\oiir ^ori^er. 



The Meadow Mouse. — "Fruit trees were seriously injured by the 

 meadow mouse, or mole, in this locality, on account of the snow." 

 Harrison, Minn., 4-27-'97. N. P. ASPINWALL. 



"The outlook for every kind of fruit is grand, but there are mil- 

 lions of apple caterpillars and currant worms to fight now, and I 

 suppose other pests will soon follow." 



Excelsior. 5-21-'97. Mrs. Sophronia Irwin. 



The Mice Did It. — "The mice have been verj-^ destructive, especi- 

 ally under large snow drifts. My raspberry vines and plum trees 

 are almost ruined. My apple trees I hill up in the fall with earth 

 round the body of the tree about one foot in height, and this fools 

 the mice, so that my apple trees have escaped all injury in that line. 

 There is prospect for a good apple crop on my place, and also for 

 strawberries." 



Rose Creek, Minn., 5-12-'97. J. C. WALKER. 



"The mice did not girdle any of my apple trees last winter, but the 

 rabbits girdled about 300 large box elders averaging 2}4 inches in 

 diameter. They made thorough work of it, even the large lower 

 limbs did not escape. There is no help for them. Your plan of 

 saving apple trees by inserting cions above and below the girdled 

 portion is a good one. I have tried it occasionally for nearl}^ fifty 

 years. Sometimes the main stem will rot out and the tree stand on 

 the half dozen scions inserted. I never heard of putting on a bark 

 plaster before. That, if it works successfullj'-, will be much the bet- 

 ter way, as the tree will stand firmly on its own stem." 



St. Paul, Minn., May 11, '97. W. W. Pendergast. 



The Wooly Aphis. — "It is unfortunate that the scale bill was lost. 

 Its only demerit was that it did not cover the whole ground. It 

 should have been strong enough to shut out all Missouri and West- 

 ern Iowa trees. The wooly aphis of the apple has been introduced 

 on nursery stock from those places and is liable to do great damage 

 to our orchards, and not a tree from those sources should be planted 

 before being thoroughly disinfected; and trees that have been set 

 should, if they do not show vigor, be examined, and, if the aphis is 

 found, dug up and burned, and the soil in which thej^ stood disin- 

 fected with fluid carbon bisulphate. As this insect has been most 

 prevalent in the south half of Missouri, it has been believed that it 

 would not survive our Minnesota climate; but I know, by personal 

 observation, that it has survived the last five winters. Outlook for 

 fruit here is prettj' good. I have set 250 or more trees in the experi- 

 mental orchard. 



La Crescent, 5-10-'97. J. S. Harris. 



