THE GROUND SQUIRRELS OP CALIFORNIA. 735 



Considerable thought has been given to the advisability of finding a 

 suitable service for the hides and furs. Could they be given the market 

 value of hides of European squirrels, which were in such demand for 

 making gloves? In 1877 a thrifty person had fifty squirrel skins 

 tanned, made into gloves, and pressed into service. He took the new 

 gloves to several manufacturers of this fastidious apparel for inspec- 

 tion and criticisms. The criticisms were forthcoming without a great 

 deal of hesitancy and evidently not altogether the most favorable. 

 Although labor was comparatively cheap at that time, the smallness 

 of the skins called for a duplication of operations in tanning that was 

 not compensated by the low rate at which ground squirrel hides were 

 obtainable. This would be true too in constructing each individual 

 glove, for an unnecessary amount of piecing would be called for when 

 such small skins were used. The gloves that had been manufactured 

 gave exceptional satisfaction and good service to the wearer. From 

 time to time suggestions for using the hides or furs have been published 

 in various journals, but results that would point toward a profitable 

 enterprise do not seem to have matured. Great care would be neces- 

 sary in looking after the carcasses if trapped or poisoned, to prevent 

 slipping of hair by exposure to sun, also when shooting to pierce the 

 body in such a place that the value of the hide would not be impaired. 

 The suggestion has even been made that perhaps the tail hairs might 

 serve as a substitute for camel 's-hair or badger-bristle brushes. In 

 view of experience with jackrabbit furs, which resulted in a hundred 

 or more thousand being received when an order of forty or fifty 

 thousand was placed, it was feared that the same situation might occur 

 and swamp the market, thus causing a loss to many who were engaged 

 in procuring hides. So far as can be deduced at present, the value 

 as food alone stands in the ground squirrel's favor. It is known that 

 they served as an important part of the Indian's diet from reports in 

 early California history. Personal contact with Pit River Indians in 

 Modoc County as recently as 1915 disclosed their love for the fat 

 Oregon ground squirrel. One middle-aged buck volunteered the infor- 

 mation that Oregon ground squirrel was in substance "Indian pork," 

 consequently he resented the killing of these pests upon his land, which 

 was serving as surprisingly good reinfesting area for the adjacent 

 cultivated fields. Along with jackrabbit, or "Indian beef" as he 

 termed it, and sagehen, or ' ' Indian chicken, ' ' he saw in the destruction 

 of the squirrel a possible meat famine for the Indians of the north. 

 His fears were truly well founded, for many thousands of squirrels 

 have been destroyed in a short time, and still a goodly supply remains 

 to reseed the whole country unless followed by concerted action for 

 their eradication. , 



DEVELOPMENT OP CONTROL METHODS. 



Again we take up control methods and find that as a poison strych- 

 nine was a favorite from the start. It had been used with startling 

 success upon rodents elsewhere ; was generally known to be potent and 

 to act with extreme rapidity. The chief source of difficulty in its use 

 seemed to lie in the practice of preparing the grain with twenty to 

 fifty times the strength of strychnine necessary for satisfactory results. 



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