Meade County news. [volume] (Meade, Kan.) 1900-1918, 1901-03-14

there were large numbers OF
them lying dead on the ground.
Some were found lying at the
opening of the burrow, while
some could be seen far down in
the hole, and no doubt many died
at the bottom of their burrows.
The results obtained from the
above experiment leave little
room for doubt that the prairie
dog can be exterm1nated in a
short time if the work is done in
a thorough manner, In doing
this work the following instruc-
tons should be rigidly adhered
to:
First, in preparing the poison
great care should be taken that
the exact proportions are used;
that the cyanideo potassium and
strychnine are completely dis
solved; that no more water and
syrup are used than the recipe
calls for, as one bushel of wheat
will not take up and carry more
than this amount of liquid. After
the liquid has been poured into
the wheat the whole should be
well stirred until all of the wheat
has come in contact with the
syrup and the poison is equally
distributed through the whole
mass. 1t should be used the
same day that it is prepared, in
order to obtain the best results.
The way to apply this is to take
some of the poisoned wheat in a
tin pail and sprinkle about a
tablespoonful of it in and around
each hole. Do not leave it in
Jumps or punches, as cattle or
other stock might possibly eat it,
although our experience showed
that the danger from this is not
great, as cattle were allowed to
range over the towns that were
being thus treated, and none
were injured. 1t is best to take
strip about two rods wide, set
stakes at convenient intervals to
avoid going over the ameground
twice and also avoid missing any
of the holes. Where there is
more than one person operating
the stakes may be set to indicate
the ground that is being gone
over, the operators keeping about
two rods apart and changing the
stakes over to the outside as the
person next to the poisoned
ground comes to them. The best
time to commence operations is
during a period of warm, clear
weather in the winter. The ad-
vantage of operating during the
winter is that the grass and roots
upon which they feed are dead
and frozen, aud hunger compels
them to eat more freely the pois-
oned wheat. The poison seems
to do its work within forty-eight
hours. In about a week or ten
days the town should be gone
over a second time, as there will
be, uf course, some dogs left, of
which about fifty per cent will
usually be killed by the second
application. During the mating
season in the spring the remain
ing dogs will congregate, and
then as soon as the young ones
begin to appear above ground the
poison can again be distributed.
An important matter in the ex-
termination of prairie dogs is to
organize general crusade against
them, as they will migrate from
nearby towns as soon as the
grass becomes abundant on land
where they have been extermi-
mated. In order, therefore, to
make the destruction complete,
war should be made on them over
large range of territory. The
amount of the mixture required
is about one bushe1 to one hun
dred and sixty acres in the case
of an average town. The num-
Der of holes to the acre range
from ninety to one hundred and
fifty. Four men will easily coy
er one hundred and sixty acres
in day. A detailed account of
the experiments carried on this
year by Mr.. William Tuck will
be published later.
A. T. PETERS,
Animal Pathologist.