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Show MOLE WORKS DURING WINTER Little Animal Keeps Busy Where Ground Is Not Frozen Too Hard His Strength Is Marvelous. . (By T, H. SCHEFFER.) The mole, like the pocket gopher, is more or less active at all seasons of the year, but it is during the rainy period, when the soil is moist, that his work is pushed most vigorously. Shallow runways are then rapidly extended ex-tended in all directions and old runways run-ways repaired. When a mole makes up its mind to go in a certain direction, nothing but concrete or stone will stop him. Hand, Foot and Nose of Common Mole. The strength of these little animals is marvelous. They will heave up the surface of a path trodden so hard that repeated blows of a pick will be needed to break the crust. Ordinarily the mole. makes his way through the soil as a root does, or a stake when driven by the blows of a sledge. The earth is not excavated, but simply crowded aside. When the ground becomes very hard, of course, the mole is obliged to excavate the passageways and push the loose dirt out through the openings of the roof of his tunnel. The mole keeps at work all through the winter in places where the ground Is not frozen too hard. : He works more frequently in the morning and evening. ' Moles do very little harm to . the roots of grain, grasses or ' vegetables, except in pushing the soil aside, . and they, live principally . on the white grub, earth-worms and beetles!' - He thus proves himself to be a friend to mankind, because grubs are the greatest scourges of grass and other valuable plant roots. |