CONTENTS 



Page. 



Introduction 9 



General habits 10 



Underground life „ 10 



Burrows 12 



Mixing the soil 13 



Hibernation denied 13 



Food 14 



Drink 14 



Use of pouches 14 



Abundance 16 



Breeding 16 



Disposition 16 



Voice 17 



Gophers as an article of food 17 



The teeth 17 



Structure and manner of attachment 17 



The teeth as a cutting machiue 18 



Damage done by Gophers 19 



Injury to roots, tubers, and garden vegetables 19 



Injury to other farm crops 20 



Injury to trees 20 



Inj ury done by the burrows 20 



Natural enemies of Gophers 20 



Methods of destruction and exclusion 23 



Bisulphide of carbon 23 



Fumigation 23 



Trapping 23 



Poisoning 24 



Use of wire netting 24 



Trenches 25 



Bounties 25 



Objections to the bounty system 26 



Geographic distribution of the Pocket Gophers 28 



The species of Geomys 29 



Habits of the Georgia Gopher ( Geomys tuza) 31 



Prairie Gopher ( Geomys bursarius) 33 



Plains Gopher ( Geomys Jutescens) 39 



Louisian a Gopher ( Geomys breviceps) 40 



Sandy Gopher {Geomys arenarius) 43 



Padre Island Gopher ( Geomys personatus) 43 



BaircVs Gopher ( Cratogeomys castanops) 44 



Gray Gopher ( Thomomys talpoides) 44 



5 



