14 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



mend banking, unless it is done very late in the fall. Clean culture is 

 the best remedy. Mulch or litter around the tree would be bad. He 

 explained how destructive the mice were to him on trees that were healed 

 in by laying them down and covering them up. Of 30,000 trees healed 

 in this manner, some years ago, he saved but about 5,000. He has since 

 learned to heal in trees by standing them upright and packing the dirt 

 hard around the roots. 



Mr. Wier (of Lacon) — I have had a great many trees gnawed by the 

 mice, and I soon found that it did not injure them at all ! I have had 

 trees gnawed all around, and I can testify that it did not injure them 

 where the soil was immediately banked up around the trees and left there 

 until the middle of the next September. There is no need of losing a 

 tree from this cause. 



Mr. Scofield — Would not the protection be better than the cure? 



Mr. Wier — No, I think not. 



Mr.. Scofield — I would like to know if there is any member of the 

 State Horticultural Society that has had any trouble with mice, where his 

 practice has been clean culture. 



Mr. Robison (of Tazewell) said fall plowing was the remedy. I 

 have never seen any serious injury where the ground is cultivated. Now, 

 in regard to Mr. Wier's suggestion. His cure would become a difficult 

 one to perform when you consider that rabbits often gnaw up two feet 

 high. The banking-up process would become troublesome — a thing 

 almost impossible — certainly impractical. It strikes me that Mr. Sco- 

 field's statement, that the protection would be better than the cure, is 

 strictly correct. It is my experience that the best protection is to tie 

 corn stalks on the trees. I find that a man can tie up 400 trees in a day, 

 at an expense of twenty cents for twine. I am mistaken if the protection 

 is not better than the cure. 



Mk. Carpenter recommended the use of tar paper. Extend it a 

 little below the surface. This paper will last a lifetime. 



Mr. Wier said he thought friend Robison was wrong in his conclu- 

 sions. He said his (Wier's) observations were upon 100 acres of an 

 orchard, and he reaffirmed his faith in his former declarations, and reached 

 the same conclusions. He said he was ready to prove his assertions, by 

 taking a tree and stripping the bark from it, and then doctoring it in the 

 way stated ; and, said he, I will save it, and you will hardly know that it 

 has ever received injury ; and I will demonstrate that there is no need of 

 losing a tree from this cause. 



