GENERAL MANAGEMENT 77 



ORCHARD ENEMIES 



Besides the insect and plant diseases which are 

 considered in their appropriate chapters, there are 

 some other peach enemies which deserve mention- 

 ing. In certain sections rabbits are so numerous 

 as to do considerable damage, although this is 

 always less on peach than on young apple trees. 

 When rabbits are numerous, trapping and shoot- 

 ing should be resorted to, but the best and most sat- 

 isfactory protection is furnished by tying up the 

 trunks either with corn stalks, newspapers, or with 

 strips of thin wood veneer especially made for the 

 purpose. These thin wood veneer strips sell at $5 

 a thousand, and are certainly the best means of pro- 

 tection. They should be removed in the spring after 

 growth starts. In fact, any other protection which 

 is tied upon the tree trunk should be removed at 

 this time. 



In many of the states, and curiously enough in the 

 older settled eastern states, wild deer have done 

 much more damage than rabbits during the last few 

 years. There seems to be no practical method of 

 circumventing the deer. Fencing them out has 

 proved ineffective. Keeping a good dog will often 

 hold the deer at a distance, but if the dog should 

 happen to chase the deer, the owner of the dog 

 would become liable to the owner of the deer; that 

 is, he is liable to be arrested by the officers of the 

 state and heavily fined. A number of instances of 

 this kind have been known. There is a manifest 

 tendency at the present time to protect the farmer 

 rather better by legislation than he has been pro- 

 tected in the past, but for the present the men who 

 set out young orchards have to take into considera- 

 tion the presence of these deer, which may be, in- 



