Show TO DESTROY PESTS common pocket gophers cause great loss to crops WORK INJURY IN MANY WAYS rodents eat growing grain cause loss of hay in digging burrows ruin gardens and damage trees in orchards prepared by the united states department ot of agriculture pouched rats comm commonly y called pocket gophers are among the most serious ot of rodent pests in most 0 of f the states west of the mississippi river they occur also in parts of georgia alabama and florida in the greater part of illinois and in southern wisconsin pocket gophers 60 60 barm in many ways they eat growing grata grain and cover much of it with soil they cause loss of hay in digging burrows by throwing up mounds which prevent close mowing these mounds also injure much machinery their burrows admit surface water and aid it to wash out deep gullies on sloping lands by piercing dams and embankments the tunnels cause costly breaks the ant 01 0 1 0 if A JL convenient probes for locating pocket gopher runs mals ruin gardens and injure field crops besides all this they mil kill trees la in orchards and forest plantings by gnawing off the roots two practical methods of killing pocket gophers are always possible trapping and poisoning the first method Is slow but very effective on small areas or where but few pocket gophers are present the other is the better plan on large fields and tor for cooperative work on adjacent farms while the ordinary steel trap may be used successfully for pocket gophers much better results can be obtained with the special traps for these animals commonly on the market in irrigated districts where water Is available flooding the land will drive out the animals and they may be killed by men and dogs fumigation of the burrows with carbon or with sulphur smoke while often recommended as a means of destroying pocket gophers has been found extremely uncertain U nc ertain and costly poison for pocket gophers TO polson poison pocket jop gophers hers cut gw sweet beet pot potatoes atnee or parsnips par snips into pieces whose largy t diameter is less than an inch wash and drain four quarters of cut balts balta place in a metal pan anufrom and from a pepperbox slowly sift over the dampened one eighth ounce of pow deed strychnine alkaloid and one tenth as much saccharine well sh shaken aken together toge theror or ground together in a mortar stirring Is to distribute the poison evenly tunnels of pocket gophers which are ae usually from three to eight inches bolow the surface of the ground may be readily located by means of ft probe any blacksmith can make one by a metal point to a shovel or spade handle and attaching an iron foot rest about 15 or 16 inches above the point by forcing this instrument into the soli soil near the pocket gopher workings or a foot or two back of fresh mounds one can feed the open tunnel as the point breaks into it the hole may be enlarged and its sides made firm by pressing the soil laterally a 11 y w with th the e probe p r ob e A ba bait t t 0 or r t two w 0 n h a ul d ith be e d dropped ro ap pp e d 1 into n to the tunnel t u nn e I 1 a and nd the probe hole covered care should bo be token taken to place the baits in the main tunnels rather than in the short later als leading to mounds different forms of probes have been used successfully by the biological survey in its demon tr atlon work two of the better kinds ere are illustrated |