90 ORANGE CULTURE IN CALIFORNIA. 



owner has of the death-dealing process going on among his 

 trees is the barking of the tree above the ground. The tree 

 receives its death wound long ere this; the roots are already 

 stripped of bark, causing a slow but certain death. A tree 

 seldom recovers from their ravages. An orange tree will retain 

 its foliage quite green for an indefinite length of time after the 

 bark has been nearly or quite all removed from its roots. Some- 

 times a year elapses after the gopher has done his work before 

 the leaves turn yellow and fall. Attempts have been made to 

 cure gophered trees by banking earth around the affected part. 

 This rarely, if ever, saves the tree. It is best to dig them up 

 and plant others in their stead. 



Flooding the ground completely two or three times a year 

 destroys large numbers of them. Land so flooded suffers little, 

 if any, from them. It is seldom that other means of destroying 

 them are necessary when an abundance of water can be had. 

 If water cannot be had in sufficient quantities to flood the 

 ground, trapping and poisoning must be resorted to. 



If trapping be well done and followed up industriously, it re- 

 duces their numbers very perceptibly; but poisoning is the best 

 and surest remedy. Cut potatoes or other vegetables into cubes 

 each side of which will be about half an inch in length, or take 

 short pieces of potato-top, tomato-vine or pea-vine. With the 

 point of a small knife-blade insert in each piece the least pos- 

 sible quantity of crystallized strychnine. Go over the orchard, 

 and where fresh gopher mounds are found dig to the main run- 

 way, which is generally a foot or two from the mound. Put a 

 piece of the poisoned material (sometimes more are necessary) 

 well into the run-way, cover the excavation and the job will be 

 done. Some sharpen a small stick or a twig, insert the sharp- 

 ened end in the poisoned material, then put it into the hole. 

 Raisins are sometimes used in preference to vegetables. It re- 

 quires only a few months in which to rid an orchard of these 

 destructive rodents. 



