PROTECT YOUR ORCHARDS AGAINST MICE. 



531 



Avhen they come to the surface in the form 

 of the Click beetles, already referred to. In 

 this condition, they are harmless. It is only 

 in the larval stage that they are injurious, 

 when they will devour mostly any green 

 vegetation which is in direct contact with 

 the ground, such as tomatoes, etc., which 

 often lie on the surface. 



A great many experiments have been con- 

 ducted in trying to combat the wire-worms, 

 but none have been found very practical. 

 However, much can be done in checking 

 the increase of wire-worms by exposing the 



pupae by fall ploughing. In this way the 

 little earthen cells mentioned above, which 

 contain the pupae, are broken up and the 

 pupae perish from exposure to the frost and 

 cold of winter. In connection with this fall 

 ploughing, .and subsequent cultivation, we 

 also recommend the method of short rota- 

 tion of crops to farmers who have land 

 badly infested. It is not wise to keep the 

 ground in sod for more than a year or two. 

 Those farmers, as a rule, who practice this 

 method for at least three or four years, 

 are not troubled much with wire-worms. 



PROTECT YOUR ORCHARDS AGAINST MICE. 



''f'^HE time of year has now arrived when 

 1. we should take precautions against 

 injuries from mice during the coming winter. 

 The experience of many fruit growers, par- 

 ticularly in the eastern part of the province, 

 during last winter, proves that it is very 

 much easier to protect our trees from rav- 

 ages of mice than it is to remedy the evil 

 when done. Last year, I successfully protect- 

 ed about seven hundred young trees, planted 

 from three to four years ago, with ordinary 

 building paper, cut in strips about eleven 

 inches high and long enough to wrap around 

 the tree once or twice, and tied in the middle 

 with binding twine. Out of the above num- 

 ber of trees wrapped, I only had one injured 

 and that was above the paper. 



The mice, in working under the snow 

 follow the ground line, very seldom if ever 

 tunnelling into the snov off the ground. 



A man can easily wrap from four to five 

 hundred trees a day, and the cost for paper 

 is a mere trifle. A roll of paper costing 45 

 cents or 50 cents will wrap about eight 

 hundred trees, planted from two to four 

 years. 



I wish to particularly warn fruit growers 



against using tar paper for wrapping. I 

 have seen in many cases injury from sunscgld 

 just above the paper, not under the paper as 

 is generally supposed by some. 



In the spring of the year it is not necessary 

 to remove the building paper. All that is 

 required is for a man to walk through the 

 orchard and cut the string, and the papers 

 will blow off during the summer. 



Mice in this vicinity do not seem to be as 

 numerous as at this time last year ; however, 

 considering the small cost and short time 

 required for wrapping, I advise all fruit 

 growers to protect their trees against possi- 

 ble injury, for if snow should fall early and 

 remain on the ground until late in the season, 

 the mice would be deprived of their supply 

 of weed seeds, which constitutes a large 

 part of their winter food. 



I might say that a convenient way to 

 prepare the paper is to cut it with a sharp 

 knife on a smooth board into pieces (11x7 

 or 8 inches) and place in a market basket 

 for carrying in the orchard. 



Maitland, Harold Jones. 



Nov. 2ist, 1902. 



