They are as widely distributed
over the continent as the squirrels, various species inhabiting
different regions on the mountains and lowlands, but all the different
kinds have the same general characteristics of light, airy
cheerfulness and good nature.
Before the arrival of farmers in the Wisconsin woods the small ground
squirrels, called "gophers," lived chiefly on the seeds of wild
grasses and weeds, but after the country was cleared and ploughed no
feasting animal fell to more heartily on the farmer's wheat and corn.
Increasing rapidly in numbers and knowledge, they became very
destructive, especially in the spring when the corn was planted, for
they learned to trace the rows and dig up and eat the three or four
seeds in each hill about as fast as the poor farmers could cover them.
And unless great pains were taken to diminish the numbers of the
cunning little robbers, the fields had to be planted two or three
times over, and even then large gaps in the rows would be found. The
loss of the grain they consumed after it was ripe, together with the
winter stores laid up in their burrows, amounted to little as compared
with the loss of the seed on which the whole crop depended.
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