The Pocket Gopher. 131 



The compulsory extermination law House bill No. 184, 

 Session Laws of 1905 might be made a pretty effective 

 weapon against the pocket gopher, but unfortunately it does 

 not appear that township officers care to avail themselves of 

 its provisions. From correspondence with county officers in 

 nearly all counties of the state, I have not been able to learn of 

 a single case wherein the law has been made operative. The 

 law provides that, on petition of ten resident landowners of 

 any township, the county commissioners may, at their discre- 

 tion, direct the trustee of the township from which the petition 

 came to appoint the road-overseer, or other suitable person in 

 any road district, to see that the gophers in said district are 

 exterminated. The person so appointed must enter the prem- 

 ises of every resident of his district at least three times a year 

 on a tour of inspection. If any landowner fails to take proper 

 measures to exterminate the gophers on his premises within 

 five days after having been notified in writing to do so, the in- 

 spector must attend to the work of destroying the animals. 

 The costs are then charged up in the taxes of the delinquent 

 landowner. Other expenses incurred in the work, including a 

 salary of two dollars per day for the inspector, are paid out 

 of the general fund of the township. A weak point in this law 

 is the clause which leaves it optional with the commissioners to 

 authorize the appointment prayed for or to ignore the petition 

 altogether. Then, too, the provisions of the law make it neces- 

 sary for one neighbor to interfere in affairs that may seem to 

 another clearly none of the former's business. He may reason 

 that pocket gophers, because of their burrowing habits, are 

 like weeds, practically fixtures of the soil, to be eradicated or 

 allowed to thrive as the owner of the land pleases. 



The new bounty law* requires all counties in the state to 

 pay a premium of ten cents per head on pocket gophers. This 

 law will probably result in a considerable diminution of the 

 pest in some localities. The bounty system in general, how- 

 ever has its objectionable features, and in the particular case 

 of the animal under discussion these features are prominent. 

 In the first place, the gopher roams about so little above 

 ground that each individual is practically a permanent resi- 



* The attorney-general of Kansas having rendered a decision which 

 practically invalidates tbe state bounty law, several counties east of the 

 sixth principal meridian are now paying bounty under the old law of 

 1903. 



