Dec. 16, 1911.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
873 
be. Besides, those who wish to secure the 
seed of the sago pond-weed should know that 
almost as soon as the seed ripens it begins to 
fall off, and in a short time, say two or three 
weeks, it has mostly fallen and sank or floated 
away. So it behooves those who wish to secure 
the seed to plant to apply to those who furnish 
it early in the summer, for I have observed in 
Central New York that it ripens about the time 
that the winter wheat is ready to be harvested 
or a little later. I secured some as late as the 
first of August, but much of it had shelled off 
by that time. J. B. White, of Waterlhy, N. C., 
also shipped some as late as Aug. 15. 
R. V. Pierce. 
A Trapper’s Secret. 
I have been assured that dogs will not eat 
the flesh of a muskrat, while cats of all kinds 
and foxes are passionately fond of it. I am 
told that, if you catch a number of muskrats, 
place the skinned carcasses in any suitable re¬ 
ceptacle, for carrying, tie one of the carcasses 
to the end of a string, dragging it as you walk¬ 
through the woods, or brush lot, a fox, cat, 
mink, weasel, or skunk traveling around at night 
and striking this trail will surely follow it to 
the point where you have prepared your enter¬ 
tainment for him. 
Every trapper in his travels sees what he 
terms "likely places for vermin.” At each one 
of these places the man with the muskrats builds 
a cairn, or pile of fairly good-sized stones, laid 
say an inch or two apart. In the center he 
places the carcass, or a part of one of his musk¬ 
rats, and on top a fairly heavy flat stone. On 
the outside of this pile of stones, where it will 
be easily found, he places a small piece of musk¬ 
rat, say about the size of the end of your thumb 
nicely loaded with strychnine. The victim finds 
this piece and wastes his time in trying to secure 
the larger piece inside the stone pile until it is 
too late. The carcass is right beside the stone 
pile and not away off in the brush where it 
could not be found without a tracking snow. 
This method is worthy of trial by any who are 
killing vermin for pelts.—Joseph Kalbfus on 
Game Protection. 
The Adirondacks. 
Utica, N. Y., Dec. 5.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: Gifford Pinchot says that forestry is 
flourishing everywhere except in the woods, and 
that the present method followed by lumbermen, 
if allowed to continue, will result in the devasta¬ 
tion of substantially all of the Adirondack tim¬ 
ber lands held for lumbering purposes as well 
as in the burning of large areas by fires start¬ 
ing in the slash thus caused. Mr. Pinchot’s re¬ 
port was largely an argument for the repeal of 
Section 7 of Article 7 of the State constitution 
which forbids the cutting of timber on State 
land. 
Would it not be well for the State Legislature 
to show that it can conserve the half million 
acres of private forest by laws which Mr. Pin¬ 
chot suggests before the people are asked to let 
lumbermen into the State woods? Has the rec¬ 
ord of the State Legislature with reference to 
forest problems been such that the people can 
trust it to pass suitable laws concerning forestry 
and water storage on State lands? 
E. A. Spears. 
Biological Survey Woik. 
From advance proofs of the annual report of 
James Wilson, Secretary of Agriculture, the 
following items are gleaned: 
GROUND SQUIRRELS. 
During the year careful experiments were 
made to discover, if possible, better and cheaper 
methods of poisoning ground squirrels, and a 
circular embodying the results of these experi¬ 
ments was published. The formulas in Biologi¬ 
cal Survey Circular 76 can be confidently recom¬ 
mended for cheapness and effectiveness. This 
circular has been widely distributed throughout 
California, with a view to stimulating activity 
on the part of resident farmers and landowners 
generally in the work of ridding their lands of 
ground squirrels. When fully advised of the im¬ 
portance of the work, they have usually shown 
themselves ready to do their part. The present 
law of California, which requires the co-opera¬ 
tion of all landowners in the work of extermi¬ 
nating ground squirrels, will, if fully enforced, 
go far toward providing a remedy, especially if 
the State, through county and other officials, 
arranges for furnishing poison or poisoned bait 
in necessary quantities to landowners at cost. 
By providing centers of distribution the poison 
can be supplied ready for use at comparatively 
low cost, which will greatly stimulate its use by 
farmers and others. 
PRAIRIE DOGS. 
Prairie dogs continue to be a scourge to 
farmers in many sections of the Middle West, 
and they exact heavy toll also from the stock- 
men by eating nutritious wild grasses which 
form the main reliance of range cattle. 1 heir 
colonies sometimes number thousands of indi¬ 
viduals, and as it requires only about 200 to 
consume the forage of a steer, their colonies col¬ 
lectively are a heavy drain on both pasturage 
and crops. During the year many experiments 
have been made with a view to finding better 
methods of poisoning or' otherwise destroying 
these animals without at the same time endan¬ 
gering the lives of valuable birds. 
SILVER FOX INDUSTRY. 
During the past year many inquiries have been 
received from various parts of the United States 
regarding the practicability of rearing the silver 
or black foxes for profit, and there is a steady 
demand for the Farmers’ Bulletin on this sub¬ 
ject. Interest in the business has no doubt been 
stimulated by the enormous prices obtained for 
skins, and even larger sums paid for first-class 
breeding animals. Efforts are being made to 
obtain all possible information as to the success 
of breeders who have engaged in the business 
with a view to issuing a supplemental report 011 
the industry. 
WOODPECKERS. 
As a class, woodpeckers are among our most 
useful birds. They destroy numbers of noxious 
insects and lend effective aid to the preservation 
of forests, city shade trees and fruit orchards. 
A bulletin on these birds was issued during the 
year, analyzing the food they eat, explaining the 
ways in which they are of value to the farmer, 
and indicating methods by which their number 
may be increased by the use of artificial nesting 
sites. 
Unfortunately there is one small group of 
woodpeckers, properly known as “sapsuckers,” 
wh.ch are destructive rather than beneficial. 
Sii 1, they must be credited with doing some 
good by eating insects, though they do much 
injury by pecking holes in the bark of trees, 
especially fruit trees, for the purpose of obtain¬ 
ing the inner bark and the sap, both of which 
are highly relished for food. As they return 
to the same tree time after time, and often 
season after season, the area denuded of bark 
constantly grows larger, and many young trees 
are killed. Moreover, the effect of their boring 
is visible in the shape of checks, distortions, 
and stains years afterward when the trees are 
felled and worked up into lumber. It has been 
estimated that the damage to wood products in 
the United States by these sapsuckers is more 
than a million dollars yearly. This investiga¬ 
tion of the habits of the sapsuckers and the 
kind and extent of the injuries they inflict on 
trees and lumber appears in the form of a bulle¬ 
tin, together with suggestions as to the best 
method of protecting trees from their attacks. 
SHORE BIRDS. 
Notwithstanding their small size and the fact 
that many of them retire to the far North to 
breed, our shore birds have been so ruthlessly 
pursued by gunners that all of them are fast 
diminishing in numbers; at least one species 
has been exterminated, and several others are 
nearing the same end. The value of shore birds 
as food is widely recognized and is indeed the 
chief cause of their present scarcity. But few 
are aware that many of them do good service 
by eating noxious insects, including mosquitoes 
in the larval state. Being valuable both for food 
and because they destroy insects, their exter¬ 
mination would be a calamity, especially as dur¬ 
ing some part of the year they visit every State 
in the Union and range from ocean to ocean. 
The prohibition of the sale of these birds, the 
abolition of spring shooting, and the restriction 
of the bag limit in the open season will probably 
result in preserving the several species for 
future generations. 
GAME PRESERVATION AND INTRODUCTION. 
While the need of game protection is each 
year better understood, and while effective legis¬ 
lation for the preservation of game becomes 
yearly more general among the States, it is ap¬ 
parent that the extinction of the wilderness by 
growing settlement must, sooner or later, de¬ 
prive the United States of most of its big game, 
except as it may be preserved on lands set 
apart for that purpose. Hence, in addition to 
unremitting efforts to prevent rapid destruction 
of game by market hunting or excessive kill¬ 
ing for sport, growing attention is demanded by 
the question of game preserves, both private and 
public. The Biological Survey has devoted much 
consideration to this phase of game preserva¬ 
tion, and much work has been done in connec¬ 
tion with game preserves and bird reservations. 
ELK IN WYOMING. 
At the close of the session the sixty-first Con¬ 
gress made an appropriation of $20,000 for the 
feeding, protecting and removing of elk in the 
region known as Jackson’s Hole and vicinity, 
Wyoming. As soon as the appropriation be¬ 
came available two representatives of the Bio¬ 
logical Survey were sent to Wyoming to do 
(Continued on page 888.) 
