THE CANADIAN HOETI0ULTDRI8T. 



PROTECTING FRUIT TREES FROM 

 MICE. 



Please tell me the best means for 

 preserving fruit trees from the ravages 

 of mice. I have suffered from this 

 annoyance more or less every winter, 

 without being able to check their oper- 

 ations, and if you could iraform me of 

 a good preventive, I would feel grateful. 



Answer. — Men' are very apt to smile 

 at the studies of the naturalist, as 

 though it were beneath man's dignity 

 to busy himself with noting the habits 

 of such very insignificant things as mice 

 or insects ; forgetting that it is in this 

 way we are enabled successfully to 

 protect ourselves from their depred- 

 ations. Every farmer needs in some 

 sense to be a naturalist, for he is con- 

 tinually exposed to losses from numer- 

 ous tiny creatures that find their way 

 to his fields, barns and orchard. It is 

 just in this way we find a perfect 

 method of preventing the ravages of 

 mice among young trees. A little study 

 of their habits shows that they will not 

 live where they have nothing with 

 which to protect themselves or in or 

 uncjer which they can build their nests. 

 If then we remove from the orchard 

 everything that can afford them a shel- 

 ter, we will get rid of the mice. If 

 the orchard be thoroughly and cleanly 

 tilled no grass or weeds allowed to grow 

 in it, no old stumps, logs or the like 

 left for mice to hide under, the links of 

 the fence well cleaned of sods, &c., for 

 the compost heap, there will not a 

 mouse stay in the orchard, not a ti'ee 

 shew the scratch of a tooth. Nor is 

 this all — the trees will be healthier and 

 grow more vigorously, and the cleanings 

 from the fence links, when well rotted, 

 will be an excellent dressing for the 

 trees. We have known of various 

 expedients being resorted to, such as 

 painting the butt of the trees with coal 

 tar, placing a sheet iron hoop around 

 them, or a heap of tan bark. 



VALUE OF FRUIT. 



It is a fact that fruit is a great regu- 

 lator of the human system. It will 

 keep the blood in order, the bowels reg- 

 ular, tone up the stomach, and is posi- 

 tively a specific in many diseases. It 

 is said of a doctor who became largely 

 interested in peach growing, that he re- 

 commended peaches to his patients on 

 all occasions. The story was told t^ 

 illustrate the man's meanness ; but if he 

 was mean it was a meanness that bene- 

 fited his patients. If men were wise 

 they would spend two days in a vine- 

 yard or orchard to every five minutes 

 in a drug-store when anything is the 

 matter with them. If you have dys- 

 pepsia, eat fruit. Did you ever think 

 what a doctor gives for dyspepsia] 

 He gives an acid. Fruit will furnish a 

 better acid than the drug-store will. 

 Do you know what the doctors dose you 

 with when your liver is out of order / 

 With acids. Then why not supply the 

 remedy yourself from your own garden/ 

 Why continue to have your medicine 

 done up in such a repulsive mixture 

 when nature furnishes it in so palatable- 

 a shape. Every home should have at 

 least one grape vine. Once in possession 

 it would be almost above price. — West- 

 ern Farmer. 



WASTE OF LAND IN' FENCES. 



If a farm of 160 acres is divided by 

 fences into fields of ten acres each, there 

 are five miles of fence. If each fence- 

 row is one rod wide, no less than ten 

 acres of land are occupied by thorn. 

 This is equal to 6 J per cent, of the farm,, 

 and the loss of use of the land is exactly 

 equal to a charge of 6^ per cent, on the 

 whole value of the farm. But nearly 

 every fence row in tlie country is made 

 a nursery for weeds which stock the 

 whole farm, and make an immense^ 

 amount of labor necessary to keep them 

 from smothering the crops. Much 



