The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-10-19
DON'T KILL THE MOLE.
The Popular Notion on the Subject
All Wrong, Says This Naturalist.

The Popular Notion on the Subject
All Wrong, Says This Naturalist.
From the Boston Journal of Commerce.
Il had a letter from a friend of mine a
while ago." said the naturalist. asking
me how he should go to work to destroy
ground moles. Those tinid and mysterious
little animals had begun to show their
presence in his garden, and, as he COM
planned, were destroying it. They are eat
ing my peas he SAID, and the roots of
plants and young trees. wrote back and
told him that the moles We're doing moth
ing of the sort. and to let them alone.
TT seems strange 10 me that this idea
that moles are destructive TO growing
things should be so common. If any one
wants to find out what an error it is Get
him trap few moles and Investigate af-
ter the manner of the late c. V. Riley, the
greatest entOmologist the country has pro-
duced. He took large dry goods box, fille,l
IL with garden soil, and in il put six
moles. He added motley collection of
grubworms, cutworms, fishworms, bee
ties, etc. He also inserted from day to day
pieces of vegetables of different kinds,
keeping a record of everything that went
into the box All decayed parts of vegeta-
bles were removed from time to time AT
TIC Gnu u SAA WEEKS lie tOOh HIS lnOEeS Oul
in fine condition and turned them loose
and then went TO Sitting the soil. Every
worm, big and little, was gone, and every
piece of vegetable food was recovered or
accounted for, and not one piece of the
latter had been touched by the moles. Mr..
Riley had recently returned from France
where there was a tine of five francs for
killing a mole.
After 1 heard of this experiment OF
Prof. Riley, became a careful observer OF
the mole and its habits. When 1 have had
a piece of ground infested with cutworms
or grubworms / have caught moles and
turned them loose, and If not too much
disturbed they will soon clear 1t of worms
and L have never seen any vegetable mat
ter of any kind eaten by them. They feed
entirely upon animal food. They sometimes
do slight damage by lifting a plant so
that it's roots die from lack of moisture.
My correspondents pea vines were proba-
bly, eaten by cutworms and the mole was
after the worm. and ten TO one he got
him. Field mice often do damage in gar
den and field by eating the seed crop, and
careless farmers ascribe 1t all to the
moles.
Sometimes in a small garden moles be-
come so common that they have 10 be re-
moved or part of them, A mole can take
a hint without being knocked in the head.
He is nobody's fool. If you want him to
move his quarters, keep his runway tram
pied down from day to day except the
last five or six feet. The time to do this
is when he is working. He is very meth
odical. He burrows in the morning from
10 to II, and from to in the afternoon.
In hot weather he works soon after day
light.
when any one sees his field or his gar
den marked by the tumuli of ground moles
he may know al once that SOME subterran-
can pest in the shape of a grub or a beetle
or a worm is there to feed on
the roots of the crop that may be planted
there, and that the mole is there 10 feed
on the grub or the worm. Let the mole
alone He is there to do you a good turn.
If YOU kill him or drive him away you are
spurning friend, indeed"