s 



farmers' bulletin 860. 



taneously that it is hard to believe that all the animals could have 

 reached them through the head gates. 



FOOD. 



Like nearly all rodents, the muskrat is chiefly herbivorous, but it 

 sometimes indulges in animal food, a habit which it shares with 

 many other gnawing animals. 



. Its chief food in winter consists of the roots of aquatic plants — 

 pond lilies, arums, sedges, and the like — but in some localities it 

 feeds on mussels and also on carp and other sluggish fish that bury 

 themselves in mud. When ponds are frozen over, muskrats are 

 restricted almost wholly to food accessible under the ice, but in rare 

 cases they leave the water and burrow under the snow in search of 

 the crowns of grasses and sedges. 



The summer menu is far more extensive, being made up of many 

 aquatic plants — roots, stems, leaves, and fruit — and in addition, of 

 supplies from near-by fields or woods. Muskrats are fond of nearly 

 all garden vegetables — cabbage, onions, carrots, parsnips, beets, peas, 

 beans, celery, and the like — and they frequently do considerable dam- 

 age in gardens close to their haunts. 



INJURY TO CROPS. 



Damage to crops by muskrats is confined to limited areas. On low- 

 lying lands bordering streams they sometimes attack corn or other 

 grains, the injury usually being restricted to narrow belts near the 

 water's edge. Sometimes growing corn is eaten to the ground, but 

 the damage is greatest when it is in the roasting-ear stage. The 

 animals then cut down the stalks to reach the ears, which they carry 

 to their burrows. Injury to other grains, except rice, is generally 

 slight. 



Losses of garden crops on bottom lands are more serious than the 

 losses of grain. The black alluvial soils of creek bottoms are espe- 

 cially adapted to growing vegetables which here escape the effects of 

 summer drought ; and the farmer, especially in some of the Western 

 States, often chooses for the vegetable garden a plat near the water. 

 The muskrat frequently invades such plats and destroys the vege- 

 tables. 



Reports of losses of turnips, celery, melons, and other crops due 

 to muskrats are heard occasionally, and also losses of fallen apples 

 when the trees are close to the water. 



The muskrat is an enemy of the rice planter, but fortunately it is 

 absent from many of the southern districts that produce rice. In 

 Louisiana, however, it is a recognized pest in the plantations. It 

 burrows in the embankments, thus flooding or draining the fields at 



