Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 April 1889 — The Sparrow Nuisance. [ARTICLE]

The Sparrow Nuisance.

The English sparrows have become as great a nuisance in Rensselaer as in most other places where they have obtained a foothold; especially in that they have driven away nearly all other kinds of birds. The United States Department of Agriculture recommends the following method of poisoning them as the most effective yet employed: Dissolve atseniate of soda in warm tyater at the rate of an ounce to a pint; pour this upon as much wheat as it will cover (in a vessel which can be closed, so as to prevent evaporation i and allow it to soak at leaet twenty-four hours. Dry the wheat so prepared and it is ready for use. Three kernels of this will kill. Winter is the best time for operations; Other birds are then absent and sparrows are hungry, alighting in flocks in the streets after passing teams aud along railroad tracks, where grain is scattered from wagons and cars. Here poisoned wheat may be* administered with wholesale destraction to them and little danger of harm to anything else. If an occasional pigeon or «hjcken that has no business Biroad should suffer, it is comparively of little aw sequence. If ,e great evil is to be abated at 1, it must only be required that it be done with the leas* practical injury and inconvenience.