Rensselaer Union, Volume 6, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 October 1873 — How to Destroy Rodents. [ARTICLE]

How to Destroy Rodents.

The Los Angeles, Cal., Star gives the following as a successful me’liod to destroy gophers and squirrels. One farmer ■has just successfully poisoned some thouj sands of squirrels tliat had partly destroyed a grain field. His plan was as follows: —“ First he purchased four bits’ worth of strychnine which he dissolved in a teacup, of vinegar; this he let stand half a day, fetirring it occasionally. This cupful of vinegar and strychnine he then poured into three gallons of water; into which he added a pint of brown sugar, which destroyed thetaste of the vinegar -and- poison. He then distributed the preparation about the field, placing it in little earthen or other vessels as near the color of the ground as they can be procured. During the warm parts of the day -the rodents went to these vessels by hundreds, and never had time to get to their holes any more, and so deadly is the poison tha’t four bits’ worth of strychnine will lay out from three to four hundred rodents. ” ' We presume that the plan which has been so successful in California with gophers and squirrels would be equally applicable to rats, mice, and other small deer. > -—' It is estimated that the wool clip of Colorado and New Mexico this year will reach 5,000,000 pounds. ’ t