R-USN 



^ 3 



7-17-31 



"by special feeding. 



Speaking of feeding, however, reminds me of our old friend the 

 cottontail rabMt, and that Farmers Bulletin No. 702 called "Cottontail 

 Rahbits in Relation to Trees and Farm Crops." In other words, I call 

 the cottontails my friends hecaasc I have had a good deal of sport hunt- 

 ing them in my tine, hut I realize that some of you men can't exactly re- 

 gard cottontails as your friends. They do considerable damage at times to 

 your crops and trees. For that reason you may bo interested in v/ays to 

 get rid of rabbits, which you may find in that bullotia. 



Cottontail rabbits, you ]movj, eat all sorts of herbage; leaves 

 and stems and flowers and seeds of plants and grasses, and the leaves, 

 buds, bark and fruits of woody plants and trees. They usually prefer 

 yoimg shoots and tender garden vegetables and fallen ripe fruits; but 

 they can be very particular at times. 



Sometimes, for instance, they will eat one variety of alfalfa 

 dovm to the ground and do little or no damage to other varieties near. "by. 

 They have been known to show a similar preference between varieties of 

 soybeans. IThen they can't get v/hat they prefer, cottontails will take 

 what they can get. During summer dro-aghts, they often attack the bark 

 of growing trees and slirubs. 



I guess you all remember the story of the little Dutch boy who 

 discovered the leak in the dike holding back the sea. He stuck his am 

 in the hole and plugged the leak until help couLd come. He was a hero. 

 He saved his land from being flooded. 



But Mr, A. M. Day, of the Unit-ed States Biological Survey, has 

 bean telling mc a story from nature which is sonewliat the reverse of that. 

 It is about a little villsiin instead of a little hero. 



This little villain was a lone pocket gopher. He burrowed through 

 an irrigation ca-nal that carried 18,000 inches of water for the irrigation 

 of 30,000 acres. 



As I say, the rodent b-urrowed through tlvxt canal. It cost $5,000 

 to repair the break that res^^iltcd. And before the ditch could be put in 

 service again drought got 25 per cent of the crops on that land. 



And tliat is just one instance of that same kind of damage often 

 done by such b-urrowing rodents as pocket gophers, and prairie dogs, and 

 groimd squirrels. And that was just one pocket gopher. 



Western range and farming lands are infested by literaJLly millions 

 of prairie dogs, and gro-and squiiTcls, and pocket gophers. And thei^- 

 excavations, Lr. Da^- tells me, are definite means of starting erosion wMch 

 does an appalling amount of damage to out lands every year. 



Here is v/hat happens in the case of prairie dogs. Pra,irie dogs 

 build those big mounds in inverted-funnel shape. They do that to prevent 

 rain v/atcr dra,ining into their undcrgrotind b-urro\7s. As a means of protec- 

 tion aga.inst their natural enemies as well as for food, they keep all the 

 grass cropped close within 15 or more feet from their burrov/s. 



