The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-04-20
KILLING PRAIRIE DOGS
METHODS THAT HAVE BEEN
 ADOPTED IN KANSAS.
Professor Lantz's Mixture-How It Has Been Distributed to Those
 Pestered With the Little
 ..4 Animals.

Kansas City Journal.
 The prairie dog population of Kansas has decreased 16.S00.000 during the past six to spare. About e. 3Do.o0o of the pesky ht- tie things still hold down homestead rights in the State, according to statis- tics obtained by the Agricultural College. Their doom is sealed, however. unless they grow wise enough to let poisoned food alone, or demonstrate that they can propagate faster in the summer months than Prof. D. F. Lantz. with his new fangled patent dope, can kill them on in the winter. It is fight to finish be- tween. the dogs and the professor. 1T the dogs win. Professor Lantz will lose his job as officia! prairie dog extcrmina- tor. If the professor wins the dogs will lost their lives. The professor has the advantage of the dogs in the winter. be- cause they get hungry and eat his pois- oned truck. but the dogs hold the high cards in the other three seasons of the year, when vegetation is green. They not only scorn his old dried fruit and veg etables" then. but also do their breeding
 There Is one thing >about prairie dog life that mvstiies Professor Lantz and all other prairie dog students. and that Is. why the entire Western plains are not knee deep with prairie dogs by this time. The dogs multiply almost as fast as rao- bits They were holding down claims in Kansas 100 years ago. and while no enort was ever maQe, unLI1 recently, to cAlcT- minate them, yet they are no thicker to- day than, they were then. The only ex- planation that can be suggested IS that they are short-lived animals. Yet some of them have been known to live five years out on the prairie. and when cooped up some have lived as long as ten years With the ability to multiply from two to five times annually, students of the prairie dog are unable to explain why the country has not been complete l.. When grazing lands in the West were as free as the air and a steer could have 100 acres or more of range to graze on all to himself. the cattlemen did not feel when that same steer can only have from five to ten acres the stockman feels the effect of the prairie dog and calls him pest and demands his exte-mination. In obedience to this demand the State was compelled to act and the last Legislature created the position of prairie dog ex- terminator' and gave him fund of 5000 to use in experimenting and to ac- quire remedy. The matter of handling the fund and selecting an official exter- minator was placed in the hands of the regents of the Agricultural College They employed D: E. Lantz.
 The first thing Professor LantZ did was to take census of the prairie dog pop ulation. He found 2,U0,000 acres of them in the State. Each acre sustained from twenty to sixty-four. making total Of S4.000 600. While he was taking the cen sus he also cast about for remedy. He tried a dozen or more kinds From these he selected three and gave them a fair and square test. Two of them were poison remedies and the other was a gas remedy. He finally adopted poison rem edy, invented and patented by farmer. D. w. Staples, of Craft. O. T. He pur- chased the right to use the remedy in Kansas. In the contract he not only &C., quired the formula for the college. but niUan the tnryf1aua of pri xft1U frae to any farmer in Kansas who wanted it. His next move was to open up a dope" factory at the college. and get his rem edy advertised. He agreed to furnish the stuh already mixed to the farmers and cattlemen at 1.50 per half-gallon. or to send them the formula. Many asked for the formula and got 1t. But later they sent back after the dope claiming that they could not mix it as cheaply as they could buy it from Professor Lantz already mixed.
 One of the principal ingredients and the most expensive in the mixture IS strychnine. Mola,sses is a big item. Pro- lessor Lantz is probably the heaviest purchaser of strychnine in the country. When he first opened up his factory he wired to Philadelphia for 200 ounces of woman and child in Kansas-and then some.
 What on earth do you want of so much strychnine?' the Philadelphia firm WlToQ DaCK. It was alarmed.
 Professor Lantz had to write a long letter explaining before 1t would fill the order After that he ordered from 100 to 300 ounces almost every week and there threatened to be a shortage in the supply of strychnine But the manufa acturers fn- creased their output.
 One-half gallon of the mixture is used 10 bushel of wheat couple of ta- blespoonfuls of the poisoned wheat is put near each hole inhabited by a prairie dog hllah61 arfo or l60 acres of dog holes. The prairie dogs will eat it in the winter time when food Is scarce. but whether they will touch it in the spring, summer and au- to be seen. Professor Lantz hasn't much faith in it as summer remedy. Prairie dogs, like people, do not eat dried fruit and dried vegetables when they can get them fresh from the trees or the garden. Dried stuff is used chiefly in winter
 The college. through Professor Lantz, sells the mixture to the farmers at ac- tual cost. Under the law townships can appropriate public funds for the purchase of the dope. Many townships did it this winter and issued 1t to the farmers, who dished it out to the dogs at their own expense. No township will stand the cost Of distributing the dope around the dog must do that after the township gives him the stuff.
 There Is not much literature on the If. history of the prairie dog. That is one of the animals that has escaped the at- tention of anmalologists. However the prairie dogs have many peculiar traits. For instance when prairie dog dies it's body Is rolled into the hole which 1t or- cupied. by the other dogs. and the hole is then covered up. year later the hole is reopened and the bones of the dead one are carried out and buried close under the sod and the hole is then used again by live dogs.
 4 prairie dog is very industrious TIa does not stop work when he digs his own hole. He keeps on digging others That IS why there are so many abandoned holes in prairie dog town. The hole Tn which he lives is from twenty to thirty feet deep. It does not run to water 4 prairie dog does not need water He can live without 1t. The abandoned holes which the dogs make just because they tQirteen feet in' depth. These are the holes that are frequently occupied by rattlesnake and owls. :'rcuuentlv the prairie dog. rattlesnake and owl are de- clared to be chums. This Is not true They are mortal enemies When rat uesnake by mistake gets into a hole oc- crpied by prairie dog one of two things happens If the dog is in the hole he soon lands In the stomach of the snake If he is out of the hole he fills up the hole and smothers the snake 10 death The prairie dog treats the owl the same way but the owl is usually a wise guy He knows the difference between them and the ordinary fox or gray takes the abandoned one. He is also shy Of the rattlesndke and generally selects the abandoned hole that the rattlel. has over looked.
 Prairie dogs good to eat, although not many people tackle them They arc