428 BULLETIN OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION. 
Postscript. — Since the foregoing article was written, Mr. Henry 
Stewart has described a very effective method of destroying wood- 
chucks. In the ‘* Country Gentleman” for September 17, 1896, 
volume 61, page 720, column 2, he says, ‘‘ To get rid of ground 
hogs in grass fields, proceed as follows: Make cartridges of 
common blasting powder, or take one inch of a bar of dynamite, 
attach a fuse to the cartridge and push it down into the hole. 
Close up all others, and then the main hole with earth. Then 
light the fuse. If the animal does not come out head over heels 
with the earth, he will never come out at all after the explosion. 
This of course finishes up the whole colony, which may be a large 
one. One I have recently destroyed in this way had nine in the 
family, and there were exactly nine holes to the rather extensive 
burrow. Four ounces of common blasting powder did the business 
for the whole. ‘The ground should not be blown out too much; 
the powder is to be gauged so as merely to lift the earth, which 
will settle down again without leaving a crater, while the gas will 
quickly suffocate the ground hogs.”’ 
