18 



THE MUSKRAT. 



inor ilroiiolit, the farmer, especially in some of the Western States, 

 often chooses for the vegetable garden a plat near the water. The 

 nuiskrat frequently invades such plats and destroys the vegetables. 



^Ir. Charles Dury, of Cincinnati, Ohio, in a letter to the Biological 

 Survey, dated August 7, 1906, says: " While looking for insects along 

 Duck Creek during June and July, I was greatly surprised at the 

 damage wrought in a cabbage patch, several acres in extent, by musk- 

 rats. They had cut otf and carried away almost the entire patch, 

 having beaten paths down the bank from the plants to their burrows. 

 The owner of the patch had placed steel traps to catch them, but 

 evidently without success, as the area of destruction was constantly 

 increasing." 



Similar reports as to losses of turnips, celery, melons, and other 

 crops are occasionally heard, and also losses of fallen apples when 

 the trees are close to the water. 



INJURY TO RICE. 



The muskrat is an enemy of the rice planter. More than a half 

 century ago Audubon and Bachman called attention to the fortunate 

 circumstance that this animal was absent from the rice-growing dis- 

 trict of the South Atlantic States, remarking that " if it existed in 

 the banks and dikes of the rice fields, it would be a terrible annoy- 

 ance to the planter, and possibly destroy the reservoirs on which his 

 crop depend." ^ 



The same fortunate condition holds for most of the rice districts 

 of the Gulf coast ; but in iy<xrts of Louisiana — which State has about 

 half the total acreage of rice in the United States — the muskrat is 

 a recognized pest in the plantations. It burrows in the embank- 

 ments, flooding or draining the fields at the wrong time, and often 

 feeds on the growing crop and breaks down the plants. In Plaque- 

 mines Parish planters have for years discouraged the killing of alli- 

 gators, because the abundance of muskrats is attributed to a scarcity 

 of the saurians, which have been killed for their hides.^ A law 

 passed by the general assembly of Louisiana in 1008 authorizes the 

 police juries of the several parishes to enact such laws as they deem 

 best to prevent the destruction of alligators. 



INJURY TO WATER LILIES. 



AAliere muskrats are abundant they are destructive to water lilies 

 grown in private grounds and public parks. The animals greatly 

 relish the tuberous and highly farinaceous roots of these plants, and 



« Quadrupeds of North America, I, 123, 1851. 

 American Field, XXIV, 176, 1885. 



396 



