CHAPTER VI. 

 INJURIES FROM ANIMALS. 



THE forest as a whole suffers relatively little from animals, 

 their influence on its character being much less important than 

 that of insects. Probably the most destructive wild animal is 

 the porcupine, which in the northern woods girdles a great many 

 trees, especially spruce. As these animals are very fond of old 

 pork barrels they are often found in the vicinity of abandoned 

 lumber camps, and, although, in some states there is a reward 

 for killing them, it is a question whether more harm is done by 

 the porcupines or by the class of men who profit by this reward 

 and are responsible for many forest fires. 



While deer may damage some farm crops in parts of New 

 England and often eat the leaders of white pine when planted in 

 the spruce region where it is not common, it will be a long time 

 before our forest management will reach that degree of intensive- 

 ness which has been reached in Germany and which takes 

 remedial measures against the occasional nipping of a forest bud 

 or stripping of the bark from a sapling. 



Squirrels, rabbits, and mice often nibble the bark from young 

 trees and occasionally girdle them. The writers have seen 

 plantations of locust and Scotch, white and pitch pines in Con- 

 necticut killed in this way. Moles also injure the roots of trees 

 and wounds of this kind furnish an easy entrance point for fungous 

 spores. The greatest damage from these rodents is, however, 

 in the forest nursery, where the seeds are often eaten in large 

 numbers, especially the nuts and larger pine seed. Small birds 

 such as sparrows and goldfinches frequently cause serious damage 

 in forest nurseries by eating the seed just after germination and 

 thus destroying the young plants. Provision against such dam- 

 age can be made by coating the seed before sowing with red lead, 



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