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Show IMMENSE DAMAGE WROUGHT BY COMMON POCKET GOPHER Little Enemies of Fruit Grower and Forester In Some Localities Local-ities Make Profits From Orcharding Exceedingly Uncertain Since They Work Underground Injury Is Concealed, Preventing Protective Measures. Fig. 1 Faces of Pocket Gophers, Showing Pouches and Incisors. (A. Geomvs: U. Orti toceomvs: C. Thomomys.) (By DAVID K. LANTZ, Assistant Biological Bi-ological Kurvey, " ni tud Suites Department Depart-ment of Agriculture.) Three groups of North American mammals are generally recognized as enemies o the fruit grower and forester. for-ester. These are pocket, gophers, rabbits, rab-bits, and short-tailed field mice. Each of these does enormous damage, often amounting to thousands of dollars up-w up-w on a single plantation. In some local ities they make the profits from orcharding or-charding exceedingly uncertain. Of the three, pocket gophers inflict losses fully as great as those caused by either rabbits or field mice; and since they work underground, the. injury is concealed, often until it is too late for protective measures. Focket gophers, locally known also as pouched rats, salamanders, tuzas, or merely gophers, inhabit more than half the entire territory of the United States outside of Alaska and the island isl-and possessions. They occur throughout through-out the greater part of almost every i I tiiict grooves are present, a fine sl.arp one along the inner margin of the tooth and a larger one near the middle (Fig. l.a). In Cratogeomys, a group with somewhat limited range on the plains from middle Colorado southward into Mexico, a single median me-dian furrow is present (Fig. 1, b). In the largest group, Thomomys, inhabiting inhabit-ing the western half of the United States and adjacent parts of Canada from 'the great plains to the Pacific ocean, the upper incisor is either un-forrowed un-forrowed or has a fine groove in the margin (Fig. 1, C). The number of species of pocket gophers is upward of 100 and all have similar food habits and are exceedingly exceed-ingly destructive to plant life. Pocket gophers do harm in many ways. They eat hay and pasture and cover grass with earth. They cause heavy loss of hay by preventing close moving. Their burrows admit surface sur-face water and on sloping ground lead I 'I A Hi . y. Fig. 2 Root of Apple Tree Gnawed by Pocket Gopher. Root Knots Prominent. state west of the Mississippi, and east of that river in the greater part of Illinois, southern Wisconsin, and large areas in Florida, Georgia, and Alabama. Ala-bama. Outside the United States they Inhabit northwest Canada northward to Winnipeg and most of the Saskatchewan Saskat-chewan Valley. Nine genera of this family of rodents ro-dents are recognized, but only three of them occur within the United States. These three may be readily distinguished from one another by the grooving of the upper front teeth. In Geomys, the group, occuying the Mississippi Valley and parts of the southeastern United States, two dis- to the washing of deep gullies. Their tunnels in dams and levees cause many costly breaks. They ruin gardens gar-dens and injuire many field crops. Besides all this, and probably as important, im-portant, is the damage they do to fruit and other trees. While the pocket gopher no doubt exercises choice In its diet, It injures nearly all common kinds of fruit trees. It is said that on some parts of the Pacific slope gophers do not injure the peach, but probably this Is because better-liked trees are -available. It is certain that the gopher of the Mississippi Mis-sissippi Valley often damages the peach severely. |