220 



THE APPLE CULTUBIST. 



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drains. When large numbers come from adjoining woods to a field of gram> 

 or towards an orchard, let several barrels be sunk in the ground, as suggested, 

 between the woods and the orchard. If water settles in the barrels, all the better 

 they will be for mice-traps, if a few leaves and some grass be strewed on the sur- 

 face of the water. 



When an orchard is located near the forest, where mice and rabbits abound, the 

 only reliable means of protecting trees is represented p. 166. Before cold weather 

 has sealed the surface of the ground, a quantity of strong paper should be procured 

 and wrapped around the trees, as already directed. This job should not be neg- 

 lected, with a view of doing it at some convenient period in the winter. In case 

 a deep snow should fall, mice may ruin half the trees in a single day. If coarse 



canvas or old sail- 

 cloth can be obtain- 

 ed, such material will 

 be preferable to pa- 

 per; and if removed 

 with care from the 

 trees, the pieces may 

 be used many years. 

 In some instances 

 the wood - meadow 

 mice have made 

 a general stampede 

 from a near forest. 



Naturalists have 

 described numerous 

 species of field-mice. 

 There are over twen- 

 ty species of the Ar- 

 vicola austerus (Prai- 

 rie-meadow Mouse). 

 In many instances 

 owls destroy large 

 numbers. Hawks will 

 spy them from a dis- 

 tance as they soar 

 through the air, and 

 will dart down and 

 swoop up their prey 

 with surprising agil- 

 ity. We have fre- 

 quently seen a hawk 

 dart from the top of 

 some tree in the open 

 field and swoop up a 

 mouse more than two 

 hundred feet distant 

 from the tree. Snakes 

 also devour more or 

 less of these pests 

 of the orchard and 

 grain - fields. Yet 

 field-mice are so pro- 

 lific that all their 

 foes united do not 

 exterminate them. 



