MISCHIEF OF MEADOW-MOUSE 69 



In view of their wide distribution, the nature 

 of their habits and the abundance of shelter 

 and food everywhere in America, it is impos- 

 sible to get rid of them; but it is not hopeless 

 to reduce their ability for damage to a negligi- 

 ble quantity. Thorough and clean cultivation, 

 with frequent plowing, is perhaps the most 

 effective general remedy, and where this is done 

 throughout a group of adjoining farms, and the 

 roadside weeds and fence-tangles are regularly 

 cut, or burned over, little trouble will be ex- 

 perienced within the district. 



Next to this is the preservation of the birds 

 and other animals which prey upon mice, and 

 which have been so ruthlessly killed off in most 

 rural districts, partly through the insane tend- 

 ency to kill every living thing which animates 

 many country boys and men, and partly 

 through mistaken ideas as to the harm such an- 

 imals do. Even persons who ought to know 

 better engage in this miscellaneous destruction 

 of the best friends a farmer can have, proof 

 of which will appear later in this book. 



' ' One of the most common mistakes made by sports- 

 men in the supposed interests of game protection," 



