788 



THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 



It was noted that the treated land along the borders of the forests 

 adjacent to untreated private lands soon became reinfested. This fact, 

 together with the increasing number of requests for assistance from 

 ranchers in California who knew of the work on government lands, led 

 the bureau into the broader field of giving assistance to the farmers 

 and helping them to conserve and increase the food supply so greatly 

 needed owing to war and general commercial demands by organizing 

 systematic community and county campaigns, using the most effective 

 methods under competent direction and supervision. 



A study of conditions under which ranchers were fighting the squir- 

 rels and methods employed by them revealed these problems : 



1. Lack of an effective cheap poison. 



2. Lack of an effective method of distributing poisons. 



3. Lack of organization to secure concerted co-operation of every 

 landowner whose lands were infested. 



4. Lack of knowledge of the methods being successfully employed 

 by the government agencies working on the problem. 



5. Failure to realize the great damage and loss caused by rodent 

 pests. 



6. Lack of a desire to exterminate the pests on the part of the 

 majority of the ranchers and discouragement on the part of the 

 minority who were faithfully fighting them. 



To meet these conditions the Biological Survey began in the spring 

 of 1917 the county educational campaigns, co-operating with the county 

 commissioners of horticulture and county farm bureaus. The aim of 

 these was to meet the ranchers directly and acquaint them with the 

 habits of the rodent pests and the great damage that they are doing 

 throughout the state ; to give information as to cheap and effective 

 poisons and the most successful methods of distribution ; and, last but 

 not least, to instil a desire into the mind of the ranchers to eradicate 

 the squirrel and gopher pests. It was strongly recommended that the 

 counties prepare under, proper supervision their own poisoned grain 

 according to the Biological Survey formula and sell it direct to farmers 

 at cost. The counties so doing have saved the farmers a large amount 

 of money in the cost of poison. About 300 tons have been mixed and 

 sold by the various counties in the state since August 1, 1917. 



In 1917 fifteen county campaigns were held and during the present 

 year they were continued in co-operation with the Rodent Control 

 Division of the State Commission of Horticulture. Those counties in 

 which the campaigns have been followed up with a definite, concrete 

 plan embodying thoroughness, persistency, and united action, are 

 making a successful fight against the pests. 



In some communities in which the government crews have been 

 working this season on public lands, private landowners have co-oper- 

 ated heartily and a saving in grain, bean, alfalfa, fruit, and other 

 important agricultural crops, valued at many thousands of dollars, has 

 resulted. Reports from the rangers on the forests where work has 

 been carried on for a year or more show a noticeable increase in the 

 carrying capacity of the range, estimated at from 15 per cent to 25 per 

 cent. All these reports plainly indicate that the effort is not in vain. 



]96 



