224 DESTROYING HARES 



cream with cow-manure ; or lime-water and cow-manure made 

 strong. These may be used on any part of the plant, but the 

 following is for stem use : i peck of quicklime, slaked with soft 

 water (old soapsuds are best) : when hot add J gallon crude car- 

 bolic acid, \ gallon gas-tar and 4 Ib. of sulphur. Stir well, and 

 about the time of frost wash the stems as high as one can reach. 

 This is to prevent girdling by any kind of animal. Taylor's lime 

 and sulphur mixture (p. 190) brushed on the parts within reach 

 of hares and rabbits also prevent their barking the trees. 



Simpler, and less objectionable in appearance, are the pro- 

 prietary preparations named " Tree Protective Composition " 

 (Messrs. Dickson, Ltd., Chester), " Smearoleum " (Thomas & Co., 

 Ltd., Ceres Works, Liverpool), which may be used on stems and 

 leading growths without injury to the trees at any stage of their 

 development. The articles named are easily applied to stems 

 with a brush, and to newly planted small conifers by india-rubber 

 gloves smeared in the " palms " with the preparation, and placing 

 the feet, or at least one foot, by the side of each plant collar, then, 

 with the gloved hands draw upwards to the apex, the needles 

 of conifers or the young shoots of low plants are so coated 

 as to prevent attack by ground game. Trees with clear stems 

 must have these smeared from the ground to a height of a yard 

 or more, remembering that newly planted subjects are more liable 

 to attack than established, and that the period of attack extends 

 from October to March inclusive, though most pronounced during 

 severe and prolonged frost and snow. 



DESTROYING HARES. Although hares are usually reserved 

 for shooting, occasionally recourse is had to trapping, snaring 

 or capturing alive. The hare constructs a " form." This is 

 sometimes a seat under a bush, sometimes a kind of bower, and 

 sometimes a hole just large enough to conceal its owner under a 

 shelving ledge of ground. These forms generally have a run 

 leading out from them to a distance of a dozen or more yards, 

 and it is on this run at the entrance of the form that trapping is 

 feasible. 1 



The large-sized rabbit -traps, 4^ or 5 in. jaws, Fig. 127, answer 

 for trapping hares, and about three traps are required for each 

 form. If the hare be in the seat, approach carefully as near as 

 considered safe and set the trap, and instead of in the middle of 

 the patch, put on the side of the patch furthest from the hare's 

 seat. If the hare be not in the form, set the trap at the entrance 

 or open side of the seat, and the earth and grass used to cover 

 it must exactly resemble the surrounding part. About 5 yards 

 from the form set a second trap, and on the side of the patch 

 nearest the seat, and in the case of a long run place a trap 5 

 yards from the second. In the case of a gap or " smoot in a 

 1 First mentioned in Practical Trapping, by W. Carnegie. 



