456 | REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 
of the West, they destroy large quantities of corn, wheat, oats, and 
the seeds of flax. They also feed to some extent on seeds of wild 
plants, even when grain is plenty. A Striped Gopher shot at Heron 
Lake near a field oa < heat stubble had its pouches full of the seeds 
of the ragweed (Ambrosia artemisicefolia). 
In view of the fact that large numbers of these animals are shot 
and handled it is surprisingt hat they are not used as an article of 
food. Their flesh is as sweet and delicate as that of the arboreal 
Squirrels, which are held in high esteem as a game dish in many 
parts of the Kast. The far mers agree that they ought to be good to 
eat, but it was impossible to learn of any one who had tried them. 
The Pouched Gopher, whose habits are entirely different from those 
of the Striped or Gray Gophers, lives in extensive underground gal- 
leries, rarely comes to the surface, aud commits depredations rival- 
ing in extent those of the Biackbirds. 
Both at Storm Lake, lowa, and Round Lake, Minn., complaints 
were made of the damage done by Pocket Gophers to fruit and shade 
tr ees by their gnawing off the x oots, which soon destroyed the tree. 
Mr. Lounsbury showed me an apple tree, fully 6 inches in diameter, 
all the roots of which had been cut off by Pocket Gophers. He has 
lost upwards of 100 apple trees in the past few years by these destruc- 
tive rodents. Vegetable gardens also suffer severely from their dep- 
redations. In some potato fields in exposed situations the inroads 
are so great that it is a question whether the crop is worth gathering. 
When a field is badly affected one year the farmer the “following 
spring strives to place the new plant as far from the old as possible, 
thereby securing a good crop before the Gophers discover the field. 
Pocket. Gophers follow along the rows of hills, commencing when 
the pot atoes are not more than half an inch in diameter and not 
stopping until the crop is harvested. One farmer alleges that he 
found in the store-house of a Pocket Gopher at least two quarts of 
potatoes about the size of cherries. 
Considerable damage is done to meadows by the loose dirt brought 
to the surface from the galleries and deposited in numerous mounds, 
thereby killing the grass thus covered. Numbers of Pocket Gophers 
are trapped, but more are killed by placing poisoned potatoes in the 
galleries. 
The losses occasioned by the destruction of crops by Blackbirds 
and Gophers were so severe that the supervisors of Nobles County, 
Minn., early in 1887, appropriated $1,500 to pay bounties at the fol- 
lowing rates: Blackbirds, 10 cents a dozen before July 1, 6 cents 
after that date; Striped and Gray Gophers, 3 cents; Pocket Gophers, 
5 cents. As is usually the c case with bounties little good was accom- 
plished, and no appreciable diminution in the numbers was observed. 
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