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Show COUNTY AGENT NOTES Corn-Hog Contracts Filed ' Fifty-nine corn-hog reduction contracts, con-tracts, including 4321 pigs produced in this county for market during the past two years, are now filed for inspection in-spection by the state and county allotment al-lotment committees and board of review. re-view. The county allotment committee started work in Beaver on Wednesday Wednes-day morning of this week, and will continue until the job is completed for the present. This committee is. composed of Chairman H. F. Baker, Carl Elmer and Thomas Smith. If there is anyone who desires to sign a contract, he should do so at the earliest possible date; otherwise he may be too late to have it accepted. ac-cepted. Experts Outlines Best Methods I of Rodent Control Actual feeding tests show that 160 ground squirrels will consume as much green feed as a 750 pound steer, or 32 ground squirrels will consume as much green feed as a sheep weighing 120 pounds, according accord-ing to R. Scott Zimmerman, in charge of rodent control in this state on the U. S. biological survey. It requires 128 prairie dogs to eat the same amount of green feed as a steer, and 25 prairie dogs to consume con-sume the feed of a sheep. In the case of the jack rabbit, 59 will consume con-sume as much green feed as a 750 pound steer, and 12 jack rabbits will eat sufficient green feed to care for one head of sheep, Mr. Zimmerman points out. This does not take into consideration the amount of damage caused by burrowing into the soil or j by loose ground excavated from the ; burrow which covers up vegetation i on the surface. j The tests carried on by the biologi-! biologi-! cal survey further showed that 12S pocket gophers consumed as much green feed as a steer, while 25 pocket j gophers ate as much as one head of I sheep. Thus, when crops and forage alone are considered with an ever-increasing number of rodents in a locality, the carrying capacity of the range is cut down in proportion to the number of rodents, the acre-yields acre-yields fall short of normal, and in many cases plant life is destroyed to the extent that it requires years of effort to replace, Mr. Zimmerman says. However, Mr. Zimmerman gives a word of warning to the farmers farm-ers concerning the poisoning of rodents ro-dents too early in the spring. Here it is in the words of the expert: "Early baiting has two disadvantages. disadvan-tages. First, the bait is not readily accepted by the rodents that are out; and second, because not all of the ground squirrels or prairie dogs come out of hibernation at the same time, many are not out to accept the bait when offered. So the farmer' who attempts to take advantage of an early season becomes discouraged, for if he has put out the bait without with-out resulting in the control of rodents ro-dents infesting his farm, his first conclusion is that the bait is no good. "A good rule to follow in controlling control-ling these animal pests is to wait until the grass and other vegetation is well up, and the leaves and stalks of plants have become woody andj ! tough. By this time all the rodents will have come out of hibernation and are ready to accept a heavier diet. Then with one or two applications applica-tions of bait the desired results will be obtained. Therefore, as the spring trial tests. Choose a good warm day, with scarcely any breeze or chill in the air to keep the rodents under! cover. If the bait is not being accepted, ac-cepted, delay baiting for a few dayf, j perhaps for a week or two. Then when you find the bait being accept-1 accept-1 ed, make preparation to treat your j fields, fence lines, pastures and road-j I ways." ! The bait for Beaver county will be ! here any day now, but past experi-ence experi-ence has demonstrated that the best j results are secured after about April, i 25. 1 |