The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1922-06-01

At this season of the year the work
of the photographers is very notice
able and losses resulting to hay and
grain crops from the pocket-gopher
pest incurred in Stearns County an
nually can be conservatively estimated
at from $4,000 to $4,000. The mounds
of earth thrown up by the pocket
gopher not only destroy considerable
areas of growing crops but result in
additional losses, especially in the hay
crops, caused by having to raise the
mower beam in order to avoid the
mounds of earth thrown up by the go
pher and loss Of hay which cannot be
secured. The pocket gopher at times
makes serious inroads in orchard and
nursery stock, as well as in potato
fields.
The best means Of combating the
pocket-gopher is by poisoning and
trapping. Powdered sulpate of
strychnine is undoubtedly the best
poison. This can be purchased in
crystal form in small bottles and may
be crushed to a powder with a head
of steel nail, thus leaving it in the
same container and not obligipg one
to handle it unnecessarily. The powd-
cred sulphate Of strychnine may be
Soc for an eight ounce bottle. which
is sufficient to poison the gophers US
ually found on the average farm.
A poison bait can be made by using
piece Of apple an inch square or
potato. or carrot. The apple is per-
haps the best. Into slit made in any
of these bats introduce as much
powdereS strychnine as can be held
on the ELI of a pen knife blade. This
poison bair can be placed in the pock-
handle or sharpened stick. Where ev-
er possible the main burrow should be
located, which can be accomplished by
prodding the ground midway between
l. fr,er f1n n
rection of the main runway by noting
the position of the mounds. The bulk
of the earth excavated or thrown out
by the gopher is pushed out of a
branch burrow away from the main
burrow. A careful inspection Of the
mound will disclose the opening Of the
plugged branch burrow. The poison
bait can sometimes be dropped into
this hole and the top covered with
piece of sod to keep out the light
When the bait is placed. in a branch
burrow which is found open or in the
mound where the plug opening has
been found, the poison bait should if
possible, be worked down on the end
tied to a stick until the main burrow
is reached. Quite often the pocket
gopher will push dirt out ahead and
fill UP this passage way and cover up
the poison bait, but the member who
reaches the bait is in most cases SUI
ficient to well reward farmers for eff
forts made in combating the gopher
pest with poison.
If trapping is resorted to. No. o.
trap may be set in ihe main burrow
by digging an opening into the bur-
row down from the surface mound.
Place traps in slight depression at the
bottom of the burrow, which should
not be covered. board should be
placed on the surface over the opening
made and all light excluded.
Pocket gophers have one litter "a
year, late in April or in May; one or
two young generally being produced
in litter. After mating, the old
male gophers in all probability esti-
months. Except during the mating
seasan and when the female has
young, only one gopher occupies
burrow.
It should be borne in mind that one |
gopher can make many mounds, some |
times several in the course of a day |
so that a farmer seeing a large num- |
Der Of mounds on his premises need not |
infer necessarily that there are many |
gophers, but if these mounds are |
trees it is of greatest Importance that
the animal or animals should be killed |
at once before fruit trees are ruined. I
P w. Huntemer,
County Agent.
TO U Farm-Remember the chinch bug
and the havoc it used to do season
after season in grain fields? For a
dozen or Is years no authentic re-
ports of the presence of this bug in
have been received at Uni
versity Farm, according to A. G.
Ruggles, state entomologist This
ong silence has now been broken.
Persons at Bagley in Clearwater
county, northern Minnesota, have for
to Mr.. Ruggles a small con-
signment of genuine chinch bugs |
which were found in clearing next to |
cultivated fields. |
The chinch bug is a small black |
and white bug which kills the grain |
stalk by feeding upon and sapping it's
juices. When all the small grain