rom the
mine that I wish for.

E. PALMER G.

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ELWOOD, ILLINOIS.

In the piece about Easy Botany in No. 24, YOUNG PEOPLE, I read
that bloodroot grows in New England. It grows out here in Illinois
too, and I found some a few days ago. We have a pet dog named
Maria. She runs after the chickens and pigs.

LILLIE MACC.

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BELOIT, WISCONSIN.

I thought I would write to you about gophers. The gopher is a
little animal which lives in the ground. It digs a hole about two
feet deep, and it eats corn and other grain. Gophers destroy so
many crops that the farmers do not like them, and they pay boys
for killing them. I earned forty-eight cents last year killing
gophers. I would take a club and a pail of water, and go to their
holes. When I poured in some water, they would run out, and I
would kill them with the club.

ARTHUR N. T.

The gopher, or Canada pouched rat, is a very remarkable burrower, as it
will dig under-ground passages extending in lateral galleries in all
directions. It is difficult to capture, as it keeps open a means of
escape on every side. The mischief done by this creature is very
extensive. It delights to burrow among the roots of fruit trees, which
it gnaws, until often a large tree dies from the under-ground attacks of
this troublesome animal.

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E. A. C.--It is impossible for us to comply with your request.

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W. B. B.--Flowers are beautiful pets, and repay well the attention
bestowed upon them. The large plant, with its wide-spreading
bluish-green leaves, which bears the castor-bean, is raised from the
seed, like any other bean. It is an annual, but it grows so rapidly that
by midsummer it is already several feet high. In some countries this
plant is called palm-of-Christ, and is much valued as a garden ornament,
as its pale green leaves form a beautiful contrast when growing among
masses of dark shrubbery.

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ADDIE P.--Your beautiful wild flower was so faded and crushed when it
reached us that it was impossible to identify it.

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G. H. FISHER and "NUCTUM."--In an article soon to be published in YOUNG
PEOPLE you will find all your questions fully answered.

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