THE MUSKRAT AS A FUR BEARER. AND AS FOOD. 



9 



the wrong time, and often feeds on the growing crop and breaks down 

 the plants. 



Where muskrats are abundant they are destructive to waterlilies 

 grown in private grounds and public parks, and often by their depre- 

 dations make it difficult to establish the lilies in new situations. The 

 common white waterlily is said to be less subject to injury than the 

 odorless species, and the so-called lotus, both native and introduced 

 species, is most frequently injured. 



INJURY TQ TIDAL MEADOWS. 



Along the Atlantic coast are large areas which are overflowed by 

 salt water at highest tides, but which produce useful though coarse 

 grasses. Dikes are sometimes built over the low places to exclude the 

 tides, and thus the quality of the hay is improved and cutting by 

 machine made possible. The embankments have gates to permit 

 drainage of surface water and to admit the tides when desired. 

 Muskrats often gnaw holes in the gates or burrow through dikes and 

 flood the lands, much to the annoyance of the salt-water farmer. 

 Although this flooding of meadows results in inconvenience, the losses 

 are not great. It is highly probable that if the muskrats were prop- 

 erly protected they would yield better returns to the owners of the 

 land than are now obtained from the hay. 



INJURY TO DAMS AND EMBANKMENTS. 



The most serious damage by muskrats is to dams and embankments. 

 Milldams, canals, irrigation ditches, ice ponds, and river levees are 

 more or less subject to injury from these animals. They delight in 

 the deep water of artificial reservoirs. Whenever a canal is built 

 along a river valley, large numbers of muskrats promptly desert the 

 river for the new waterway and pierce the embankments with their 

 burrows. Where the berm bank of the canal is high, little harm is 

 done on that side; but on the other bank and in places where the 

 berm slopes downward, water often penetrates the burrows and dis- 

 astrous breaks follow. It must be admitted^ however, that sometimes 

 the muskrat is blamed for breaks actually caused by crawfish, pocket 

 gophers, moles, and even the common brown rat. 



In irrigated sections of the West, ditches and reservoirs are some- 

 times injured by muskrats, requiring costly repairs and involving 

 serious delays in the distribution of water to growing crops. Most 

 canal and irrigation companies find it profitable to employ watch- 

 men to patrol the embankments and look for burrows of muskrats, 

 gophers, and other animals. 



The breaking of milldams in districts where manufacturers depend 

 on water power is often due to muskrat burrows. In the spring of 

 1512°— 17— Bull. 869 2 



