LEGUMINOUS FORAGE CROPS IQ3 



tion. 1 By means of the hopper-dozer the Colorado Station 

 caught in one day in a six-acre field nine bushels of grass hop- 

 pers, containing about 30,000 grasshoppers in each bushel. 

 Winter and early spring disking of alfalfa fields will also 

 destroy many grasshopper eggs. 



220. Animals. The pocket gopher is, in the western states, 

 the most serious pest with which the alfalfa raiser has to con- 

 tend. It destroys the alfalfa by feeding upon the roots, while 

 the burrows seriously interfere with harvesting. Ground- 

 squirrels, prairie dogs, and field mice are also troublesome. Many 

 more or less successful methods of combating these pests are 

 employed, such as poisoning with strychnine, trapping, shooting, 

 and suffocating with bisulphide of carbon. 



221. POCKET GOPHERS (Geomyidae), comprising two genera, Geomys and 

 Thomomys, and 33 species, of which the prairie gopher (Geomys bursariits 

 Shaw), also called red pocket gopher, is the most important. In color the 

 gophers are gray, black, or brown, cinnamon or pinkish-brown prevailing; the 

 gophers of southern Georgia, Florida and Alabama have an indistinct median 

 stripe along the back. They are the length of a small rat, but twice as thick, 

 have large cheek pouches opening outside the mouth, and long claws on the 

 fore feet, adapting them to an underground burrowing life. They live singly 

 except during the breeding season. Their natural enemies are the weasel and 

 the gopher snake. 



222. SPERMOPHILUS (meaning "seed lover"), belonging to the squirrel 

 family (5 'ciuridae) , and comprising about 73 species and sub-species in the 

 western states, two of which are found east of the Mississippi River. The 

 spermophiles are closely related to the chipmunks and form the connecting 

 link between the squirrels and the marmots. The most widely distributed is 

 the thirteen-lined spermophile (Spermophilus tridecemlineatus Mitchell), car- 

 rying on the back six longitudinal buff bands and seven brown bands, 

 each of the latter containing a row of small white spots. They vary in color 

 from gray to brown, have cheek pouches and are about the size of the pocket 

 gopher. The chipmunk (Tamias striatus L.), also called ground squirrel and 

 ground hackee, belongs to the same family (Sciuridae), and though it may 

 in some instances prey on roots, its favorite food consists of nuts, berries, 

 tomatoes, and pome fruits. A number of the Sciuridae consume vast quantities 

 of destructive insects. The natural enemies of these animals are coyotes, 

 foxes, badgers, skunks, hawks, and owls. 



i Nevada Sta. Bui. No. 57 (1904). 



