16 



CIRCULAR FOURTEKN 



The best time to use carbon bisulfid is after a rain, wlien the 

 interspaces in the soil are tilled with water. 



Warning. — Carbon bisiilfid is inflammable and highly explo- 

 sive. Do not open it near a fire, or where anyone is smoking. 

 Carbon bisulfld should be kept tightly corked, as it eva])oi*ates 

 ra[;idly on exposure to the air. 



Mr. George Slater, foreman of the J. O. D. Ranch at Aroya. 

 in a letter dated March IS, 1914, makes the following suggestions 

 as a method of control : 



I hit on a plan a few years ago of killing them, as follows: Soak 

 a part of the corn you intend sowing in a solution of strychnine ( about 

 a peck to each two acres), and then mix it with your seed corn and sow 

 it. As the soaked corn naturally germinates first, the squirrels dig it out 

 and eat it. and that ends the squirrel. 



The strength of this solution was not given. 



Trapping 



^^'here there is only a snuill corn patch to be protected from 

 these squirrels, and at a season of the year when birds are abund- 

 ant that are liable to pick up the ])oisoned grain, persistent tra ja- 

 ping wall save the crop, as we know of no mammal that is so easy 

 to trap. The guillotine traps, of which there are several kinds 

 and makes on the market, are probably the best all-around traps, 

 as they usually kill instantly, and thus avoid unnecessary suffer- 

 ing for the animal. For these traps use roll oats or grain of 

 different kinds for bait. The ordinary small steel traj s can be 

 used very successfully without bait by setting them near the 

 ground squirrels' holes. They usually catch the squirrel by the 

 leg, breaking it and causing it needless suffering, and a great 

 many times the squirrels escape, h aving part of a leg in the trap. 



X0TE8 fro:m the field 



As before stated in this circular, we received seventy letters 

 from farmers in different sections of the state, giving their views 

 as to the economic importance of the striped ground squirrel. 

 These writers all declared it a pest and with no beneficial traits. 



The following are extracts from a few of these letters from 

 different counties, showing the drift of sentiment against this 

 little rodent : 



Elp,ert CorxTY 



The striped ground squirrel is destructive to farm crops — wheat, 

 barley, rye, cane, maize, oats, and corn. It does the most damage to corn. 

 It has no beneficial traits. If it has. I have never been able to find out 

 what they were. 



W. B. Miller. 

 Keysor, March 3, 1914. 



