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A DEVICE FOR CUTTING APPLES INTO CUBES FOR USE AS MOUSE BAIT 



The control of mice is an important orchard practice and must be done every 

 year. Mice, if not controlled, will girdle trees 25 years old or older, resulting 

 in serious loss to the grower. 



The best 'iontrol of mice is obtained by the use of poisoned apple cubes 

 placed in the mouse trails or in runs made with the trail baiting machine 

 recently developed by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 



Cutting bait is quite a chore and growers ask each year about a better 

 way of cutti.ig up apples than with a knife. 



The otiier day I visited Clarence Faulkner, Rodent Control Specialist with 

 the United States Fish and Wildlife Service who is located in Durham, New Hampshire. 

 He showed me how he had remodled a commercial horizontal french fry cutter so it 

 could be used cutting apples into cubes for mouse bait. The cost was about $15.00 

 and about one hour of labor. 



The materials required are a horizontal french fry cutter with 5/8 inch pusher 

 block and die, (can be purchased from any restaurant supply house), 1 hack saw 

 blade 1 inch wide. (A) sharpened part way on one side; a piece of strap iron 1 

 inch wide, 1/8 inch thick and 13 inches long (B) to be used as a support for one 

 end of the hack saw blade; a piece of strap iron 1/2 inch wide, 1/8 inch thick and 

 9 inches long (C) to be used as a stop for the apples: a 2 x 6, 15 inches long 

 for a base (D) on which the cutter is mounted; a small piece of sheet metal (E) 

 for a stop for the hack saw blade; a short piece of rubber hose for handle on the 

 hack saw blade and a few screws and stove bolts. Holes are drilled in the pieces 

 of strap iron so they can be fastened to the wood base as illustrated in photograph 

 no. 1. Bend the pieces of strap iron as shown in the photograph. It is necessary 

 to reverse the die and cutter blades in order to have a smooth cutting surface for 

 the hack saw blade knife to ride over when slicing the apple. This will require 

 removing the blades, grinding about 1/16 of an inch off the back of each cutter 

 blade and redrilling the holes in the vertical ends of the die. 



In order to allow the pusher block to be moved far enough forward in the 

 slide it is necessary to cut two slots 3/4 of an inch long and 3/8 of an inch 

 wide in the slide at the base as shown at (F) in photograph no. 2. 



There may be scsne difference in the contruction of different makes of french 

 fry cutters, but the grower should be able to make the necessary changes in re- 

 modeling so that it can be used for cutting apples into cubes. 



To cube the apple push it through until it touches the strap iron stop 

 which should be 5/8 of an inch from the front of the cutter blades, and then 

 slice off the projected part of the apple with a downward stroke of the hack 

 saw blade knife, 



A half inch mesh screen can be used to catch the cubed apples, and to 

 remove the smaller pieces not suitable for bait. 



■— E. J. Rasmussen 



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