New War On Squirrels

NEW WAR ON SQUIRRELS.

California Farmers Will Spread Disease by Inoculation.

The farmers of Contra Costa county, in California, have hit upon a new plan to get rid of the squirrel pest and through their representatives in the board of supervisors have appealed to the University of California to aid them, says a special dispatch from Berkeley to the Chicago Inter Ocean. Supervisors Stow and Tormey called at the College of Agriculture the other day in that capacity as committeemen representing the farmers and presented the new scheme, which will receive the backing of the university. 

It consists of the spreading of a plague that already exists among the squirrels by artificial inoculation. The farmers of Contra Costa county have lately discovered that the squirrels have been dying off from some new disease which has attacked them. But the pests have not been dying fast enough to please the farmers, who think they have found a way to assist the disease. 

Some bright mind recently suggested that the malady might be spread by capturing a few of the diseased animals, extracting the plague germs and inoculating hundreds of others, which would in turn infect those among which they are turned loose. The plan seems to be a perfectly feasible one and may solve the problem of the squirrel pest, which has annoyed farmers for a long time in California.