Show PRAIRIE CONTROL is ABLY DISCUSSED by II 11 rank silvey much has been written of late on the braide dog clog nuisance nuisance in m san luan juan county and this is a healthy sign that we ve are aie becoming interested at last in in this greatest menace to crops and all range grasses so ad I 1 am civi giving 9 y you U my views views on this subject through u inh toe the columns of the record t trusting us ting it ma may y be of some value in the future to all coming west in in august 1882 and settling at old la sal I 1 have more or less les observed the increase increase and distribution trib ution by those pests over oer this period of years cars traveling by wagon from durango to la sil sal we only saw one rather small colony of them and as we sowed bowed about 20 acres of oats in the spring of 83 we had our oui first experience with the pests right light then as they destroyed about three acres of gum grain before we had them anderl control we had plenty of water so wo we plo plowed wed ditches to the holes and with the aid of indians who are deiy fond of prairie biame dog meat roasted wl saved the remainder of tie the oat crop and as we kept drowning them out i we finally had them pretty well under control near our oui ranches but they kept spreading out on the range and I 1 mi rating to otho other r districts and as i they increase inci ease rapidly from year ear to I 1 year we now have them in in countless nuni ays eys in in about all districts di within the county I 1 I 1 in early fills days we never saw a prairie dog in in dry valley li lisbon valley east canyon carlisle Cai lisle district monticello blinding summit point and piute diute springs district but today we have hac them more moio or 01 less in in all th this s district di duct in IT lisbon valley they arc now so numerous that they have taken 1 about adlof all of our blue stern stem gr glass ass and are ale now working on the white sage and buffalo grass and as they dig up tip the roots and eat them this destroys the grasses glasses forever we note tre tle same thing in in east dry valley where they are increasing at an alarming rate gaii ind and moving westward and is only a question que tion of a few years up until til all al of tins this wonderful val valley ley with its vast winter range for stock lock will be practically practical lv a desert dunles 3 strena ous efforts are soon mad to detroy I 1 these pests this can be done only by a cooperative effort by all blanding people are to be admired in in their efforts and have pointed out the way but little can be dont done urless we get cooperative aid from the federal government ern ment state croitz caunt and nil all corn on oni i muni unities ties everybody interested As there are many man tin tinier 3 more moie acres of govern government ment land in in this county it would only be fair for the govern me men to bear most of the expense then as we have a lot of school and state owned land the state should help as well as the county then individual land owners who have prairie naine dogs on an their ranches should help in this extermination campaign in labor or money and I 1 wo would uld sug gest the following plan first em employ pi 0 y from 4 to 6 good no men en local men pre feied that would be interested in in this work tor for the benefit of all paying good wages so that in case a man would not be interested in in his work others could be employed who would do tle the work well 2nd and start stait work of extermination on the pests as early the starting stait mg sa as possible in in spring at or near monticello work winking ing east erly eily wi with th grain to start with f following 0 this with poisoned grain over oer area covered uh the un poisoned grain aidin ill in a couple of days das then bait a new nev tract and keep this up for about 10 days then wow follow up with the salt strychnine nine preparation be both th are aie good ind and P personal personal expert ence tells me that they are much bet ter than grain po poisoning ironing Iso ning after all this I 1 find that a lot of the older wiser vier prairie dogs and they art an sure wise wise are still as lively as ever and I 1 find that tie the only sure suie way is to trap them and of course thit that is slow work and it is is just possible that the method of attaching a tubber rubber hose to the exhaust of an auto back inserting in hose ing up to a hole and in same for a few minutes care caie be ing taken to fil fill I 1 up no nearby holes hole Is with dirt as a good many man illes 1 connect underground it won voul i to and cover much ground m men e n to do this to handle the car cai and in a day one two constantly with shovels filling up holes this method has it is is sa said id been successfully employed in the infested district of eastern colorado and western kansas fo for several years after working out some oma distance from monticello this campaign of extermination should be shifted to Dl blanding anding always working out and away from tie the f farming a in g districts thus protecting farm arz crops first after a time trans for fer crew to other districts where there is fanning faiming to protect crops then carry on a go general campaign in dry valley lisbon valley east canyon and all other districts carry on this work for at least two years with a systematic earnest endeavor and I 1 firmly believe we can rid ourselves of this great pest and menace |