The Coconino sun., 1915-08-06
PRAIRIE DOGS MAKE
 RANGE GRASS SCARCE

prairie dogs enough to support COW. Think of 25,00O,000 prairie dogs, and figure out for yourself why these pro life little rodents are no joke to the stockmen of Arizona and New Mexico and why the United States govern ment is hard after their little brown scalps.
 Scientific prairie dog scalp-hunting is the chosen calling of Mir. J. G. Crick of the United States biological survey, who has recently been in AL buquerque recruiting crew of able bodied young men to begin war on the multitudes of prairie dogs which are injuring about 25,OO0 acres of range on the Fort Wingate division of the Manzano national forest. MT. Crick is working in cooperation with Supervisor J. F. Mullen of the forest service, and before snow flies he hopes to make room for more cattle and less prairie dogs in this particu- lar part of Fort Wingate country. Similar crews are already at work on the Guadalupe division of the Alamo national forest, in southern New Mex ico, and on the Sitgreaves national forest in eastern Arizona.
 Mir. Crick's work has applied biolog- ical science in the concrete. Accurate knowledge of just when, what and how a prairie dog will eat, and just how much and what kind of poison it tak6 to kill him, is all taken ad- vantage of. A crew of five men go out over the dog-towns on saddle horses, carefully placing one table spoonful of poison at each inhabited dog-hole, and working from a supply wagon which carries special mixing tank for preparing the poisoned grain. Every dog town is worked over three times, at intervals of sev- eral months. The first work is with strychnined wheat or oats, and gen orally gets S5 per cent of the dogs. The second work is with the same material and generally gets most of the survivors. The third work is with the deadly carbon bisulphide gas and generally gets all the rest. It is quite necessary to get them all, so that the work once done is done for good, or at least until the dogs have had time to move in from surround. ing regions. The cost of the work per acre is carefully correlated with the value of the results, and is low enough to be paid for within a very few years by the increase in the car rying capacity of the range.
 Scientific precautions are used to reduce to a minimum the loss of wild birds aYTd game occasioned by scat tering the poison. The quantity of poisoned grain placed at each hole IS carefully limited to the quantity which, on the average, the dogs will clean up. Where possible, the kind of grain is selected with view to choosing those kinds which the most beneficial native birds will not eat. Of course, it is impossible to avoid destroying some birds.
 MT. Crick emphasizes the fact that in the long run artificial poisoning can only serve as an aid to nature. Natures prairie dog killers are hawks and owls, and the public must learn to recognize this fact, and encourage their work by allowing them to in- crease. Beneficial hawks and owls cost nothing; poisoning at best costs considerably. Beneficial hawks and owls work night and day, year in and year out; poisoning works only when there is an appropriation to carry it on. Beneficial hawks and owls cover the whole country; poisoning covers only restricted areas. But hawks and owls cannot keep down prairie dogs when every man or boy with a gun shc ots them on sight at every possible occasion. There is only one hawk, the sharp-shin, and only one o~l, the great-horned, which does more harm than good. Leave the rest of them alone, including the so-called "chicken hawk" who lives largely on mice, prairie dogs, gophers and snakes and is the farmers best friend, even though he does very occasionally pick up chicken.
 The biological survey at Washing ton or any n4crest officer will gladly furnish any person desiring to destroy prairie dogs with the proper formula for mixing the poison and dirc"t'ons for it's use.