Arizona republican., 1896-08-13
Scheme to Exterminate
 the Pests.
Territoria
Arizona RancherS Will Well
 come this Dish.
The Pasteur Institute Concoets a BouilIon that Promis es to Save
 Millions of Dollars.

Chicago Inter Ocean: Extermina- tion of gophers, jack rabbits and other rodents-the great pests of western agriculture promised by the Insti- tute Pasteur of Paris.
 The rapid increase of these enemies of the American farmers gives rise to a great and pressing problem, which has for some years occupied the at tention of prominent scientists of this country and Europe.
 The Institute Pasteur proposes to exterminate the pests by spreading infectious diseases among them.
 M. Jean Danysz, member of the in stitute and prominent French scien- tist, discovered the virus. He has been in Chicago during the last few weeks on a special mission from Paris | for the purpose of conducting experi ments with the American species of rodentia. He spent some time at the Chicago laboratory of the institute, and a few days in field experiments on the farms of Iowa, leaving for France early this week. The Danysz virus has been recom- HlChuOu DJ tAC CuCh SOf Cl uuuCul III the eNtermination of the campagnol, the field rat of France, and is being used with deadly effect by French az riculturists.
 "Mr Sorby, manager of the Chicago offices, and myself" said M. Danysz, have been out in Iowa to perform field experiments on American species. The field pests are working greater havoc in the western farm lands of America than almost anywhere else in the world-Austraiia, perhaps, ex- cepted. I began my search for a dis ease peculiar to the rodentia some two years ago by experimenting with the campagnol, and brought my work to satisfactory conclusion this spring.
 "As soon as the experiments with the campagnol proved successful we turned our attention to the allies species that are increasing in the great west of America at such an unprece- dented rate. The American species are more robust than the campagnol and the virus must be stronger. If too strong, however, the infected animal dies before it has had chance to conn municate its disease to others. Mir. Sorby sent me some American speci- mems to Paris, and so came here my self to conduct experiments in the field"
 MT. Danysz showed rows of test tubes and bottles containing a light brown gelatinous liquid
 "This is the bouillon,'' he continued. Tt is prepared from the microbe by the usual method. We are trying so- 1utions of three different strengths. Bread and grain are dipped into this bouillon and put at the burrows of the animals. You see that gopher who IS lying on the side in yon cage-he got the poison two days ago and is dy- ing now. He will spread the disease to the others in the cage. A mere touch suffices, but these little animals furthermore have the delightful habit Of eating each others corpses, so that the work of infection is doubly effect i've.
 "The loss of wealth each year from these pests is we'll night inestimable All through the great plains west o1 the Mississippi and also in Illinois and some parts of the south, there are mil lions and millions of these little ami. mals. They are all extremely vora. cious fellows and more than bushe of grain and potatoes may be found in single burrow Beautiful an( strong trees are killed at the roots. IT dry seasons when the gophers canno find food easily they go out in armie, and gnaw at the bottom of the corr stalks. The grain falls and they cal get at the corn ears. An entire crol may be thus destroyed in a few day, and a second sowing is often mad necessary. By burrowing througl entertainments they also become grea menace to western irrigation. Tn worst feature of the problem is tha the pests increase with civilization. fo civilization offers means for their sub sistence"
 M. DanysZ showed number of lei ters from government officials in Ida ho, Montana and other western states The letters complain of the terribl injuries worked by the pests and tn futility of attempts made to chec their increase. Professor Fox of tn University of Idaho, wrote that in hi section of the state S75,0O0 had bee spent in one season on strychnine. an that the animals had grown fat on i Scattering poisoned food in the neigh borhood of burrows is a common prat tice, but dogs, cattle and even littl children have more than once deprive the gophers of their delicacy. TraI ping is slow and tedious work. Su phide of carbon is often poured int the burrows, but this, too, is an e2 tremely slow proceeding. The bount system has been effective, but th bounty must be high enough to insul