460 REPOKT ON TREES NOT LIABLE TO BE DESTROYED BY RABBITS. 



Another method sometimes employed for warding off the 

 attacks of vermin from newly formed plantations is very easily 

 applied, and is very efficacious. It consists in applying the well- 

 known fact that these animals are easily kept off by the presence 

 of anything distasteful to them. A mixture of the common 

 Baltic (or Archangel) tar, with the requisite quantity of the 

 cheapest anti-friction grease, well boiled together in equal parts, 

 is prepared ; and after planting any young wood, the boys who 

 are usually employed in assisting at the planting operations are 

 each furnished with a pot-full of this mixture, which they carry 

 in the left hand, and dipping the right into the composition, they 

 gently and quickly draw it from the neck of the newly planted 

 tree at the ground surface up the stem to beyond the risk of 

 damage from hares and rabbits. This simple and effectual 

 remedy takes very short time, and one stout boy will soon go 

 over a whole plantation. This coating, which, of course, does 

 not require to be applied too thickly, has not been found to be 

 pernicious to the trees in the smallest degree, and is indeed far 

 superior to, and is more capable of being quickly applied than 

 another composition frequently used, namely, coal tar mixed 

 with cow dung and soil, and applied to the bark with a brush. 

 This last named mixture we do not consider beneficial to the 

 young newly transplanted trees, and the bark of some species 

 may be injured by its injudicious use. 



A writer in the "American Agriculturist," Jan. 1867, mentions 

 blood as a specific, and recommends a slight sprinkling on the 

 ground amongst the young plantations as quite efficacious ; but 

 of this remedy we cannot speak from experience, and should 

 certainly prefer the composition of Archangel tar and grease. 



In noticing some of the varieties of conifers? which resist the 

 attacks of hares and rabbits, we omitted to mention that many 

 of those possessing the cork or spongy description of bark resist 

 best, whether it be that the bark of such sorts is like the com- 

 mon cork wood, and will swell in the stomach if eaten or nibbled, 

 or whether they are merely unpalatable, we do not pretend to 

 know ; but this is certain, that such trees are less liable to in- 

 jury than the smooth-skinned species are. 



Tew proprietors can form the least estimate of the damage done 

 to their woods and strips from the ravages of hares and rabbits 

 alone ; hence it is that we frequently find that the result of fifty 

 or even a hundred years' growth of timber produces but a stinted 

 crop, only because the trees have sprung from plants or stools 

 unhealthy, and which have been stunted in their growth from this 

 cause from the very commencement. 



