FAMILY OF POCKET GOPHERS 



269 



make itself a nuisance by burrowing in the 

 banks of irrigation ditches and reservoirs, and 

 this is probably true in otlier sections along the 

 lower edge of its range. The numerous hills of 

 earth and stones thrown up in hay meadows and 

 grain fields dull the sickles of mowing and har- 

 vesting machines." 



As an offset to the injury inflicted upon agri- 

 cultural interests along the lower edge of its 

 range, this animal is an important agent in the 

 conservation of the forests and moisture in the 

 higher mountains, where it is most abundant. 

 The thorough and continual working and en- 

 richinjT which the soil receives through the activ- 



ramifying tunnels which the animal has made 

 through the snow on the surface of the ground. 

 With reference to breaks in levees caused by 

 Gophers, it should be stated that means have 

 been discovered whereby these expensive and 

 often disastrous operations of the little burrow- 

 ers can be arrested. Mr. Robert E. Jones 

 writes : " W'hen a burrowing Gopher strikes 

 sand he stops. Nature has failed to provide 

 him with the means for penetrating that kind 

 of bank." Taking advantage of this fact, Mr. 

 Jone3 has constructed a levee the outside casings 

 of which are river bottom soil and the center is 

 sand. This kind of levee has been brought into 



OUT FOR A RAID 



The Pocket Gopher is the terror of every farmer. It has a greedy appetite, and capacious pockets 



in its cheeks 



ities of Gophers ij highly beneficial to forest 

 growth, and at the same time a large amount 

 of moisture which would otherwise run off the 

 mountain slopes is retained in the numerous 

 burrows and underground tunnels which might 

 properly be termed natural water traps. 



On the higher open mountain slopes, particu- 

 larly above timber-line, one often sees peculiar 

 long serpentine ridges of earth, sometimes dry 

 and hard packed, but more often partially dis- 

 integrated through the action of moisture. These 

 are formed by Gophers during the winter when 

 snow covers the ground to a considerable depth. 

 The loose earth thrown out is packed into the 



use on the .Sacramento river, and has proved 

 in every way effective. 



The Prairie Pocket Gopher, the typical form 

 described above, ranges the Mississippi valley 

 from the Canadian border, south to southern 

 Illinois, and from Lake Michigan to Nebraska. 

 By reason of the fertility of the territory which 

 it inhabits, Bailey considers this species of 

 greater economic importance than all the other 

 species combined. It is not rare to find one of 

 its holes extending along a potato row, and 

 every hill entered and entirely cleaned out. The 

 damage they do is indeed enormous. Hickory 

 saplings two inches through with their roots all 



