WILD MIOE. 83 
sands of dollars’ worth of growing food ; but, finally, by all 
together waging war upon them, the pests were partially 
killed off. The mice did not in either case come suddenly, 
but had been increasing steadily for years previous, because 
the game-keepers had killed so many of the “ vermin” (as 
owls, hawks, weasels, snakes, etc., are wrongly called), which 
are the natural enemies of the mice, and keep their num- 
bers down. Farmers are slow to learn that it doesn’t pay 
to kill the birds or rob their nests; but the boys and girls 
ought to understand this truth and remember it. In this 
country the greatest mischief done by the field-mice is the 
gnawing of bark from the fruit-trees, so that in some of the 
Western States this is the most serious difficulty the or- 
chardist has te contend with. Whole rows of young trees 
in nurseries are stripped of their bark, and of course die; 
and where apple-seeds are planted, the mice are sure to dig 
half of them up to eat the kernels. This mischief is mainly 
done in the winter, when the trees are packed away from 
the frost; or if they are growing, because then the mice 
ean move about concealed under the snow, and nibble all 
the bark away up to the surface. Rabbits get much of the 
credit of this naughty work, for they do a good deal of it 
on their own account. The gardener has the same trouble, 
often finding, when he uncovers a rare and costly plant in 
