426 BULLETIN OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION. 
in agricultural practice, but by the custodians of parks and muni- 
cipal reservations. The ordinary torch may naturally be used to 
destroy skunks as well as the woodchuck in cases where the burrow 
is not too close to a combustible building. | 
Schemes for Using Sulphur.— Were it not for the danger of 
transporting ‘‘ fireworks”? and of having them about the house, 
there would be little incentive to try to improve upon the torches 
above described, which could be prepared very cheaply if there 
were a strong demand for them. In so far as my own experience 
is concerned, the use of them put so effective a check upon the 
woodchucks within reach that it became difficult to continue the 
experiments from mere lack of material. I would have been glad 
however to have tried one other plan, which would, practically, 
have been to study the problem whether it be possible to burn, by 
itself, enough sulphur in the limited volume of air in a woodchuck’s 
hole to.smother an animal therein abiding. The idea was to thrust 
a hot Hessian crucible into the mouth of the burrow, to throw into 
this erucible a lump of sulphur and to close the mouth of the hole. 
Small crucibles, proper for the purpose, are obtainable from the 
dealers in hardware, at the cost of but a few cents each. Or, it 
might be practicable to chip out a rough cup fit for the purpose 
from a piece of fire brick. It would be an easy matter to heat any 
number of crucibles in a special fire—as of charcoal in a plumber’s | 
fire-pot, or of gasolene in a plumber’s blast-lamp — and to place 
them in the holes by means of tongs. The idea was simply to 
have an earthenware vessel, unacted upon by sulphur and refrac- 
tory to fire, which when once heated should remain hot long enough 
to maintain the sulphur in combustion until the air in the burrow 
has been used up and the oxygen of that air converted into sul- 
phurous acid gas. : 
I find by experiment on throwing lumps of sulphur into Hessian 
crucibles, which had been heated in a coal fire and set upon the 
ground under kegs and barrels, that it would be important to find 
out in actual practice how hot the crucible should be heated. In 
a crucible which has been heated hardly to visible redness sulphur 
may remain melted and continue to burn slowly during half an 
hour in a confined volume of air, but if the crucible were to be 
heated red hot, any sulphur then thrown into it would distil off 
rapidly, so rapidly indeed that in a confined volume of air much 
am —s - 
