LUTHER BURBANK 



season totally destroyed. So long rows were 

 destroyed before I knew the necessity of combating 

 the enemy. 



The attempts to exterminate the pests were at 

 first so unsuccessful that I presently decided to 

 give up the gladiolus colony altogether. I sold the 

 entire lot to an amateur Canadian horticulturist, 

 Mr. H. H. Groff, a banker, of Simcoe, Ontario, and 

 for a good many years my experiments with the 

 gladiolus were not renewed. 



Meantime, every effort was made to extermi- 

 nate the pestiferous gophers, whose depredations 

 were of course not confined to the gladiolus, and 

 through which I suffered an annual loss of cer- 

 tainly not less than a thousand dollars year after 

 year. 



Not alone with the gladiolus but with other 

 bulbs it seemed that the animals took special 

 delight in attacking the choicest plants. And the 

 question of their destruction became finally a very 

 urgent one. 



Numerous methods of combating the pests 

 were tested. A double box trap set in gopher holes 

 was cumbersome and not very effective. An awk- 

 ward iron trap was supposed to catch the gopher 

 when he poked his nose against the trigger, but 

 missed fire or failed to score a hit oftener thai 

 otherwise. One form of trap after another w* 



[184] 



