10 



sistant in the State Laboratoiy of Natural History, a reported injury 

 to corn by moles was assigned to him by Dr. ForlDes for investigation. 

 The field work was chiefly done in the vicinity of Jacksonville, Illi- 

 nois, during- corn-planting time and while the grain was Ijeg'inning to 

 grow. Extensive trapping was done in corn fields, gardens, and vari- 

 ous neighboring fields, including pastures, fallow ground, and wood- 

 land. Corn was put in the burrows to see if the moles would eat it. 

 Moles were said l)y farmers where we worked to be much less com- 

 mon than usual, but a number were caught and their stomachs were 

 preserved for examination. 



Tlie injury done was limited chiefly to the edge of the field, mostly 

 within fifty feet and virtually all within a hunch-ed feet of the mar- 

 gin. Moreover, it was nuich greater in those parts of the field next 

 an old hedge, a woodland, or pasture, or any uncultivated land, 

 where, of course, the tunnels of the moles were undisturbed. Very 

 little damage was done in the interior of large fields. Although 

 moles work in corn fields all summer and fall, yet, so far as my ob- 

 servations go, the damage is practically all done within the first ten 

 days after planting, and by far the most of it within the first five 

 days. During this time the moles enter the field by burrows branch- 

 ing off from their permanent runs along- the hedges or in the ad- 

 joining uncultivated fields, and spread out among the newly planted 

 corn rows. These runs in the freshly planted field tend to follow 

 the rows of corn in the direction in which the planter was driven, and 

 not along the rows checked off by the chain. Tunnels entering at 

 light angles to the direction of planting soon turn and follow that 

 direction. Approximately 75 per cent, of the burrows made during 

 the first few days after planting were directly in the furrow made by 

 the planter. The remaining 25 per cent, were divided about equally 

 between two courses, those parallel to the rows but not entering them, 

 and those making various angles with them. 



As an illustration of the extent and nature of the damage done, 

 the following rather extreme case may be given. Three adjoining 

 rows, the farthest within thirty feet of the edge of the field, had been 

 entered from that side. In the first row the line of hills had been 

 followed for one hundred and t\vent\' feet, and there were only three 

 or four hills uninjured within that distance. In the second row all 

 hills had been taken for thirty feet, and in the third row all were miss- 

 ing for seventy-five feet. These burrows following the rows and 



