292 ARID AGRICULTURE. 



falfa, fruit trees, garden vegetables and other 

 things. He throws up mounds of earth which 

 don't belong there and which dull our mowing 

 machines, cover growing crops and interfere with 

 harvest. He punctures the soil with holes which 

 often seriously interfere with irrigation, break- 

 ing ditches, carrying away the water and wash- 

 ing the soil. There are not as many of these 

 gophers as we would think, for one of them will 

 throw up many mounds, twenty or more, in a 

 day. Few know how to go about getting rid of 

 them, so they are altogether too much left alone. 



HOW TO GET The pocket gopher cannot be effectively 



THESE killed with gas as the ground-squirrel or prairie- 



G-OFHEBS fog jj e mav ^ e t ra pp ec [ by the use of small 



steel traps set in the burrows or runways. It is 

 necessary to dig a hole between the mounds to 

 find the runway which is usually less than a foot 

 below the surface, and the trap carefully set 

 where the gopher will put his foot in it. Un- 

 doubtedly poisoning is the best method. A little 

 strychnine in a piece of carrot, parsnip, potato, 

 apple or raisin placed in the fresh runways, will 

 do the work. A better method, perhaps, is to 

 drop carefully a spoonful of poisoned grain in 

 the fresh burrow. 



When fresh mounds are thrown up in a field, 

 locate the new burrow by pushing a sharpened 

 stick or iron rod into the ground between the 



