The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-04-21
KILLING PRAIRIE DOCS.
METHODS THATHAYE BEEN ADOp.
 TED IN KANSAS.
Professor Lantz' Mixture How 1t Has Been Distributed to Those Pestsred With the Little Animals.

With tho Little Animals.
 The prairie dog population of Kan
 sas has decreased 16, 500 900 during tn,
 past six months. Still Kansas ha
 prairie dogs to spare. About 67200, DO
 of the peslky little things still hold dowl
 homestead rights in the state, accord
 ing to statistics obtained by the Agri
 cultural college Their doom is sealed
 however, unless they grow wise enougf
 to let poisoned food alone, or demon
 strate that they can propagate faster il
 the summer months than Professor D
 E. Lantz, with his new -fangled paten
 dope, can kill them off in the winter
 It Is a fight to a finish between the
 dogs and the professor. If the dogs vii
 Professor Lantz will lose his job IS off.
 cial prairie dog eXterminator If the
 professor wins, the dogs will lose theil
 lives The professor has the advantage
 of the dogs in the winter because they
 get hungry and eat his poisoned 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 vegeta-
 bles" then, but also do their breeding.
 There is one thing about prairie dog
 life that mystifies 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 rabbits. They were holding down claims in Kansas one hundred years ago, and while no effort was ever made, until recently, to exterminate them, yet they are no thicker to-day than they were then. The only explanation 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 completely taken up by them. But it hasn't. When grazing lands in the west were as free as the air and a steer could have one hundred acres or more of range to graze on all to himself the cattlemen did not feel the effects of the prairie dog, but now when that same steer can only have from five to ten acres the stock man feels the effect of the prairie dog and calls him a pest and demands his extermination. In obedience to this de- mand the state was compelled to act and the last legislature created the pe- sition of ''prairie dog exterminator" and gave him fund of five thousand dol lars to use in experimenting and to ac- quire remedy. The matter of hand ling the fund and selecting an official exterminator was placed in the hands of the regents of the Agricultural col lege. They employed D. E. Lantz.
 The first thing Professor Lantz did was to take census of the prairie dog population. He found two million acres of them in the state. Each acre sus- tained from twenty to sixty four, mak- ing an average of forty-two to the acre, or total population of eighty-four mill lion. While he was taking the census he also cast about for remedy He tried a dozen or more kinds. From them he selected three and gave them fair and square test Two of them were poison remedies and the other was a gas remedy. He finally adopted poi son remedy, invented and patented by farmer, D. w. Staples, of Craft, O. T. He purchased the right to use the remedy in Kansas In the contract he not only acquired the formula for the college, but was given the privilege of giving it free to any farmer in Kansas who wanted it. His next move was to open up a dope factory at the college, and get his remedy advertised. He ;al, mixed to the farmers and cattlemen at a dollar and half per half-gallon, or to send them the formula. Many asked | for the formula and got it. But later | they sent back after the dope" claim | ing that they could not mix it as cheap | 1y as they could buy it from Professor ] Lantz already mixed. i One of the principal ingredients and | the most expensive in the mixture is | strychnne. Molasses is a big item. | Professor Lantz is probably the heav- | fest purchaser of strychnine in the country When he first opened up his [ factory he wired to Philadelphia for two hundred ounces of strychnine- enough to kill every man, women and child in Kansas-and then some.
 What on earth do you want of so much strychnine?" the Philadelphia firm wired back It was alarmed
 Professor Lantz had to write long letter explaining before 1t would fill the f order. After that he ordered from one hundred to three hundred ounces al- most every week and there threatened to be a shortage in the supply of But the manufacturers in- creased their output.
 nOe-half gallon of the mixture is used to a bushel of wheat. A couple of ta- of the poisoned wheat is put near each hole inha bited by prai- lie dog One bushel will cover a quar- ,er section % one hundred and sixty acres of dog holes The prairie dogs will eat it in the winter time when food s scarce, but whether they will touch it n the spring, summer and autumn when vegetation is green, remains to be teen. Professor Lantz hasn't much aith in it as a summer remedy. Prai- ie dogs like people, do not eat dried ruit and dried vegetables when they an get them fresh from the trees or the ,arden. Dried stuff is used chiefly in winter. The college through Professor TIantZ