The Pocket Gopher. 125 



crops of the state has suffered as much from the ravages of 

 the pocket gopher as this valuable plant. From a gopher's 

 standpoint, conditions of life are easy in a field of alfalfa. The 

 ground is not worked for years at a time, at least not deep 

 enough to interfere with the underground runways. Again, 

 the roots of the plant are fleshy and toothsome and penetrate 

 deep into the soil, where they may be encountered in abundance 

 at the usual depth at which the animal ranges. They are there, 

 too, at any time of the year to satisfy the appetite of the 

 hungry rodent. As a result of these favorable conditions 

 gophers have multiplied at an alarming rate in recent years 

 wherever alfalfa is extensively grown. In the river valleys of 

 central Kansas particularly, I have seen fields of thirty or 

 forty acres in which one might walk over the entire tract by 

 stepping from one gopher mound to another. It is safe to say 

 that in these cases not less than one-fourth to one-third of the 

 actual acreage of the field was covered, and therefore a total 

 loss. Much of that which remained is necessarily weakened 

 by the loss of portions of the root system. 



Even a few gophers in an alfalfa field become an intoler- 

 able nuisance by obstructing the work of mowing the crop. 

 The man who is running the machine must be constantly on 

 the lookout for the mounds, so that he may raise the sickle-bar 

 until the obstruction is passed. Thus much extra work is en- 

 tailed and a portion of the crop is lost by running the sickle 

 too high. If the operator does not see the mound in time it is 

 very likely to clog the machine, or at least one or more sections 

 of the sickle may be dulled or nicked by encountering gravel 

 or pebbles. If the ground is reasonably mellow the horses 

 drawing the mower stumble frequently, their feet breaking 

 through into the runways of the gopher. Sometimes the holes 

 thus formed are not filled again from below and the rains 

 washing in enlarge the openings to a pit a foot or more in 

 diameter. 



Native Meadows. Meadows of natural prairie-grasses are 

 often invaded by the gopher to such an extent that they have 

 the appearance of having been plowed up over many acres of 

 their surface. The animals apparently find suitable food 

 scarcer there than in the alfalfa field, and are consequently 

 obliged to dig more extensive runways in search of the roots 

 of the native plants. Unless such tracts of meadow can be 



