GENERAL HABITS. 



13 



vanes from a pint to a bushel. They are generally circular and a foot 

 or more in diameter. The quantity of dirt in each varies greatly with 

 different kinds of soil and according to the distance between the hills. 

 In mellow soil both holes and hills are larger than in hard soil. I once 

 counted the hills thrown out by three Gophers ( Geomys bursarius) twelve 

 days after a rain. The numbers were respectively 28, 35, and 40. As 

 the Gophers work all summer and to some extent through the winter, 

 the total quantity of earth brought to the surface and the total area 

 covered are considerable. For example, in the central part of Minne- 

 sota, where the ground is unfrozen for seven months in the year, the 

 lowest number in the three cases mentioned, 28 hills in twelve days, 

 would result in 490 hills in seven months, or at least 500 square feet of 

 ground covered over with subsoil in one year by one Gopher. 



Mixing the soil. — That Gophers have done great good in preparing 

 the land for cultivation can not be denied. For unknown ages they 

 have been steadily at work plowing the ground, covering deeper and 

 deeper the vegetable matter, loosening the soil, draining the land, and 

 slowly but surely cultivating and enriching it. On the prairies that 

 are swept each year by fire, the only vegetation remaining to decay 

 and fertilize the soil is that which the gopher hills cover and protect 

 from the Hames. On poor, sandy soil the scant vegetation would dry 

 up, blow away, and only a small amount find its way into the soil were 

 not the gophers busy all summer burying the fresh plants. Carefully 

 scrape away a gopher hill that has been standing for six months and a 

 layer of decayed plants will be found under it. In a year or two new 

 plants will spring up on the spot and draw their nourishment from the 

 elements of former growths, these again in time to be buried and add 

 their substance to the wealth of the soil. Hence it would be well to 

 examine their habits carefully before condemning the Gophers that 

 occupy wild pastures and idle land. 



Hibernation. — Although Gophers are supposed to hibernate, there is 

 abundant evidence that they do not. While all hibernating animals 

 become very fat in autumn, as a preparation for their long winter's fast, 

 Gophers never undergo such a change. Moreover, during snowy 

 winters when the ground is not frozen they continue their work under 

 the snow. When the snow is light, hills may be thrown up under it 

 in the ordinary way, but if it becomes too hard to be readily pushed 

 aside, the animals excavate tunnels in it into which they push the earth. 

 As the snow disappears in spring cylinders of packed earth are fre- 

 quently seen radiating from the closed ends of gopher holes. They are 

 sometimes 20 feet long. Throughout the northern part of the gopher 

 country the ground usually remains frozen during most of the winter. 

 Then the Gophers do not appear at the surface at all, but are 

 probably extending their tunnels below the frost, where food is obtained 

 from deep running roots. To what extent they depend on the stores 

 laid up in fail is hard to tell. Part of the supply is sometimes used, 



