GOPHER. The striped and spotted squirrel found all over the West is incorrectly called Gopher. The gray squirrel of the prairies is also sometimes confounded with this species. The two-pouched gopher (Gemys bursa/rim) is entirely distinct, and, where it abounds, so destructive as to call forth the most persistent efforts from the farmer in its destruction. The true gopher is found in some parts of Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin. South and east of the Illinois river it is abundant, but between the Illinois river and the Mississippi it is comparatively rare. In Missouri, Iowa, parts of Kansas, Nebraska and in Minnesota it is common. So, also, it is found in the valley of the Red river of the North up to Pembina. Its true habitat is on the prairie, where there are abundance of roots upon which it can feed. The late Robert Kennicott describes their manner of excavating burrows as follows: On the wild prairie the gopher throws up a mound of earth of considerable size, frequently ten feet in diameter and from one and a half to two feet in height, being highest in the low ground liable to inundation. In this mound is his nest, in which the young are bred, and from it endless galleries are excavated in various direc tions, a foot or two below the surface. These are complicated, frequently intersecting and run ning together, and, in short, forming a complete network of underground roads through which these strange animals can travel for miles. In digging them the gophers run up shafts at irreg ular intervals from two to ten feet apart, which open to the surface usually a little at one side of the main gallery, and from each of these side cuts they throw out the earth brought from the main gallery below, to the amount of from a quart to one or more bushels, and thus form little piles of earth by which the general course of the burrow may be traced. They have a remarkable antipathy to the light, and these side cuts are usually closed again with earth after they have served their first purpose; and, if a hole be opened into any part of the burrow, it is closed as soon as observed by the inmates. Only a portion of the earth taken by the gopher from his main highway is carried to the surface, much of it being used in filling the side cuts, into which it is packed, sometimes even more closely than the surrounding soil, and in digging about their burrows I have thus been able to trace these cuts. The galleries are also apparently enlarged by pressing aside the earth. These are of greater dimensions than would seem necessary for the accommodation of an animal of this size. The main galleries are about four inches in diameter, and the side cuts from two to three inches. I am informed that, in digging wells, shafts have been found sunk by gophers to a depth of ten or twelve feet, with water at the bottom. The opinion of those who have observed such holes usually is, that they are dug so as to procure water. The proper food of the gopher consists of roots, which are usually obtained without leaving his underground roads. Though he sometimes comes to the surface to feed upon the leaves and seeds of plants, this does not appear to be his principal means of subsistence. The manner in which he naturally procures food is by approach ing it from below, without coming above ground at all. He lays up stores, apparently at all sea sons. Considerable quantities of the roots of the rosin-weed (Si1phium. laciniatum), wild arti -choke, or wild sunflower (Reliant/am), spike flower (Liatris), and various other plants, are collected in its burrows on the prairies; while, in cultivated fields, the roots of the grasses, pota toes, and other vegetables, are found in its holes.
Wherever they exist on cultivated land, the gophers are very injurious. No animal is more complained of by our prairie farmers. Scarcely a crop escapes their ravages. They desert the wild prairie to inhabit cultivated hay-fields; and they particularly delight in clover and timothy meadows. Here they not only do mischief by devouring the roots of the plants, but impede the mowing and raking of the hay, by inequali ties of surface caused by their mounds. Grain fields are much injured by them while the plants are growing; and, when the stacks are left .standing after harvest, the gophers burrow from below, and frequently cut up and drag into their holes, or otherwise completely destroy, entire sheaves. All root-crops suffer severely from them. In passing below the surface, they gnaw off the bottom of carrots, beets, turnips, and other tap-rooted vegetables, without disturbing the tops or coming above ground. In fields of common an& sweet potatoes, they work under the hills and remove the tubers, and thus some times destroy half or more of the crop before the dying vines give evidence of the mischief. Instances are related in which potato heaps, covered with earth and. left out during winter, have been entered by the gophers and the tubers carried off. They sometimes enter melons, pumpkins, and squashes, through holes at the bottom, and eat out all the fleshy part, and then fill the hollow rind with earth, leaving it in a • condition to create much astonishment when harvested. They also feed upon the bark of the roots of trees, as well as upon the fleshy roots of herbaceous plants. Some farmers are greatly injured by their destruction of Osage Orange hedges. No small item of their injury is the gnawing and cutting off the roots of fruit-trees. A considerable portion of all the trees have been killed annually in some young orchards in Iowa and Illinois; and several fruit-growers inform me that thay have seen as many as a dozen large bearing apple-trees killed by them in a single orchard. Forest trees, six or eight inches in diameter, have died in consequence of their roots being cut. Trapping is the most successful mode adopted for capturing this animal. A hole being opened into a gallery known to be traveled by him, a small steel trap, covered slightly with loose earth, is placed in the track, in such a posi tion that, when he comes to shut out the unwel come light, lie must unavoidably be caught. It is not necessary to bait a trap thus used. The gopher can very readily be poisoned by strych nine or arsenic in pieces of vegetables placed in .their burrows, as is sometimes practiced with the California species. There could be no danger attending this, and the probability is that the method would be highly successful. In Georgia and Florida, another species of this genus (Gongs pinetis) is found, where it is known under the name of Salamander, whereas a terra pin, or fresh-water turtle, is called gopher. The pouched rat of Arkansas is also called Salaman der. The name gopher is derived from the appellation of gauffre, given these animals by the Canadian voyageurs. It is stated that, on the Upper Missouri, they are sometimes called mulos. Twelve species of gophers inhabiting the United States are described in Baird's General Report on Mammals in the Pacific Railway Survey. Of these, only the present species and that of Florida are found east of the Mississippi. The Californian species (Gemys bulbivorns) is even more destructive than the eastern gopher.