430 ANNUAL EEPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGEICULTURE. 



tory that plans were laid to continue the work on a still larger scale 

 during the coming year. Many alfalfa fields have been entirely 

 freed of these pests and others have only an occasional animal 

 where formerly there were large numbers. Chief reliance was placed 

 on poisoned vegetable or grain baits, but large numbers of traps also 

 were employed. 



In Utah 40,254 acres of highly cultivated land were treated by the 

 owners to destroy pocket gophers. This was undertaken after dem- 

 onstrations were made and other educational work done to show 

 landowners the proper way to use poison and after arrangements 

 were made for them to obtain the required poison supplies in con- 

 venient form. In Sevier County, Utah, an interesting demonstra- 

 tion was made on an 80-acre field in which 78 acres were treated with 

 poison at a total cost for labor and poison of $10. The following 

 spring an examination of the field showed by actual count only 6 live 

 pocket-gopher workings on the 78 acres that were treated, while on 

 the remaining 2 acres which were left untreated as a check plot there 

 were 15 live workings. 



In Nebraska 53,870 acres were treated in a pocket-gopher cam- 

 paign and 26 counties included pocket-gopher work in their farm 

 bureau programs. In Oklahoma 480 pocket gophers were trapped 

 on one 80-acre tract. An Oklahoma cooperator writes of the results 

 accomplished as follows: 



It is hard to estimate tlie value of tlie pocket-gopher trapping which was done 

 in my alfalfa fields last spring through increased yield, for the reason that 

 there is not a similar field of alfalfa with which to make comparison, and to 

 compare with last season is not fair because of the difference in growing condi- 

 tions in the two seasons. From long experience as an alfalfa grower, however, 

 I do believe that there is a sufficient increase in yield fully to justify the work 

 to say nothing of the advantages the elimination of the pocket gopher gives to 

 the harvesting of hay, which alone are worth the cost of exterminating them. 



Much interest was shown in the eradication of pocket gophers 

 along irrigation canal banks and in the intensively cultivated irri- 

 gated districts. This is due both to the direct damage which they do 

 by feeding on the crops and to their burrows in the banks of the irri- 

 gation canals. These burrows frequently cause destructive washouts, 

 entailing a serious loss of water, often at a critical period, and expen- 

 sive repairs, and at the same time may damage the orchards and 

 crops by flooding. Considerable work of this character has been 

 done during the past year in cooperation with the Reclamation Serv- 

 ice of the Department of the Interior and with water users' associa- 

 tions. A notable example of the benefits from work against pocket 

 gophers is on the Elephant Butte Project, in New Mexico and Texas, 



In Oregon pocket-gopher work was confined almost entirely to 

 Polk County, where a clean-up campaign was inaugurated. Very 

 general satisfaction is expressed with the results to date by most of 

 the farmers in the district. Some of them report that there are 

 absolutely no pocket gophers left on their land, and most of the 

 others report one or two where there were formerly dozens or even 

 hundreds. To complete the work some of this area still needs to be 

 given a third treatment. To date, first treatment has been completed 

 on 20,770 acres, and of this 18,395 acres have been given a second 

 treatment and 8,800 acres a third. The work will be continued 

 during the fall of 1923 on a larger scale. 



