Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1903-04-23
POISONING eopAERs.
Prof. e. r. Laid Of the North Dakota
Agricultural College Tells How te
Poison the Pests,

S'ots G. =. edoo OF the NORM dakota
Agricultural College Tells How te
Poison the Pests.
North Dakota Experiment Station
bulletin by Prof. E. F. Ladd:
Frequent inquiries are received at
the experiment station asking how
best 10 employ strychnine for poison,
ing gophers.
The amount of damage to farm
crops by these little pests is very
great. 1t is estimated that in 1901 the
damage to the alfalfa growers of Kan.
sas from the ravages of the pocket
gopher was s5O0,0O0. Grass, small
grains, corn, vegetables, ETC., suffer
largely from gophers. Their damage
is of two-fold character, in that they
not only destroy the growing grain
but throw up little mounds of dirt in
the fields to interfere with cutting the
crops. The gophers also tramp down
and destroy each season large
amount of grain, and it may be safely
said that in North Dakota the damage
to farm crops in the aggregate is
greater than the estimated damage to
the alfalfa growers of Kansas.
The early spring is the breeding sea.
son. and gophers are very prolific
sometimes producing as many as ten
or eleven young in a single litter;
therefore the destruction of one fe
male gopher at this season means as
much as many killed later in the sea.
SON.
Many complaints are made that
strychnine does not seem to destroy
many Of the gophers in some in
stances where it has been employed.
There may be two reasons for this.
The strychnine is not soluble to any
great extent even in hot water, and
gophers eat but little food at one time.
To successfully destroy these pests
the poison should be present in the
food in considerable quantity, and the
strychnine should be soluble and in
form or mass acceptable to the animal
20 be poisoned.
Strychnine is readily soluble in no,
calculated water, and we recommend
he following method:
Bring one quart of vinegar to boil
ing. add one ounce of strychnine, stir
with stick until fully dissolved, and
then add six quarts of hot water Pour
this on twenty quarts of wheat or corn
aad allow to stand about eighteen
hours or until the solution is entirely
absorbed, but the mass must be fire.
quently stirred vigorously so that it
will become uniformly saturated with
the poison. The grain should now be
spread out to dry where it cannot be
reached by animals or children, for
7ou have highly poisonous grain.
Now dissolve six pounds of sugar III
six quarts of water and boil until one
cool, When cool add one tablespoon
full of anis oil can be had at any drug
store). You now have thick syrup
which should be poured over the near
ly dried poisoned grain and the whole
stirred SO as to cover each grain with
the syrup. Allow the grain to thor
oughly dry, stirring so as to prevent
its sticking in mass, The odor of
an!s oil is very attractive to the 20.
pier, and each kernel should contain
enough poison to destroy one gopher.
This sugar-coated grain can be used
at any time, but great care should be
taken to prevent any possible poison.
ing of birds or animals. A little of
this grain buried near each gopher
burrow will be pretty sure to attract
and destroy it's victim.