LOUISIANA GOPHER. 



41 



Compared with some other species of Geomys, they are not very 

 numerous. At Mer Rouge in one pasture of 20 acres 15 'salamanders' 

 were caught, and at least one remained. Though less than one to 

 the acre in this pasture, each had produced a long line of hills to cover 

 the grass and remain for a year or more as unsightly blemishes on an 

 otherwise smooth surface of grass and clover. One line of 16 hills 

 extended in an unusually straight course for a distance of 100 feet. An 

 average hill measured 15 by 24 inches and 5 inches high. Usually 

 there were one or two hills thrown up in a night by each Gopher. As 

 a rule, where the ground is full of roots the Gophers do not dig so 

 extensively as on poor soils where the food is scarce, but here they are 

 able to carry on their work all the year round. Even at the low esti- 

 mate of one hill per day, it may be seen that in the course of a year 

 365 hills would cover considerable ground, and with an average of but 

 one Gopher to 2 acres they might still be a nuisance to farmers. 



A slight loss is suffered from their work in fields of cotton and corn, 

 but the complaints are mainly of their depredations in pastures, 

 meadows, orchards, and gardens. Grass is covered and hills are left 

 in meadows, the roots of fruit trees are cut, and garden vegetables 

 eaten. 



Another accusation brought against the Gophers is that they carry 

 the roots of coco or nut grass from place to place, often bringing them 

 from a roadside or waste place and storing a quantity in burrows in 

 gardens or fields where they are left to grow. This coco grass is the 

 most troublesome weed witli which the Southern farmers have to con- 

 tend. It spreads by means of long rootstocks on which small tubers 

 are borne at frequent intervals. When separated, each of these tubers 

 will start a new plant, which spreads rapidly and is exceedingly tena- 

 cious of life. On this subject Mr. J. Ernest Breda, of Natchitoches, La., 

 writes: u The Gopher has of late years increased considerably m this 

 parish, which fact I attribute to the scarcity of hogs running at large. 

 In ante-bellum days planters were anxious to prevent the spread of 

 the nut grass, or coco grass, and when they found plots 1 or 2 feet in 

 diameter thickly set in this weed, where the previous year not a sus 

 picion of its presence had existed, they at once concluded that some ill- 

 disposed negro had intentionally set it there, and the suspected one 

 was sure of punishment. I have demonstrated in a dozen instances that 

 these coco roots were brought and stored by the Gophers. Last spring, 

 seeing in my orchard two fine starts of coco, each about a foot in diam- 

 eter, I carefully dug for the roots and found gopher holes terminating 

 in each deposit. On a small rise of ground between the two I found 

 the nest, containing three hairless young. While excavating for a fish 

 pond I have found nearly a half bushel of coco tubers deposited 2 

 feet under ground and gopher holes communicating with them from all 

 sides." 



