Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1908-07-18
Uncle Sam Accsmplishes Task
as Great as st. Patrick's
Feat in Ireland
FIELD MICE DIFFERENTIATED
One Hundred Million Of Pests Killed in
One Campaign in Humboldt Valley,
Nevada Postoffice Department
Rules That Carriers May Be Notar-
les Public.

| Especial Washington Correspondence
Washington, July lS.--When st
land he had no harder job than Uncle
Sam when he undertook to clear the
Humboldt River valley, Nevada, of
millions of field mice.
The plague of locusts that swept
Egypt could not have been much more
serious than this visitation of rodenta
with which the government has just
successfully COPIED.
The United States biological survey.
of which G.. Hart Merriam is chief, Is
the particular branch of the govern
lnent that deals with the mice peril as
1t was felt in Nevada. BY long odds,
this was the most serious visitation of
the sort known to this country. Euro
pean countries have suffered serious
invasions by mice and other rodents
and different localities in the United
States have suffered at times In re-
cent years, certain of the irrigated
valleys of the west where alfalfa Is
raised, have been peculiarly subject to
attacks from hordes Of mice of the
common variety, known as meadow
mice.
About year ago, in the summer.
mice began to appear in the Humboldt
valley in large numbers and to increase
rapidly. AS one pair of mice will aver
age progeny of about twenty-five in
a year, 1t can be imagined the popula-
ton thickened at a rate that would
give joy to census enumerator. The
crops We're ruined The yield of hay
was greatly reduced. Not only were the
stalks of the alfalfa destroyed but the
roots were eaten. ALI crops suffered.
The potato crop was but one-third Of
"a full yield and such as it was, was
badly damaged So bad did the plague
become that in November last 1t was
estimated there were from 5000 to
5000 mice per acre over stretch of
$4,000 acres. In the summer the green
food on the surface was the chief OBJ
jective of their assaults. In the winter
the roots were given attention by the
invaders. Orchards and shade trees
were injured by girding the bark from
the roots and bases Of the trunks.
The farmers of the region tried var
;ous expedients but in vain. They were
not prepared for an invasion of $780,
100000 mice. They tried various pois-
ons. especially phosphorus on wheat.
This killed some Of the mice but 1t also
destroyed the birds and various ami
mails.
The biological survey was called in
to give aid last January. A young
man. S. L. Piper. scientific assistant
in the survey, was sent to the scene.
When he arrived there, the ground on
the farms covering many miles was
literally honeycombed with the holes
burrowed by the rodent host. Various
poisons were tried. and finally 1t was
discovered that alfalfa hay to which
strychnine has been applied, was the
best means of destruction in the win
ter season. Similarly it has been
found green alfalfa is the best sub
stance to use with poison in the sum-
mer. From 80 to 95 per cent OF the
mice were destroyed at a cost of So
cents an acre.
This means that about 100000, 900
mice We're killed Off After the mice
were killed, the fields were narrowed
and cultivated so as to destroy the
burrows. 1t was estimated these holes
or burrows numbered from 10000 to
$4,000 per acre.
A source of aid in Kidding the vail
ley Of the mice plague was the birds.
UP to that time the farmers of Hum
boldt Valley did not appreciate them.
The crows. hawks, herons and gulls
modified in the region of Humboldt
Valley by the thousand and moved
down upon it. For months the birds
lived on mice, but this did not suffice
to put an end to the epidemic.
Just what is the cause of such visi-
tations is matter Of dispute. For
one thing, it is said a succession Of
favorable seasons and good crops, es-
pecially alfalfa, tends to increase the
number of mice. The breaking up Of
the irrigable country Is said to tend
to drive many mice out of their homes
and induce them to congregate in To-
ticularly favorable The failure to
give proper protection to birds that
destroy mice adds to the other causes
that are at work to bring about in
vasions. The biological survey is
studying the various causes. and later
an interesting report will appear on
the mice hordes in Humboldt valley,
their determination, and the causes
leading up to the plague. 1t is doubt
full if in all the romances of nature,
imagined by the nature fictionists.
there is a stranger story than this, of
how 12O.OO0.0OO meadow mice made
war on the farms Of the Humboldt
river country.
Inquiries are being received at the
postoffice department from rural letter