The following reports are taken from
The Calhoun Chronicle archives:
Arrangements for the big county-wide
rat banquet coming in November are almost completed.
The county agent reports that many people are taking
advantage of this opportunity to get rid of rats,
and that orders for the new rat baits are pouring
into the office.
If everyone in the county having a
rat infestation will cooperate in this campaign,
many thousands of dollars will be saved by farmers
and other persons.
It is estimated that the labor of
200,000 men is required to produce the food and
property destroyed by rats in the U.S. It is hoped
this campaign will reduce Calhoun County’s share of
the $100,000,000 loss each year in this country.
Hunters of the wild turkey on
national forest lands in 1956 spent more than $1,000
for each bird harvested, according to an article in
the November issue of
West Virginia
Conservation magazine.
Wayne Bailey, author of the piece,
said that sample checks on one national forest area
showed that hunters spent $73,000 in pursuit of the
wily game and harvested 72 birds, for an average
expenditure of better than $1,000 per bird.
Deer hunters using the wildlife
management units on the national forest in 1956
spent some $500,000 and harvested 2,661 deer,
averaging $188 per deer.
Sample checks of bear hunters on the
national forest indicated that 1,000 hunters spent
$20,000 and harvested five bears, for an average of
$5,000 per bear.
There’s a large brown circle about
15 feet in diameter to mark the spot off from the
corner of the courthouse where once stood
Grantsville’s noble Norway Spruce. Last week, the
dead tree was cut down and the stump removed by Jim
Richards, courthouse custodian, and a crew.
The Chronicle reported last week
that the probable cause of death was lack of water
and nutrients. That was the educated diagnosis
offered by a state botanist in Morgantown after
county agent Larry McCallister submitted for
analysis a limb of the spruce. McCallister also
submitted a soil sample collected from beneath the
tree and the results of the test are in.
The report, prepared by biologist
Sherri F. Crum, states: “There were 5.0 ppm picloram
(Tordon) present in the soil sample tested. No
broadleaf plants will grow in the area for probably
2-3 years; only grasses. Test soil each year if you
want to grow any broadleaf plants.”
Some ugly questions remain
unanswered. Did someone deliberately throw Tordon
pellets around the base of Grantsville’s noble
Norway Spruce? Who might do such a thing? And why?