20 LUTHER BURBANK 



pected complication put an end, for the time 

 being, to my further work with this plant. 



WAR WITH THE GOPHER 



The complication manifested itself in the dis- 

 covery that entire rows of the gladiolus bulbs 

 had been eaten by pocket gophers, which had 

 tunneled their way into the grounds, and, boring 

 beneath the gladiolus beds, had feasted on the 

 bulbs, destroying large numbers of them (mostly 

 during the dormant season) before I discovered 

 the presence of the marauders. 



The plants do not wither at once even when 

 the bulbs are greatly injured, or in the dormant 

 season totally destroyed. So long rows were 

 destroyed before I knew the necessity of combat- 

 ing the enemy. 



The attempts to exterminate the pests were at 

 first so unsuccessful that I presently decided to 

 give up the gladiolus colony altogether. I sold 

 the entire lot to an amateur Canadian horticul- 

 turist, Mr. H. H. Groff, a banker, of Simcoe, 

 Ontario, and for a good many years my experi- 

 ments with the gladiolus were not renewed. 



Meantime, every effort was made to extermi- 

 nate the pestiferous gophers, whose depredations 5 

 were of course not confined to the gladiolus, and 

 through which I suffered an annual loss of cer- 



