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THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



HOW TO PREVENT MICE FROM 



GIRDLING TREES. 

 Dear Sir, — I read somewhere that 

 the effectual way to prevent mice 

 girdling apple trees was to trample the 

 snow round about them. I did so three 

 different times, immediately after heavy 

 falls of snow, and in spite of it have 

 had about a dozen trees more or less 

 injured by the mice. However, none 

 are entii'ely girdled. In one or two 

 places the mice had operated on the 

 top of the trampled snow, which was 

 covered with chips of the bark, and 

 here and tliere the dirt of the little 

 animals was to be seen. 



I am now trying another plan which 

 is effectual. Small tubes of stove-pipe 

 iron, a bit about a foot or so long, and 

 from six to nine inches wide, according 

 to the size of the tree, is curled into a 

 tubular shape ; open the side wide 

 enough to let the stem of tlie tree pass 

 in, close it again till the edges meet or 

 nearly so, and enter ^he lower end into 

 the soil at the root of the tree. Then 

 replace as much snow as you like s'hort 

 of the top of the tube, and the mice 

 wont give any further trouble as far as 

 that tree is concerned. These tubes 

 can easily be removed in the spring and 

 put by for use next winter. 



The plan lias been tried before with 

 perfect success. The cost is from two 

 to three cents jmr tree. It is far better 

 to do this than to renew a ])ortion of the 

 trees every spring, wht-n you have not 

 only loss of money but of a year of time. 

 I was sorry to see that a committee 

 of Horticultui-ists had ' decided against 

 the English sparrow. It is the only 

 bird that eats caterpillars, especially 

 those of the white butterfly, which 

 devour the common cabbage so niucli. 

 However, in this country it seems to 

 confine itself pretty much to towns and 

 their immediate vicinity, and I don't 

 tliiuk that the; sparrow would become 

 •sufficiently numerous in the open coun- 



try to do much harm. Sparrows are 

 pretty numerous at Milton, a mile and 

 a half from my place, but only once or 

 twice during the summer have I seen 

 or heard a s]xirrow here. 



The red-headed w. ofl-pecker. on the 

 other hand, is a really destructive bird, 

 but as it only cari'ies away one cherry 

 at a time, the loss is not severe. The 

 roVjin (turdus migratorius) I encoui'age, 

 and in return for its very pleasant song 

 and the quantities of insects, grubs and 

 worms it destroys, it is welcome to all 

 the fruit it likes to take. But I forgot 

 worms are necessary as natural drainers 

 of the soil. Yours truly, 



W. E. Brooks. 



FEitN.S. 



No one possessed of the slightest de- 

 gree of taste for graceful iness and beauty 

 can help admiring the variety and grace 

 of even the commonest of our native 

 ferns, which are to be found in abund- 

 ance in almost any piece of low or mucky 

 woodland in our Province. They ai'e 

 invariably found in shady nooks where 

 almost nothing else will grow, but 

 where they have abundant air and some 

 sunlight as well as moisture. 



In almost all gardens we have just 

 such spots as our native ferns would 

 flourish in, or spots which could be 

 adapted to them without much trouble 

 or e.vpense. Indeed we often find spots 

 in gardens too shady for any of our 

 cultivated shrubs or plants and wliich 

 on this account are left bare, neglected 

 and unsightly, which with very little 

 troul)le could be utilized as fernei-ies, or 

 by throwing a rockery roughly together, 

 filled in with mucky, mossy soil, the 

 various varieties of ferns can be planted 

 in tiie crevices so as display all to ad- 

 vantage, and thus possibly turn a spot 

 of our gard<;n that otherwise may have 

 been unsightly into a thing of l>eauty. 

 Many rockeries are built with such care 

 as to symmetry that the beauty isactu- 



