MARSUPIALS DESTROYED WHOLESALE.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume XII, Issue 656, 27 April 1882, Page 3

MARSUPIALS DESTROYED WHOLESALE.

For years past (says the 'Forbes and Parkes Gazette ') the graziersj all over Australia have suffered terribly from the ravages occasioned by kangaroos and other marsupials, and various means have been adopted for destroying them, as yet with but partial success, as, in spite of endeavors, they have grown and multiplied. Mr Sydney E. Close, of Curra, near Parkes, has however, for the past five years adopted a plan which has answered well. He states that all his tanks are fenced round with a nine-rail fence, so as to be sheep, cattle, and kangaroo proof, and the enclosure can only be entered by gates. On the outside of the lank fence are troughs dug out of trees laid horizontally, and the top laid level with the surface of the ground. The troughs are en-. closed with a fence proof against whatever j stock the paddock contains. The troughs : are filled with water poisoned by arsenic. The quantity of arsenic used is one ounce to the gallon. The mode of preparation is as follows :-—" Boil two gallons of water, and while boiling add about half a pound of powdered charcoal; then add two ounces of arsenic. Stir till it is dissolved. " The charcoal is used instead of acid to facilitate the dissolving of the arsenic. When the poison is thoroughly dissolved and the liquid cool, it is placed in the troughs ready for use." Tn preparing the poisoned water the proportions as above are used ; there is one ' ounce of arsenic to the gallon of water. While the poisoned water is in the troughs a man must be kept at the tank gates to let the stock into water. Mr Close has.been using this method of destroying marsupials for five years, and only one sheep has been poisoned in that time. Poison notices are posted at the troughs, which are always .in proximity of the main water tanks. Since the passing of the Stock Protection Act, a ; little over a year, he has destroyed about 8000, principally by the above means, and in one week he destroyed at one trough 1100 kangaroos. Mostly the poisoned animals drop dead within 100 yards from the trough, which contain 10 gallons each, and the water is replenished as it becomes exhausted. The present season is a most fitting one, and the plan is an admirable one if carefully executed. Five years ago, when the wild horses were such a nuisance, Mr Close cleared his run of these in about a week. The one sheep that was poisoned was by accident. While the ferce was down it was seen to drink by the owner, and was watched till it died, which was in two hours from the time of drinking the poisoned water.