38 POCKET GOPHERS OF THE UNITED STATES 



had been washed." He also mentions another deposit in which a quan- 

 tity of root s of quack grass and wild artichokes were found. 



Mr. E. L. Brown, of Durand, Wis., writes under date of December 

 30, 1886: Pocket Gophers are very injurious to grain, vegetables, and 

 grass. 1 have seen as much as a half bushel of potatoes packed in a 

 single hole. They sometimes come up under a pile of corn and carry 

 it into the ground." 



Mr. W. Head, writes on January 5, 1887, from Bristow, Iowa: "Two 

 years ago. when I commenced to dig my potatoes, I found a great many 

 mounds thrown up around and on top of potato hills; wherever I found 

 these I did not find potatoes. The potatoes were often taken for a rod 

 or more." 



Mr. John X. Houghton, of Grinnell, Iowa, writes as follows: "Geomys 

 bursarius is very common. He is very destructive to potatoes, and, 

 in fact, to any garden vegetable growing underground, like carrots, 

 parsuips, etc. I have plowed up half a bushel of wild morning-glory 

 roots which he had stored for food, this being positive evidence in his 

 favor." 



Mr. D. W. Lounsbury, of St. Joseph, Mo., writes that nine-tenths of 

 the potatoes in his garden were destroyed by Pocket Gophers. 



Mr. H. J. Giddings, of Sabula, Iowa, says: u My experience with 

 Pocket Gophers extends back to about 1867, when I commenced to trap 

 them on my father's farm. At that time they were so numerous as to 

 be a serious pest, doing great damage to meadows, young hedges, and 

 orchards, and causing great damage by washing. This being a hilly 

 country, the water following their* runs started a great many ditches. 

 I have known them to cut off 40 or 50 rods of hedge in a stretch, and 

 have seen clover fields so full of their hills that the clover had to be 

 cut several inches higher than usual to keep the machine out of the 

 dirt. Now they are so few as to be of no concern. My farm contains 

 120 acres. Last year I caught one Gopher on it and one this year, to 

 the present time, and to-day there is not one on the place. I believe 

 the remedy to be for each farmer to catch the Gophers on his own place; 

 that is the way Ave have done here. I can find no other cause for their 

 great decrease." 



Mr. George H. Berry, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, writes of their destruc- 

 tive habits: " They injure grass crops by eating the bulbous roots of 

 the coarser grasses, and by throwing up mounds of earth, thus annoy- 

 ing the mower and preventing the growth of grass for that season at 

 least." 



In an important paper on these animals, the late Robert Kennicott 



states : 



Wherever they exist on cultivated land, the Gophers are very injurious. No 

 animal is more complained of hy our prairie farmers. Scarcely a crop escapes their 

 ravages. They arc said to desert the wild prairie to inhabit cultivated hay fields; 

 and they particularly delight in clover and timothy meadow s. Here they not only 

 do mischief by devouring- the roots of the plants, but impede the mowing and rak- 



