64 



SrERMOPHILES OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 



account of the spermophile's habits, changes have taken place. The 

 Dakotas and Montana are not yet the garden of the world, though 

 the Dakotas represent a fair share of the world's wheat field. Mile on 

 mile of waving grain now occupies the ground then held in undisputed 

 possession by the buffalo and spermophiles. The buffalo have disap- 

 peared and their bleached bones have been gathered up and sold. 

 The spermophiles remain and are apparently increasing, much to the 

 alarm and annual loss of the farmers of the region inhabited by them. 

 The increase may be only apparent from crowding them out ot plowed 

 land to the bordering prairie. As the plow breaks up and fills their 

 burrows and grain springs up high above their heads, they move to 

 the edges of the fields, where more natural surroundings are found and 

 where they can choose their food from either prairie or field. Thus 

 covering a smaller area their numbers appear greater. At the same 

 time their old enemies, badgers, weasels, foxes, and hawks, are des- 

 troyed or driven back from settlements, and the spermophiles multiply 

 more freely unless a constant war of extermination be waged against 

 them. As the situation becomes serious various means are employed 

 for their destruction. County officers, in the hope of lessening their 

 numbers, offer bounties with the only visible result of emptying the 

 county treasury. Men and boys are employed on some of the farms to 

 shoot and poison them. The Department of Agriculture is frequently 

 appealed to for help or advice in the war against them. 



Injury to crops. — Many complaints have been received, particularly 

 from Xorth Dakota, from farmers living in the region where Kichard- 

 son's Spermophile is common. Mr. Eollin 0. Cooper, of Cooperstown, 

 Griggs County, writes as follows: " Spermophilus richardsoni is present 

 in great numbers and very destructive to small grain, doing most dam- 

 age after the grain begins to head out and shade the ground fully; 

 they then pull down the grain and cut off the upper part of the stalk 

 for many rods around their holes, seemingly to let sunlight strike the 

 ground; they do not like damp places and are more numerous on roll- 

 ing than on flat ground. I farm 7,000 acres and I think I can rid my 

 farm of gophers at little expense by using wheat poisoned with strych- 

 nine." 



Under date of July 15, 1889, Mr. G. W. Sewell, of Rugby, ST. Dak., 

 describes the manner in which this species injures the crops in Pierce 

 county: " We have a gopher here that is so destructive that we shall 

 have to do something to protect ourselves or leave the country. I 

 have lived in the grasshopper and chinch-bug countries; the gopher is 

 worse than either. We have a fine stretch of land south of the Turtle 

 Mountains, but the entire community is discouraged by the destruc- 

 tiveness of the gophers which seem to be native to this part of Dakota. 

 They go into the ground in September and October and stay till the 

 snow melt s, say April 20. Then they come in great numbers and seem to 

 be always starved; they will eat anything: grass, grain, meat, potatoes, 



