Alfalfa in Kansas. 365 



5. Gophers are active at all seasons, but particularly so in the fall 

 and spring. They do not hibernate. They throw up mounds any day in 

 the year when the ground is not frozen too hard for mining operations. 



6. The pocket gopher, by reason of his secluded life, has but few 

 natural enemies. Bull snakes, weasels, owls, cats and striped skunks 

 destroy some of them, but can not be depended upon to keep them in 

 check. 



7. Cultivated crops are damaged by the attacks of gophers on their 

 root systems and by being covered with excavated earth. Much loss to 

 the farmer also occurs through the obstruction of harvesting operations 

 occasioned by the presence of the mounds. The alfalfa grower has the 

 most ground for complaint, but nurserymen, orchardists, truckers and 

 potato farmers also suffer heavy losses. 



8. We have in Kansas two laws affecting the gopher one a com- 

 pulsory extermination law, the other a bounty law. The compulsory ex- 

 termination law has two weak points, which render it practically inop- 

 erative. The bounty law has been tried and found wanting. Better 

 results can be obtained, and at much less cost, by the plan of furnishing 

 poison at the expense of the county or township. 



9. Poisoning is the best method of combating the pocket gopher we 

 have so far discovered. Trapping is effective, but slower than poisoning. 

 Fumigation does not give good results, and therefore we do not recom- 

 mend it. The poisoned baits that have given us the best results are 

 soaked corn or finely chopped sweet potatoes treated with a syrup pre- 

 pared by the Experiment Station. Raisins, prunes and pieces of apple, 

 potato and sweet potato, into which crystals of strychnine have been in- 

 serted, also make excellent baits, but require much more time in prepara- 

 tion than the syrup-treated corn or sweet-potato baits. 



10. Extermination of the pocket gopher in Kansas is not to be looked 

 for, but communities may be entirely freed from the pest by persistent 

 and concerted action on the part of landowners. (See "Gopher," in 

 index.) 



THE PRAIRIE DOG. 



In the past the prairie dog has been harmful principally to wheat, 

 barley and pasture lands. However, with the increasing acreage of 

 alfalfa this rodent has come into a new importance. Complaint is com- 

 ing not only from Kansas but from neighboring states that the prairie 

 dog is doing considerable damage to alfalfa. On account of the suc- 

 culence, general desirability and abundance of this new food, prairie 

 dogs not only thrive on it, but their destruction by means of poisoned 

 baits is made more difficult. 



Of all means so far tested, poisoning with a syrup manufactured by 

 the zoology department of the Agricultural College at Manhattan has 

 proven the most successful. This poisoned syrup was so effectively used 

 during the period 1900-1910 that the prairie dog was largely eradicated 

 from the state. However, in late years, due to a let-up in the work of 

 eradication, there has been a reinvasion. The College has published a 



