340 ANNUAL EEPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICTTLTUEE, 



POCKET GOPHERS. 



Demonstration through field operations that the control of pocket 

 gophers can be accomplished has led to increased demands for cam- 

 paigns against them. Work has been undertaken on a large scale 

 in Arizona, Idaho. Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, 

 and Washington, and considerable demonstration work also was 

 done in Florida, Missouri. North Dakota, Oklahoma, and South 

 Dakota. A determined effort is being made in alfalfa-producing 

 sections to destroy tliese animals, which cause damage to this crop 

 commonly amounting to $2 or more an acre and often destroy the 

 entire stand. The mounds of dirt which they throw up also inter- 

 fere seriously with the operation of harvesting machinery and assume 

 great importance in irrigated lands, where intensive cultivation of 

 root crops, orchards, and vineyards enables these animals to w^ork 

 havoc. As the damage occurs under ground, it is often irreparable 

 before it is noticed. Only by knowing the possibility of injury on 

 infested land and destroying the animals can this be avoided. Pocket 

 gophers are being eradicated successfully through the employment 

 of various vegetable, grain, alfalfa, or clover baits treated with 

 strychnine and placed in the runways, and by the use of specially 

 designed traps. 



Producers of citrus fruits in the Salt River and Yuma Valleys of 

 Arizona, where heavy losses were experienced, have been able com- 

 pletely to protect their orchards from pocket gophers by the methods 

 employed in the campaigns inaugurated last year. It is estimated 

 that over 1,200.000 of these rodents were killed in Arizona this year. 

 In a recent contest, directed by the bureau representative, which 

 took place in the Salt River Valley. Ariz.. 1.135 schoolboys were 

 provided with pocket-gopher traps and shown how to use them. By 

 actual count they caught over 36.000 of these animals, the tails being 

 retained as evidence. The winner caught 1,450. The contest cost 

 $180 in prizes ; but the county formerly paid 5 cents bounty on pocket 

 gophers, so that $1,620 was saved the taxpayers on this drive alone, 

 aside from the protection afforded the crops. 



Pocket gophers are among the worst of our native rodent pests. 

 Their destruction of crops and their burrows in irrigation canal 

 banks, wliich cause serious washouts, build up an enormous annual 

 loss to farmers. The work done in pocket-gopher control in Dona 

 Ana County, N. Mex.. last year, in which losses of this character, 

 estimated at $60,000 a year, were eliminated at a total cost to the 

 farmers of about $3,500, proved so successful that field operations 

 have been extended to other portions of the Elephant Butte project, 

 both in New Mexico and Texas, with a view to covering completely 

 this important irrigation area. Approximately 140 miles of canal 

 banks were treated with poison in 2 counties in Idaho, in conjunc- 

 tion with work done on farming lands in 11 counties of that State, 

 where 79i)00 acres of private lands were treated. 



JACK BABBITS AND COTTONTAILS. 



Particularly effective campaigns against jack rabbits were con- 

 ducted in Idaho. Oregon, Washington. Nebraska. Utah, Arizona, and 

 Texas under the favorable weather conditions which prevailed dur- 



