22 Entomology and Zoology Department. [Bull. 168 



making himself a general nuisance in small garden plots, he 

 will have to plead guilty. The evidence against him is abun- 

 dant and direct. 



ECONOMIC STATUS. 



In dealing with a mole it is all a question of whether or not 

 that particular individual is out of place. The mole has his. 

 place among the forces of nature, and no unimportant role 

 does he play. One of the most abundant of small mammals, hi& 

 kind has for ages been working over the soil and subsoil in the 

 interests of plant life. Within the limits of his normal range 

 it is almost safe to say that every square yard of arable land 

 is traversed one or more times each season by portions of his 

 extensive runways. A part of this work is visible at the sur- 

 face, but much of it is not. The hoe, the plow, the cultivator 

 strike into unsuspected burrows everywhere. After a flood has 

 subsided on lowlands the unequal settling at the surface of the 

 ground discloses the fact that the soil is simply honeycombed 

 with the runways of the mole and one or two other burrowing 

 mammals. This tunneling and the shifting of earth particles 

 permits better aeration of the soil and favors the entrance of 

 water from the surface. It also mixes the soil and subsoil, car- 

 rying humus farther down and bringing the subsoil nearer the 

 surface, where its elements of plant food may be made avail- 

 able by the agencies at work there. As an offset to this good 

 work of the mole it may be urged that the earthworms, which 

 form a large part of his diet, play a similar part in the econ- 

 omy of nature. This is true; but who knows but that the 

 earthworm, which lives partly upon green vegetation, might 

 become a terrible scourge if the mole were not placed as a 

 check upon its increase. Nature preserves the balance of 

 power very nicely in the animal world. 



A large item in the stomach content of moles is made 

 up of white grubs, those scourges of grass and other valu- 

 able plant roots. The table of stomach analyses (on pages 

 17-18) shows that nearly two-thirds of the moles had eaten 

 white grubs. One had performed the astonishing feat of eat- 

 ing 175, another 73, and another 55. For his good work in 

 destroying grubs alone, therefore, the mole deserves much 

 credit. Among the beetles also, and the insect larvae in general, 

 which form a considerable part of the mole's food, are many 



