SUMMARY. 



1. The prairie pocket gopher is most abundant in the central and 

 northeastern parts of the state, particularly in the region drained by 

 the Kansas river and the lower courses of its main tributaries. The 

 plains pocket gopher is found in more scattering numbers in the western 

 third of the state and down the Arkansas valley to some distance east 

 of the great bend. Southeastern Kansas is comparatively free from 

 gophers. 



2. The gopher digs extensive runways in the subsoil of wild lands and 

 cultivated fields, piling the excavated earth in mounds on the surface. 

 These runways have no exit above ground. A single animal will throw 

 up several mounds a day for weeks at a time. A gopher spends his en- 

 tire time in his underground burrow. 



3. Gophers breed in the late winter and early spring. Pregnant fe- 

 males may be found from January to May, but the young are nearly all 

 born in March and April. There is but one brood a year. The number 

 of young varies from three to six, and averages a little more than four. 



4. The natural food of the pocket gopher consists of the fleshy roots 

 it encounters in extending its runways, with the addition of some succu- 

 lent vegetation drawn down into the burrow from above ground. Some 

 food is stored in underground chambers for winter use. 



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, weasles, owls, cats and striped skunks de- 

 stroy some of them, but cannot 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 to 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 compul- 

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

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

 tive. 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 we do not therefore recom- 

 mend it. The poisoned bait that has given us the best results is soaked 

 corn treated with a syrup prepared by the Experiment Station. Raisins, 

 prunes and pieces of apple, potato and sweet-potato into which crystals 

 of strychnine have been inserted also make excellent baits, but require 

 much more time in preparation than the corn bait. 



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. 



