ITS CULTUEE IN CALIFOENIA. 



65 



raisins up with the dirt. Then it is nec- 

 essary to dig and try it again. If he re- 

 fuses the raisin bait entirely, try him with 

 a wedge of poisoned watermelon, or a 

 piece of carrot or turnip or sweet potato. 

 Never give up until you are sure that the 

 gopher is dead. If allowed to remain he 

 will surely do some mischief and, what 

 is worse, he will soon have a family to 

 join him in his marauding. After pois- 

 oning a hole, you will generally find it 

 filled up, but if there are no after evi- 

 dences of work in that vicinity you may 

 conclude that the poison has been effec- 

 tive. As previously remarked, strych- 

 nine is the best destroyer. Pulverize the 

 crystals snd insert only a little of the pow- 

 der in the bait. Arsenic will not serve at 

 all; the gopher fattens on it. 



Traps.— Several patterns of gopher traps 

 are In use, the best of which are skeleton 

 claws, which are inserted in the hole and 

 close with a spring upon the gopher when 

 he pushes the trigger. In setting them it 

 is best to dig down to the main runaway 

 and place the trap as nearly on a level as 

 possible. Then cover the hole with some- 

 thing to exclude the light. The most suc- 

 cessful trap I have eyer found is called 

 the Gushing, and is constructed of wire, 

 with a sheet-iron trigger. It has " a very 

 taking way " with the gophers. 



Squirrels. — Another burrowing pest is 

 the ground squirrel. He has his nest be- 

 low ground and a hole for entrance and 

 exit much larger than the gopher hole, 

 which he always leaves open. He does 

 not attack the roots of a tree unless they 

 happen to be in his way while tunneling. 

 The damage which he does the orange 

 tree is in gnawing the bark of the trunk. 



Exterminators. — Squirrels are exter- 

 minated by poison and by fumigations 

 with apparatus gotten up for the purpose 

 of driving bi-sulphide or carbon gas or 

 brimstone smoke into their holes. Wrap- 

 ping or whitewashing the trees, as sug- 

 gested in the chapter on planting, is a 

 good means of protection against squir- 

 rels. These pests are by no means so uni- 

 versal as gophers and are more easily dis- 

 posed of. 



Rabbits.— Both the Jack and the **Cot- 

 ton Tail" rabbit are destructive enemies 

 to the orange tree, gnawing the bark as 



high as they can reach. Wrapping or 

 whitewashing the trunk is a protection 

 against them. Some people suspend bits 

 of bright tin in their trees, the glint of 

 which in either sunlight or moonlight, 

 frightens the depredators away. Another 

 method is to smear the trunks with dilut- 

 ed blood. The rabbit has a fine sense of 

 smell, and this oftense to his olfactories 

 keeps him away. Kabbits are disposed of 

 with the shot gun with double advantage, 

 if one has time to hunt them. Otherwise 

 poison may be used or the services of a 

 good dog or cat invoked. AVhen one starts 

 an orchard in a comparatively new and 

 wild region, all measures of protection 

 seem ineffectual except a rabbit-tight 

 fence. 



Grasshoppers.— In newly settled local- 

 ities grasshoppers are apt to prove trou- 

 blesome for a number of years, or until 

 all the contiguous lands are brought under 

 cultivation. Plowing the ground seems 

 to kill their eggs and put an end to the 

 nuisance. When grasshoppers prevail to 

 a considerable extent they destroy young 

 orange trees by denuding them of leaves 

 and even stripping the bark from the ten- 

 der shoots. The best protection to small 

 trees is to wrap the stocks with paper or 

 cloth and enclose the top in a grain bag or 

 other covering. Chickens are of great 

 service in making war upon grasshoppers. . 

 I have colonized my flocks in the orange- 

 orchard with the most satisfactory results 

 to the chickens and the trees. 



Scale Insects.— The most formidable 

 enemies, after all, are the scale insects; 

 probably because they are the most in- 

 significant. They belong to a low order 

 of animal life known as coccidse. I shall 

 not here attempt a techinal description of ~ 

 the scale insects, but will rather refer the^ 

 reader to the scientific discussion of the 

 subject taken fron the work of Hon. 

 Matthew Cooke and appearing as an ap- , 

 pendix to this work. I cannot too highly, 

 commend the efforts of Mr. Cooke in be- 

 half of the fruit growers of our State. . 

 They owe him a debt of gratitude which* 

 must needs be paid in installments by 

 successive generations. For the fullest 

 information relative to insects injurious to . 

 all tree and plant life I lake j)leasure, ia^ 



