v THE BADGER AND HIS KIN 123 



the products of the farm. I know of no mam- 

 mals more injurious to the farmers in northern 

 Illinois than these seemingly insignificant meadow- 

 mice. Few, if any, escape their depredations, 

 though the full amount of damage done by them 

 is but little known ; and yet they are usually 

 thought unworthy of consideration. Such of our 

 farmers as cut their corn and leave it standing 

 for some time in the field, as is usually done here, 

 will find, upon examination, that in many, if not 

 every one, of the shocks there may be found one 

 or more pair of meadow-mice, which have dug 

 for themselves burrows in the ground beneath, 

 and have carried thither a store of corn ; while 

 in these, or ensconced in the protecting corn- 

 stalks above, they have built themselves a nest, 

 in which they can lead a very comfortable sort 

 of life, regaling themselves, when hungry, upon 

 the corn. Now a pair of mice will not, it is true, 

 eat enough corn to alarm a farmer for the safety 

 of his crop; but let any one examine a large 

 field of corn, thus cut and left standing on the 

 ground a month or two, where these mice abound, 

 and carefully estimate the amount of corn de- 

 stroyed in each shock, observing that which has 

 been buried in the burrow, and then multiply 

 that by the number of shocks inhabited by these 

 pests, and it will often be found that they have 

 really consumed or destroyed a large amount. In 

 meadows they do much injury by devouring the 

 roots and stems of Timothy, clover, and other 

 plants used for hay. This mischief, however, is 

 seldom noticed by farmers ; or, if it is at all, in 

 districts where moles abound, all the blame is 

 laid upon them, as, indeed, is very much of the 



