MICE AND VOLES. 127 



They destroyed all the young oak-saplings in the forest 

 except four or five per acre, eating through the roots just 

 below the surface of the ground. The long-tailed species 

 was found chiefly on wet ground, and the vole everywhere. 

 To exterminate these pests, trenches 2 feet deep were dug 

 20 yards apart, and 100,000 tails were brought in for reward. 

 Polecats, hawks, kites and owls increased enormously, and 

 the mice ate one another in the trenches. Much damage 

 was also done by field-voles in the Lowlands of Scotland in 

 1891-92. This species prefers hornbeam, beech, ash, hazel 

 and sallow, but it also attacks all broadleaved species as 

 well as pines and larch. It is specially fond of white- 

 thorn. Young plants two to five years old are gnawed 

 through at the surface of the soil, or peeled of bark, or bitten 

 through above ground, or stripped of their side- shoots. 

 Older plants and even poles up to 10 inches in girth are 

 stripped of their bark up to a foot from the ground and 

 killed. Voles strip the scales from the fir-cones and eat the 

 seeds, they also eat grass with its rhizomes, thus destroying 

 extensive pastures. 



The southern field-vole living on the confines of forests in 

 well-watered situations gnaws the roots and bark of beech and 

 other trees in hard winters. 



The only use of voles is that they eat larvae, snails and 

 slugs. 



2. Protective Rules. 



(a) Woodlands bordering on fields should be separated from 

 them by ditches. Further reference will be made to this. 



(b) Forest nurseries should not usually be made near 

 fields. Wherever this cannot be avoided, rule (a) should be 

 followed. 



(c) In years when mice are abundant, autumn- so wings, 

 especially of acorns and beech-mast, should be abandoned ; in 

 any case, plenty of seed must be sown, and covered deeper 

 than usual, but it is better to sow late in the spring, or to use 

 transplants. 



(d) In forest nurseries broadcast-sowing in seed-beds is 

 preferable to sowing in drills. Small pieces of furze may 



