104 ENEMIES OF THE ORCHARD 



hail, and incidentally from borers. Where this is 

 used allow at least two inches space between the 

 wire and the tree. 



Corn stalks stripped of their leaves and set around, 

 using just enough to reach around, only, and then 

 fastened there with a small wire will be cheaper 

 and answer the purpose as well. They may be 

 tied with string but the crickets are apt to eat the 

 strings off. Hay ropes twisted about them will do 

 as well. 



It will be understood that this protection is 

 placed there and kept there till the limbs of 

 the tree above, or of one adjoining on the south 

 have made further shading unnecessary. 



The reason younger trees are less apt to sun 

 scald than older ones, is not so clear, but is proba- 

 bly because the circle is so much smaller and 

 sharper, that there is not the same proportion of 

 its surface exposed at the same angle, or a greater 

 surface proportionately of the larger tree exposed 

 at a lesser angle. Another cause may be the con- 

 tinued exposure for years, which may have been a 

 constant source of slight injury, culminating later 

 in the full effect. 



This induces the belief that a whitewash of 

 some kind applied to the trunks of trees at the age 

 when most likely to be affected would prevent this 

 mischief measurably, perhaps entirely, though it 

 has not yet been tested by me. Such a wash 

 might be of material benefit in other directions. It 

 is believed by some and with some show of reason, 



