496 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 
to greet as an old acquaintance, it being very like the gray squirrel of 
the Western woods. It lives, however, exclusively in underground bur- 
rows, each occupied by from two to thirty individuals; and from this 
safe retreat it levies its assessments upon the grain-fields with all the 
certainty and pertinacity of the tax-gatherer, not unfrequently harvest- 
ing as its share over one-half of the growing crop, and pursuing the 
grain into the stacks and sacks, and even to the barn itself. Passing 
through the grain-fields after harvest, one may see the wary little ani- 
mals scattering hastily to their holes by hundreds, like young spiders 
from a nest; then, turning on their heels in the burrow, they will sit 
erect at the entrance, uttering a peculiar whistle, the signal of danger 
to their neighbors. The pot-hunter, imagining that he has a fine chance, 
will find them drop into their holes at the very instant that he pulls the 
trigger; and should he succeed in putting a few shot through its tough 
hide, the chances are that the wounded animal will wriggle into its hole, ° 
out of reach, before the marksman has time to reach the spot. While 
not first-class eating, yet both their carcasses and skins find a seady 
sale; but even skilled hunters appear to make but little impression upon 
their numbers in favorable ground. Wheat poisoned with strychnine is 
the remedy that has been thus far most used for their destruction, but 
the want of codperation by neighbors renders all efforts for their exter- 
mination futile, and other domestic animals, as well as the farmers’ 
friends, the birds, too often fall sole victims to the poison. Legislative 
enactments also have failed to prove efficient in compelling united action. 
Of late the use of carbon bisulphide has been introduced with a fair 
degree of success; and whenever the home manufacture shall so reduce 
the price of this substance as to bring 1t within the farmers’ reach, there 
may be reasonable hope that the “squirrel nuisance” will be abated. __ 
Another animal equally destructive on a smaller scale is the gopher 
(Thomomys Umbrinus), an animal of the aspect of a small rat, with a 
short, stumpy tail. Its shallow, winding burrows are marked by small 
piles of earth-crumbs at their outlets, and by the unaccountable dying- 
out of trees, shrubbery, and flowers when at their best, the animal feed- 
ing on their roots unperceived. The gopher can do little damage where 
the ground is kept in perfect tilth, and leaves in disgust when it finds 
its burrows falling in “bebind it. But in plantations of young trees, in 
lawns, and the like, its ravages are most grievous, and difficult to check. 
Of insects, the Phylloxera, and the “‘ scale-bugs” attacking the pear and 
orange, are those most complained of. The Colorado potato-bug does 
not seem to have made its way across the mountains. ‘The Rocky Moun- 
tain locust-grasshopper is reported to have made its appearance occa- 
sionally in the mountain counties; but it is possible that other species 
have been mistaken for it when, as sometimes happens, they have ap- 
peared in unusual numbers. This year an invasion by one of these 
(Cdipoda Atrox) is reported as doing serious damage in Sierra and Tu- 
lare Counties. The caterpillar, which occasionally appears in countless 
numbers, completely denuding the live-oaks, and is then scarcely seen 
for several years, seems to be gradually enlarging the scope of its appe- 
tite, and attacks the orchards. ‘The cut-worm and codling-moth also 
are increasingly complained of ; yet, on the whole, insect pests do not as 
yet excite much alarm in California, despite the fact that they are unde- 
niably on the increase, both in numbers of the same species and in new 
ones being constantly introduced by sea and land. 
CEREAL CROPS. 
Of all the field crops grown in the State, wheat is the most j:portant 
at this time. It was the first culture on a large scale introduced on the 
