THE POCKET GOPHER. 



By THEO. H. SCHEFFER. 



INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 



DURING the last three years the author of this bulletin has 

 devoted a considerable amount of time to gathering data and 

 establishing facts relative to the Kansas .species of pocket 

 gopher. Direct observations and experiment in the field have 

 constituted the larger part of the work considered necessary 

 to the preparation of a paper having any real practical value. 

 An extensive correspondence, carried on independently and 

 also in connection with the sale of gopher poison by this de- 

 partment during the past five years, has added materially to 

 our knowledge, particularly of the distribution and depreda- 

 tions of the animal. In connection with the work a number of 

 extensive trips have been made to various parts of the state, 

 including the banner alfalfa counties, the irrigated lands of 

 the Southwest, the potato-growing districts of the Kansas val- 

 ley, and nurseries and orchards in several quarters. 



The important bearing of pocket-gopher problems on agri- 

 cultural interests has become very apparent in recent years. 

 No other species of native mammals of the state will rank with 

 the pocket gopher in extent of injury to crops and obstruction 

 to work in harvesting them. From an economic standpoint, 

 therefore, the gopher is our most destructive mammal. There 

 can be no doubt, either, that the numbers of the animal are in- 

 creasing from year to year, especially in the alfalfa-growing 

 districts of central Kansas. In many localities there are ten 

 gophers now where there was but one a few years ago. With 

 the steady increase in the acreage of alfalfa one may expect to 

 see still more rapid multiplication of the species. This valu- 

 able crop (alfalfa) furnishes just the conditions necessary to 

 make life easy for a pocket gopher. The roots of the plant are 

 thick and succulent and extend deep enough to supply the 

 wants of the animal in his natural range, or even when he is 

 burrowing below the limits of frost. This food supply never 

 fails. Then, too, the ground is not broken up by the plow for 



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