WAYS TO PREVENT MICE INJURING ORCHARD TREES 



W. T. MACOUN, CENTRAIv e;XPERIMENTAL FARM. 



DEPREDATIONS by mice in winter 

 are usually greatest wheq the or- 

 chard is in sod and when there is rubbish 

 Jying abouit ; hence the latter should be 

 removed before the winter sets in. In. most 

 cases it is not necessary nor advisable to 

 have the orchard in sod, particularly when 

 there are young trees, although it is highly 

 important to have a cover crop which is 

 also sometimes a harbour for mice. 



As mice may be expected every winter 

 in greater or less numbers, young trees 

 should be regularly protected against their 

 ravages. Mice usually begin working on 

 the ground under the snow and when they 

 come to a tree they will begin to gnaw it if 

 it is not protected. A small mound of soil 

 from 8 to 12 inches high packed around 

 the tree will often turn them, and even snow 

 tramped about the tree has been quite 

 effectual. 



The cheapest and surest practise is to 

 wrap the trees with ordinary building paper, 

 the price of which need not be taken into 

 consideration as it is so little. Tar paper 

 is also effectual, but trees have been injured 

 by using it and it is well to guard against 



danger. A little earth should be put about 

 the lower end to prevent the mice from 

 beginning to work there. 



At -the Experimental Farm we are using 

 in addition to building paper, a wooden 

 veneer which has been found very satisfac- 

 tory both in protecting the trees from mice 

 and from sunscald. Prof. W. B. Atwood, 

 Horticulturist, Virginia Experimental Sta- 

 tion, recommends a mixture of pure linseed 

 oil and white lead to prevent the depredat- 

 ions of mice on apple trees, but does not 

 recommend it except with caution for peach 

 and cherry trees. He says that with 15 

 years' experience he has never had an apple 

 tree injured by this application. 



It is important to buy the white lead and 

 pure linseed oil and mix them, as ready- 

 made paints may have an injurious mineral 

 oil in them. Prof. Atwood advises mixing 

 the white paint and linseed oil to a consis- 

 tency the same as for an outside coat on a 

 building, and to put a heavy coat on the 

 tree. He claims that once in two years is 

 sufficient to apply. It is also useful in pre- 

 venting borers. The mixture has been 

 known to injure cherry and peach trees. 



DOES CULTIVATION CAUSE APPLE SCAB ? 



R. J. MESSENGER, B.A., BRIDGETOWN, N. S. 



I WANT to take issue with Mr. A. W. 

 Peart, in his statement in a recent 

 issue of The Horticulturist, that clean cul- 

 tivation in the orchard promotes scab. He 

 is quoted as saying " If anything green is 

 on the soil it has a neutralizing effect on 

 vapors arising from the soil, which tend to 

 promote scab. I think the finest lot of 

 apples sent to the Old Country last year 

 came from an orchard which had been in 

 oats, etc." 



■ In the first place. Nature is so versatile 

 and variable, that the close observer 



would consider it ridiculous to take one or 

 two of her results and found a theory or 

 law upon it. Some dozen other circum- 

 stances may have combined to make that 

 oated orchard yield fine fruit, and since the 

 oats were there, they were hit upon as the 

 cause, when they may have had no effect 

 on the result. This is just to show that too 

 many of us are prone to jump to conclu- 

 sions. 



My knowledge of soil physics tell me that 

 dry earth, such as the mulch formed by 

 clean cultivation, absorbs noxious or other 



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