 distribute poison early in 

 the season regardless of the time of planting seed. When seeding is 

 to be done in summer or autumn, the rodents should be destroyed 

 over a somewhat larger area than is designed to be seeded, in order 

 to prevent invasion from surrounding territory. 



While poisoned grain may be distributed with fair speed by hand, 

 it can be done more expeditiously by using the sack illustrated in 

 figures 2 and 3. This sack, which is made of denim or other strong 

 cloth, has a shoulder strap and a narrow wooden bottom fitted with 

 a simple dropping device, the details of which are made clear by 



