North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[RW Spalinger <rwspal@earthlink.net>]

On Feb 4, 2004, at 12:44 PM, Rick Valley wrote:

> > Subject: [NAFEX] RE: Orchard Dogs
> >
> > So, a question I have to the group is:  What type of dog is a good
> > orchard
> > dog?
>
> I once met a Schipperke, a small dog origionally kept on working canal
> barges in Belgium, which kept 5 acres gopher-free...

I for one would be very interested in how people are keeping gophers at 
bay. On my place, gophers are about to outnumber the fire ants, and 
that's saying something. I'm trying to eradicate/repel gophers with 
organic techniques. So far I haven't used biological controls, such as 
a dog, as mentioned in the posts.

Gophers have killed a five year old oak tree, and stunt the growth of 
some fruit trees by gnawing the roots. Water just goes down gopher 
tunnels rather than diffusing through soil to roots. I don't even want 
to get into what's going on in the garden. We've learned that gophers 
just love peanut plants.

Anyone interested in a gopher thread?

Randall Spalinger