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to the farmer. The value of the gray squirrel as a game animal 

 is considerable. Therefore, whether the destruction of squirrels 

 by cats is beneficial or injurious to mankind will depend largely 

 upon the circumstances and the point of view, and need not be 

 given great weight; but the cat may be serviceable toward 

 checking the undue increase of squirrels where their native 

 natural enemies are not numerous, for in such cases squirrels 

 become very destructive. 



Economic Value of Hares or Rabbits. 



The destruction of hares (or rabbits, so called) by cats may be 

 placed in the same category. Hares often become injurious by 

 gnawing the bark of fruit trees, and as they are vegetable feeders 

 they are not looked upon with favor by the farmer. But from the 

 standpoint of the sportsman they form collectively a valuable 

 asset to any land, and their food value is too great in these days, 

 when meat is high in price, to make them economical as food for 

 cats. 



Economic Value of Moles. 



Moles often become nuisances in mowing lands and on lawns, 

 where they throw up unsightly ridges and mounds; also in 

 gardens they disturb the roots of plants by their digging; but 

 careful investigation shows that they are very rarely vegetable 

 feeders, and that the destruction of plants sometimes attributed 

 to them by farmers is caused not by moles but by mice, which 

 sometimes use their burrows. Every subterranean mole gallery 

 forms a trap into which worms and grubs continually tumble, 

 and the mole, moving rapidly through its tunnel at all hours of 

 the day and night, gathers them in. It is one of the chief enemies 

 of the white grub of the May beetle; also of wireworms, the 

 progeny of snap beetles, both of which are destructive to the 

 roots of grass and cultivated plants, and are difficult to control. 

 The reason that mole burrows often follow rows of vegetables 

 is that the mole is seeking grubs at the plant roots. The moles 

 killed by cats, had they been allowed to live, would have eaten 

 an enormous number of injurious insects, — far more than cats 

 would ever kill. 



Economic Value of Shrews and Bats. 



The killing of many shrews by cats forms one of the blackest 

 pages of the record, for there are few creatures so harmless and 

 so beneficial as the shrew, from the standpoint of the agricul- 

 turist. Shrews are tremendous gluttons and feed very largely 



