

BEAVERS AND PORCUPINES, 135 



ground, below the injured place, sharp instruments being 

 used for the purpose, so that they may send up new shoots, 

 If the plants have been girdled too deeply towards the roots, 

 such procedure would not save them, but of course the dead 

 poles should be removed. The workmen should work in lines 

 so as not to leave out any injured plants, and should be 

 properly supervised. If the cutting is done too late in the 

 spring, the new shoots will be very weak, as much reserve 

 material then passes into the injured stems, and is conse- 

 quently wasted when the stems are cut down. 



Where conifers have been injured, new plants must be 

 substituted for those killed by mice. 



Beech plants that have been gnawed by mice, if under a 

 foot in height, may be saved by heaping up earth above the 

 wounded part of the plants. The latter then send out fibrous 

 roots that grow down into the soil through the mounds. This 

 costs about Id. per 100 plants. 



SECTION VIII. BEAVERS AND PORCUPINES. 



The beaver is an animal now almost extinct in Central 

 Europe, but which formerly did much damage to forest trees.* 

 Beavers (Castor fiber, L.) are still pretty numerous in Eussia 

 and Scandinavia, in North America, and a few still exist in 

 France in the Ehone Valley. They fell and bark many species 

 of trees up to 9 inches in diameter, chiefly willows and poplars, 

 but also ash, oak, and elm growing near streams. The trees 

 felled are used by them in constructing darns to protect their 

 dwellings, and they also eat the bark. 



The porcupine (Hystrix leucura) is very common in Indian 

 forests, and girdles saplings and poles of various species, 

 especially of Leguminosae ; it does much damage in forest 

 nurseries by burrowing, and by devouring seedlings and 

 vegetables. It should be excluded by strong wire-netting, 

 partly buried at the foot of a fence, as in the case of rabbits. 

 There are also two other species of Hystrix in India. 



* In the Himalayas, the black bear (Ursus tibetanvd) peels the bark from 

 pines during the winter. 



