THF GROUND SQUIRRELS OF CALIFORNIA. 



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the benefit of those interested. From the Capay Valley of Yolo County 

 in 1877 comes word of 1,520 kernels of wheat, while a citation of the 

 Watsonville Pajaronian gives one ground squirrel credit for lugging 

 1,270 kernels of plump wheat at least one-half mile from a grain field. 

 These are bolstered by two more records, one from the San Mateo 

 Journal in July, 1881, wherein 1,078 kernels of chevalier barley 

 formed the load ; the other from the Contra Costa Gazette, mentioning 

 1,834 kernels from the pouches of a single squirrel. We truly feel that 

 these are positively outstanding instances, for personal observations 

 have disclosed an average of from 350 to 500 kernels of grain during 

 the storing period. 



Fig. 50. Pack train supplying crews at work destroying 1 

 squirrels in the more mountainous districts. 



Utilization has been made by a number of field men of thick syrup 

 as a medium to hold strychnine and other poisons, which when trod 

 upon by rodents would adhere to the foot-pads. The sticky substance 

 would naturally cause the squirrel some discomfiture, which might be 

 allayed by licking the bothersome stuff from the feet. Strychnine 

 would thus be ingested in the process of removing the syrup. This 

 truly is not a common means of controlling squirrels, but like the use 

 of various kinds of bait, such as melons, dried fruits, grain heads, cull 

 deciduous and citrus fruits, bits of bacon, dandelion root, acorns, buck- 

 eye nuts, etc., with strychnine has served where the more common 

 expedients seem to have failed in the control of the few wise and 

 sophisticated ground squirrels. 



Likewise concentrated lye, which has been used with success, much 

 as the syrup, for moles and gophers, might perhaps be of some avail 

 against squirrels. Licking the substance from the toes allows it to get 

 into the mouth with disastrous results for the squirrel. 



On one occasion the use of sulphur fumes to suffocate squirrels has 

 been referred to as common during the early '70s, which method was 

 a final resort for action during the rainy season when poisoned grain 

 did not seem effective. But there have been very few new ideas along 

 squirrel control lines that have put so much impetus behind squirrel 



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