20 



POCKET GOPHERS OF THE UNITED STATES. 



rots, beets, onions, and parsnips. These are cut below the surface and 

 eaten on the spot, or carried away to be stored for future use. 



Injury to other farm crops. — Certain crops, such as corn, wheat, oats ? 

 barley, rye, and alfalfa are cut above the ground and carried down 

 into the burrows. Squashes, pumpkins, melons, and the like are some- 

 times gnawed into from below and the inside eaten out. 



Injury to trees. — Gophers eat the roots of fruit trees and of trees 

 planted for shade, ornament, or timber. Very great harm is done in 

 this way. All the roots may be cut so that the tree falls at the first 

 wind. The base of such a tree is shown in figure 5. 



Mr. Byron Andrews, manager of the Boston Commonwealth, writes 

 that at his farm in South Dakota Gophers have proved very trouble- 

 some in a 10 acre nursery of white ash trees five years from the seed. 

 In one dry summer they cut away the roots of the young trees so that 

 when touched the trees fell. u The Gophers would take every tree not 

 missing one for ten or twelve feet in a row, and then cut across and go 

 up the next row. In a few weeks they thus destroyed about one-half 

 of the nursery. 



Injury done by the burrows. — Gophers' burrows on hillsides often 

 cause very serious washing in rainy weather. Meadows are damaged 

 by the mounds of earth thrown out from the tunnels as well as by the 

 tunnels themselves. Still greater injury is done by the burrows in the 

 banks of canals and irrigating ditches. Thus, in about twelve years, 

 a large irrigating canal nearly 25 miles long, at .Riverside, Cal., became 

 almost unfit for use on account of the holes bored in its banks by 

 Gophers. In Weld County, Colo., suit was brought against the town 

 of Greeley for damage done by the breakage of a canal caused by the 

 burrowing of Gophers in the banks. One person secured a judgment 

 of $750 on the ground that the town did not properly superintend the 

 canal. 



NATURAL ENEMIES OF POCKET GOPHERS. 



From their manner of living below the surface of the ground and in 

 holes carefully closed, Gophers would seem unusually safe from natural 

 enemies. Compared with most mammals they are, but occasionally a 

 fox or cat pounces upon one as it brings out a load of dirt in the twi- 

 light. J lawks and owls pick one up now and then and weasels often 

 enter the burrows and dine upon the occupants. I have taken one 

 from the stomach of a fox, Avhile the stomach of a wildcat shot by 

 Dr. 0. Hart Merriam on San Francisco Mountain, Arizona, contained 

 1 wo. 



A s Gophers arc 1 , most active during the evening and early night, 

 more are captured by owls than by hawks. This is shown by Dr. A. 

 K. Fisher, in his Hawk and Owl Bulletin, where it is stated that two 

 were found in the stomachs of marsh hawks, four in red-tailed hawks, 

 lour in great horned owls, and eight in barn owls. The barn owl is 



