4i6 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



Frederickton. The judge, Major Shep- 

 pard, of Queenston Heights, said that Island 

 fruit was easily superior to that from the 

 other provinces. With normal conditions 

 the (|uality of fruit grown here is unex- 

 celled. The soil of the Annapolis Walley 

 is not equal to that of the Island. With as 



nnich manure added as is used in the valley 

 just as abundant crops will be produced. 

 Prince Edward Island should be the best 

 a])ple producing region in Canada — aye, in 

 the world — but the growers have not 

 learned enough about the business to bring 

 the best results. 



PROTECTION FROM MICE 



I 



N Bulletin No. 144, Ontario Agricultural 

 College, Guelph, Professor liutt, in 

 dealing with the damage done to fruit trees 

 by mice in the winter, says that the rapid in- 

 crease in numbers is due largely to the in- 

 discriminate destruction of the farmer's 

 best friends, the hawk and the owl. The 

 hawks feed largely on mice by day and the 

 owls take up the work by night. These 

 birds should be protected so that the equili- 

 brium of nature may be restored. Mice 

 seldom harbor in a green crop and never on 

 clean fields. They are found along old 

 fence bottoms and. in meadows. As there 

 is usually some shelter for the mice near or- 

 chards it is advisable to guard against their 

 depredations. In localities where snow 

 falls early and remains on the ground all 

 winter the simplest and cheapest preventive 

 is to tramp the snow firmly around the base 

 of each tree early in the winter. A mound 

 of earth is also said to be effective in divert- 

 ing the runways of the mice from the tree. 

 Building paper or tar paper is frequently 

 tied around the trunk and is recommended 

 as cheap and effective. 



The remedy recommended by Prof. ]\Ia- 

 coun, and practised at the Experimental 

 Farm at Ottawa, is the use of veneer around 

 the trunk. This veneer is cut six to 10 

 inches wide and 18 inches long from elm or 

 other cheap wood. 



Different methods are adopted by leading 

 orchardists. " I use tar paper for all my 

 orchards, both young ana old," writes i\Ir. 

 A. H. Brooks, of Dixie. " I have prac- 



tised this method for three years and have 

 lost only one tree in that time. That tree 

 was girdled above the paper. Four years 

 ago I banked with earth and lost 38 trees. 

 These trees were all on the outside row near 

 an old fence. I have taken away the fence, 

 plowed the grassy bottom and put a wire 

 fence in its place. By keeping the grass 

 away from fence bottoms and practising 

 clean cultivation, no lodging places are left 

 for the mice. I have tried tramping the 

 snow around the trees but always suffered 

 considerable loss until I used the tar paper. 



" I tie the paper around with binder twine 

 very loosely so that when the trees swell the 

 bark is not injured. In a year the twine 

 will have become so weak that the tree 

 readily breaks it as it grows. If tied tight- 

 ly the bark will be injured if the string is 

 not cut in the spring. One man and an as- 

 sistant to carry the string and help in other 

 ways can go over a 12-acre orchard in a 

 day." 



" In a sod orchard," said Mr. Jos. Twed- 

 dle. of Fruitland. to The Horticulturist re- 

 cently, " mice are very troublesome. I dig 

 the sod away about 10 inches around the 

 tree and bank up 10 inches above the level 

 of the ground with earth taken from an- 

 other hole, burying the sods in this hole so 

 that the mice will not find a convenient har- 

 bor. This is practically complete protec- 

 tion. Tar paper is more trouble, but is ef- 

 fective if banked around the bottom and ex- 

 tended at least one foot above the surface 

 of the ground." 



