The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-09-10
WAR ON RODENTS
THE TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
IMPORTATION BUREAU
BY Frederic j. Haskin. Director.
Washington, ID. @.

Washington, ID. Q. II
Washington, Sept. 10.-Out in Ari-
IONA organized forces of the United |
States government are killing about
fifteen thousand prairie dogs a day.
This campaign is justified by the !
fact that the prairie dog is in effect a
pro-German rodent. He consumes
enough grain every year to keep
large military force in the field, and |
reduces our ever dwindling supply of
beef by cutting up the range with his
burrows and eating the native forage.
Experts estimate that range which has
been infested by prairie dogs will after
they have been killed support so per
cent more livestock. In addition to
this damage to range the prairie dog
in some sections destroys great quanti-
ii IS of growing crops.
And the prairie dog is only one of
large family of rodents who are liv-
| ing at the expense of American farm
| ers and stock raisers. 1t is estimated
| that the native rodents in the United
States. which do not include the rats
| and mice that infest houses and barns,
| cause damage to the amount of $780,
! 100000 every year. Against all of
| these pests the biological survey of
the department of agriculture is wag-
ing war, and just now special attention
| is being given the prairie dog. Sixteen
! field parties are at work upon prairie
dog eradication under the direction
from Washington of DR.. A. K. Fisher
| and Dr. w B. Bell. Their field of
| opera tions comprises parts of Texas,
New Mexico, Arizona, Oklahoma, Colo
! RADIO, Wyoming, North and South Da-
kota, Montana, Nebraska and Kansas.
| These parties are DOING their work
! of determination chiefly national
forests and it is intended not only to
rid the forest ranges of these pests,
| but also to demonstrate to ranchm en-
and farmers on adjacent lands how
| prairie dogs may be most cheaply and
rapidly DESTROYED. In addition to the
work on national forests, demonstra-
tions of prairie dog killing are being
! given in various other sections of the
west.
The Prairie Dog Killers.
Owing to the immense areas to be
covered the dog killers" as they are
| called in the west operate on horse
| back They scatter about the burrows
in the prairie dog towns oats and
other grain which have been treated
with a special preparation of strych-
nine. A few days later an inspection
of the grounds will be made. 1t gem
orally shows a few dead animals about
the mouths of the burrows, while
scarcely a live one is to be found.
| Most of them are dead in the bottoms
of the burrows. The method has
proved sweepingly effective.
Stimulated by the demonstrations,
farmers are rapidly taking up the
| work in an organized way, and the
doom of the prairie dog in many sec
! tions is already sealed. The economy
| of killing them is shown by a report
made to the biological survey by the
manager of large incorporated farm
| in Arizona. This man stated that
| during the past spring the prairie
| dogs had destroyed over two thousand
| dollars worth of his growing crops
| Fields of beans and corn were de-
stroyed once, replanted, and the
| sprouting grain all eaten by the
prairie dogs second time, 1t cost
fthis man $3.50 ito &exterfnf4ate the
prairie dogs on his farms by the bio
logical survey method.
The Jack Rabbit Drives.
| Next to the prairie dog the jack
rabbit is one of the most destructive
rodents in the West. Following the
destruction of the coyote and other
| jack-rabbits have become almost in
| credibly abundant. They enter grain
| fields literally in droves and eat the
growing crop off close to the ground
In winter stacks of hay are often en-
tirely undermined by the rabbits nib
| bling around their bases Nevada,
| Utah, California, Arizona, New Mex
leo, Texas, Oregon, Washington, Ida
no and Colorado all suffer heavily
from their depredations. The west
ern farmers have long made war on
| the jack-rabbit after Their own fash
ion. They have shot Him. chased him
| with dogs, and in some sections they
regularly organize great drives in
| which whole communities participate
and rabbits are killed by the thousand.
But none of these measures have
been systematic enough to extermin-
ate the jack-rabbit in a region that
really suits him. 1t remained for the
| biological survey. to work out
method of poisoning with a solution
| of strychnine applied to alfalfa leaves
and grain, which is now being demon
strated all thru the jack rabbit belt.
| The farmers are taking; it up with a
I will. One man sent in a photograph
showing a pile of 967 Jack-rabbits
of strychnine. Not even The fleet and
prolific jack-rabbit can stand up
against that kind of warfare.
There is one phase of this cam
paign of destruction which deserves
more attention than it is getting.
| While tons of grain are saved by de-
| stroying these rodents, tons of meat
are wasted, for the carcasses, being
poisoned, are left to rot on the ground.
| Now the jack-ra bbit is an edible ami
NAL. He has long been despised by
| westernerS because more choice game
has been abundant in the west, but
recently jack-rabbits are being used
more and more for food. Not long
ago a large shipment of them from
/ Texas was received and sold in the
Center market in Washington. The
prairie dog is also edible. He feeds
only upon vegetable matter and when
young is said to be very toothsome.
Nothing but his name, which is wholly
| a misnomer, has stood between him
and popularity as an article of diet.
The Squirrel, Gopher and Mice.
In addition to the jack-rabbit and
prairie dog the most important rodent
| pests which the biological survey is
trying to exterminate are the ground
squirrel, the pocket gopher, and the
wood rats, cotton rats and field mice.
The ground squirrel is especially
/ abundant in California. Some wears