PROTECTION OF WOODS 109 



may be painted with one of the preparations on the market, 

 or can be enclosed with a small ring of wire netting. 



Wherever netting has been erected plantations should be 

 periodically visited, preferably when there is snow on the 

 ground, and if any trace of rabbits is found the animals must 

 be hunted down and killed. Foxes may be encouraged. 



Squirrels. These do more damage than is generally 

 imagined ; they eat fruit and seeds, cotyledons and buds ; they 

 bite off young shoots, girdle trees by eating the bark, and 

 destroy eggs and young birds. Squirrels especially attack 

 Scotch pine, but larch suffers considerably by being barked 

 some twelve to fifteen feet below the top, which then dies or 

 is broken off in the next gale. Squirrels should therefore be 

 kept down to a reasonable number by shooting them, though 

 they do a certain amount of good by carrying and dropping 

 seeds, thus aiding natural regeneration. 



Mice and voles. Voles are distinguished from mice by their 

 thicker, shorter head, by having their ears buried in their fur, 

 and by their short legs and tails. These animals do damage 

 by burrowing in nurseries and young plantations, just under 

 the ground, thus uprooting young plants. They eat fruit and 

 seeds and cut through the roots of plants of some size, while 

 they sometimes aid the spread of fungi by carrying the spores 

 from one root to another. During winter they may gnaw the 

 bark for some inches above the ground. They are especially 

 harmful in nurseries, often eating considerable quantities of 

 acorns and other large seeds. Ordinarily the damage done 

 is small, but occasionally they increase rapidly and they then 

 do great harm. To protect woods and nurseries against these 

 pests, the following measures may be taken. 



1. When mice are abundant, do not sow acorns or other 

 large seeds in autumn, but keep them till spring, when they 

 germinate quickly. 



2. In nurseries sow broadcast instead of in drills and scatter 

 small pieces of gorse in the seed-beds, among the seeds. 



