Tombstone Epitaph

THE GOPHER PEST AND A REMEDY

Arizona Experiment on Extermination of the Pest

IS AN EFFECTIVE WAY

The following timely hints and experiments for farmers is taken from the recent bulletin issued by the experimental station of the University of Arizona at Tucson. It tells of the gopher pest and the experiments made by W. W. Skinner. The following remedy is given to get rid of the pest:

"The method of poisoning we have worked out is as follows: Ounce of strychnine is added to one pint of hot vinegar—more if the vinegar is of poor grade—and after the strychnine has all dissolved, the vinegar solution is mixed with three quarts of water. In this solution ten pounds of wheat is soaked for eighteen or twenty hours, by which time the solution will be entirely absorbed by the grain. The wheat is then spread in the sun to dry. Frequent and vigorous stirring is necessary while the wheat is soaking, in order that the grain may be uniformly saturated with the poison. If properly prepared according to this formula, each kernel of grain will contain a fatal dose for one gopher.

Next dissolve three pounds of sugar in one gallon of water and boil down to one-half gallon. This gives a good thick syrup. When cold stir in one teaspoonful of oil of anise. When the poisoned wheat is dry, or nearly so, the syrup is poured over it and thoroughly stirred until each grain of wheat is more or less covered with a coating of the syrup. It is then thoroughly dried. We now have a highly poisoned, sugar-coated, and from its agreeable odor, very attractive product for the animals we wish to kill. A few grains, one-quarter to one-half teaspoonful, are buried near each burrow, and in a day or two the buzzards which will collect to dispose of the dead, will be witnesses to the effect."