WILD MICK S3 



sands of dollars' worth of growing food ; but, finally, by all 

 together waging war upon them, the pests were partially 

 killed off. The mice did not in either case come suddenly, 

 but had been increasing steadily for years previous, because 

 the game-keepers had killed so many of the "vermin" (as 

 owls, hawks, weasels, snakes, etc., are wrongly called), which 

 are the natural enemies of the mice, and keep their num- 

 bers down. Fanners are slow to learn that it doesn't pay 

 to kill the birds or rob their nests; but the boys and girls 

 ought to understand this truth and remember it. In this 

 country the greatest mischief done by the field-mice is the 

 gnawing of bark from the fruit-trees, so that in some of the 

 Western States this is the most serious difficulty the 01- 

 chardist has to contend with. Whole rows of young trees 

 in nurseries are stripped of their bark, and of course die ; 

 and where apple-seeds are planted, the mice are sure to dig 

 half of them up to eat the kernels. This mischief is mainly 

 done in the winter, when the trees are packed away from 

 the frost ; or if they are growing, because then the mice 

 can move about concealed under the snow, and nibble all 

 the bark away up to the surface. Rabbits get much of the 

 credit of this naughty work, for they do a good deal of it 

 on their own account. The gardener has the same trouble, 

 often finding, when lie uncovers a rare and costly plant in 



