The Bingham County news. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1918-1930, 1922-04-21
FARM BUREAU
AFTER SQUIRRELS
GIVE TWO FORMULAS FOR THE
POISONING OF GROUND
SQUIRRELS,
GOVERNMENT fjRN|SH POISON
FOR ALL PUBLIC LANDS, IF THE
FARMERS ADJOINING WILL
DO THE WORK.

Every farmer in Bingham County
Is more or less familiar with ground
squirrels and the damage done by
them to agricultural crops. 1t is
conservatively estimated that the
cash value Of crops eaten and de-
stroyed Iby them in our county year.
~, amounts to thousands OF dollars.
They can be gotten rid Of at a very
small cost per acre, and there re-
mains no reason why any farmer
should suffer crop loss from this
source.
Ground squirrels are to be found
in all the dry farm sections and in
the irrigated sections bordering va
cart or waste lands, and In some
sections that have been cultivated
for a long time. They are found on
canal banks, high knolls and waste
areas.
There are two distinct species or
kind Of squirrels in the county. The
larger species known as the Richard.
son ground squirrel is found on the
South side Of the Snake river. They
are especially numerous in the foot
hills and mountainous regions. They
are grayish black color. about to
8 inches in length, with tail about
three inches long.
The other species, known as the
Idaho ensis, ESQ named because it is
q native Of Idaho) is found on the
North side of the Snake river. They
are especially numerous in the
Springfield-Aberde sections. They
are a bluish-gray color, fine haired,
short legged and short tailed squir-
rel about inches long. They are
very quick in bodily movement and
are more shy in their actions than
the larger squirrels. Experience
has demonstrated that this species
Was harder to control than the larg-
er species, but after several years
of experimentation and thorough
testing a successful and highly sat-
isfactiry bait has been worked out,
and it Is found that this species can
be exterminated just as easily as
can the larger squirrels.
The problem OF checking and tin
ally e1terminating the squirrels is
one Of united cooperative county
wide effort. But, says someone,
GLOW about all this vacant land?"
II the land Is decided. leased or held
by . loan company, the person hold
ing jurisdictidh should be interest
ed enough to look after it. II It is
government or state land it will be
taken Hare of by the government.
Mr.. Thomas b. Murray, Biological
Assistan, Bureau of Biological Sur
vey of the U. S. Department Of Agri-
culture, who has charge OF rodent
control work in this and neighbor-
ing counties; states that all that is
required Of the farmer is CD That
they poison the squirrels on their
own property and (2) That the
farmers adjoining public land get
together and agree to furnish time
and labor to distribute the poisoned
bait on the public lands.
The bait will be furnished by the
government, and a man to supervise
the distribution. 1t is suggested by
Mr.. Murray that where there are a
number of farmers adjoining public
lands, especially in dry farm Sec
tions, that they get together and re-
port the locations and amount of
such lands in their locality; report
it to the Farm Bureau office, Black
foot and state the time and place
they could meet to distribute the
bait 1t depends upon the interest
and cooperation of the farmers
how much work the government
does on public lands-as much as
the farmers call for will be done.
Poisoned bait ready for use can