114 



RODENTS OF IOWA 



While gophers seldom inhabit forests and hence cause little 

 injury to forest trees, they do cause considerable damage to orchards 

 and nursery stock, apparently not exercising much choice in the 

 kind of trees attacked but feeding indiscriminately on their roots. 

 The animals take not only the bark but the entire root, such roots 

 if particularly relished being entirely eaten leaving the trnnl^ 

 loose in the earth. At Clarion, F. E. Osier reports that pocket 

 gophers had gnawed the roots of some of the pine trees in the 

 cemetery there so that the trees leaned very noticeably to one 

 side. The nursery stock in the Welch Nursery at Shenandoah 

 also has been damaged in this way. 



g^ 



Fig. 31. 



-Root of Apple tree gnawed by Pocket G-opher. Root knots prominent. 

 (From U. S. Department of Agriculture.) 



Of course the gopher, in spite of its fossorial and semi-diurnal 

 habits, has many natural enemies which assist in holding its num- 



