36 



POCKET GOPHERS OF THE UNITED STATES. 



mounds are a nuisance to the mowing machine. I have seen a string 

 of mounds extend clear across a field of clover for nearly a quarter of a 

 mile. They also do some damage to young orchards that have been 

 sown to clover." 



Mr. Peter Skoglund writes from Lake Andrew, Minn., under date of 

 November, 1889: " Pocket Gophers do a good deal of damage to mead- 

 ows by covering the grass with the earth they throw from their holes." 



From London, Nebr., Mr. George A. Coleman writes: "Pocket 

 Gophers are not particular as to their place of residence. They are 

 found in orchards, meadows, and fields. They do great damage by bur- 

 rowing and throwing up large hills, which are sometimes 4 feet across. 

 I have seen them cover the ground so thickly that one could step from 

 one hill to another. Let ten of them go to work in a 10-acre meadow 

 and there would soon be very little grass left uncovered." 



The above statement that gopher hills are sometimes 4 feet across, 

 while correct, needs further explanation. It sometimes happens that 

 the same hole is opened and dirt thrown out at different times until an 

 unusually large hill is produced, the hole being stopped up during the 

 intervals. The ordinary hills average 1 or 2 feet across. 



Prof. L. L. Dyche, of Lawrence, Kans., writes: 



Pocket Gophers are common everywhere throughout this section of the country. 

 There must be as many as one per acre, or even more in certain localities. Nursery- 

 men and gardeners have the most complaints to make against this "very trouble- 

 some little animal/' the principal of which may be summed up in the following 

 manner: They do some damage to young hedgerows by burrowing under them and 

 cutting off the roots and underground stems. As a rule the damaged places are but 

 a few feet in length, but some instances have been noted where a third or even a 

 half of the plants have been destroyed for a distance of 100 feet. This usually hap- 

 pens where the Gopher's course crosses and recrosses the hedgerow. Other kinds of 

 trees are sometimes killed in a like manner in nurseries and a few in young orchards. 

 Potato farmers, particularly those raising sweet potatoes, complain that the Gophers 

 work destruction on their crops from the time they are planted until they are 

 removed from the fields. In some sweet-potato fields which I visited places from a 

 few feet to 2 or 3 rods in length were found in the rows where the Gophers had 

 either killed the vines while they were young or had cut up and carried away 

 most of the potatoes after the latter were formed. Winter before last a farmer 1£ 

 miles north of Lawrence lost 35 bushels of sweet potatoes taken by Gophers from a 

 cellar which contained 500 bushels. The cellar was dug in sandy soil in the edge of 

 the field where the potatoes were raised. The Gophers entered at the bottom of the 

 cellar under the edgb of the boaras wnich lined one of its sides. The cavity from 

 which the potatoes were removed was 4 feet deep on the side where the Gophers 

 entered and extended a considerable distance into the interior. The hole from 

 which the potatoes had been removed was packed solid with earth. This hole was 

 undoubtedly filled up with earth as fast as the potatoes were removed, for there 

 was no external evidence by settling of the potatoes on the top of the pile of the 

 mischief which was going on underneath, After the potatoes were removed in the 

 early spring traps were set, and two Gophers (apparently all which had been work- 

 ing upon the potatoes) were caught. Several reports have been noted to the effect 

 that from 1 to 15 bushels of Irish potatoes have been removed by Gophers 

 from potato heaps (called 'potato holes' by farmers) buried in fields. Some dam- 

 age reported to have been done to cabbage and various other garden plants by eating 



