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Show Stott Urges Fight On Crop Destroyer The attitude of many farmers toward to-ward pocket-gopher control, says County Agent Stott, is much like that of the man with the leaky roof, and he makes a good comparison in the following: In dry weather the roof didn't need repairing, and when it was raining it was too wet to fix it. Pocket-gophers, continued Mr. Stott,. damage dam-age such cultivated crops as potatoes, ! sweet, potatoes, and other root crops in the field during the early summer, but one of the most favorable times to apply preventive measures, is the late fall, and after the potatoes have been harvested, and the gopher largely large-ly forgotten. . At this time the soil is firmer and does not cave in and fill up the runways, run-ways, so that it is easier to locate runways and install poisoned bait in them, with a fair chance of the pests traveling frequently over the same route and getting them. During the growng season this is not usually the case. New runways are continually made in the soft, loose soil, and the animals less frequently return to the used tunnels, many of . which have caved in and are blocked up. If there are very many pocket gophers this j season; ' it is a most difficult task to eradicate them without injuring the I crops one wishes to save. The Biological Bio-logical : Survey of the United States Department of Agriculture and Extension Exten-sion Service urges that attention be given now to cleaning up fields infested infest-ed with pocket-gophers, using two or three applications of poisoned bait if necessary, so that the next spring's planting will be free of these pests. |