No. 12. 



Field-Mice. 



363 



For the Fanners' Cabinet. 

 Field- 3Iice. 



Mr. Editor, — In some of the agricultural 

 papers I have seen it recorameDded to place 

 scions above and below the part of a tree 

 that has been barked by mice, so that when 

 they shoot, they may form a medium by 

 which the circulation of the sap in the tree 

 may be kept up, and ihus the existence of it 

 may be secured. But, I would ask, would 

 not these scions form a living bush around the 

 tree, to its manifest injury and disfigurement ! 

 I fear they would, and would therefore pro- 

 pose to remove a portion of bark from some 

 other tree, sufficiently large to cover the 

 space girdled by the mice, fitting it neatly 

 around its edges, and binding it carefully, 

 covering it also with grafting clay, relyin? 

 on the perfect success of the undertaking; 

 being careful, however, to place the added 

 bark in the same direction upwards that it 

 had obtained on the tree from whence it had 

 been removed, preferring also that from the 

 same kind of tree if it can be obtained, espe- 

 cially as to its resinous or other qualities. We 

 often hear of very serious mischief being 

 caused by the field-mice, especially in win- 

 ters when much snow has lain long on the 

 ground, at the passing away of which a scene 

 of desolation is revealed that is truly deplor- 

 able. But the instances which have been 

 known amongst us have been slight indeed, 

 when compared with what took place in Eng- 

 land some years ago in two of the public for- 

 ests, as related in that very interesting book, 

 " Jessio's Gleanings in Natural History," vol. 

 i. p, 166, where it is said : 



" An extraordinary instance of the rapid 

 increase of mice and the injury they some- 

 times do, occurred a few years ago in the 

 new plantations made by order of the crown, 

 in Dean Forest, Gloucestershire, and at the 

 same time, in the New Forest, Hampshire, 

 (about 100 miles distant). In these, vast 

 numbers of the trees were destroyed, the 

 mice having eaten quite through the roots of 

 five years' old oaks and chestnuts, generally 

 just below the surface of the ground ; hollies 

 also, five and six feet high, were completely 

 barked round the bottom, while the mice were 

 often seen feeding on their upper branches; 

 the roots having been eaten through when- 

 ever they obstructed the runs of the mice, 

 the bark constituting their food. Various 

 plans were devised for their destruction, traps 

 were set, poison laid, and cats turned out, but 

 nothing appeared to lessen their number : il 

 was at last suggested, that if trenches were 

 dug, into which the mice mio'ht be enticed or 

 fall, their destruction mijht be effected : 

 these therefore, were made, twelve on each 

 acre of land, from IS to 20 inches in depth : 



and two feet wide, wider at bottom than the 

 j top, hollowed under, so that the animal once 

 ' in, could not easily ?et out again. In these 

 ' holes at least 30,000 mice were caught in the 

 course of three or four months ; and it was 

 calculated that a much greater number than 

 this had been taken out of the trenches after 

 ' being caught, by weasels, kites, hawks and 

 I owls, as also by crows, jays, &lc. ; the cats, 

 also, resorting to these trenches to feed as 

 well as does. As the mice increased, so did 

 the birds of prey, of which at last there was 

 an incredible number; and in addition to the 

 quantity above-mentioned, multitudes were 

 destroyed by poison, so that in Dean Forest 

 alone, the number could not be less than 

 100,000, while in the New Forest the num- 

 ber destroyed could not but be equal. In addi- 

 tion to these means of destruction, it was 

 found that when their food fell short in win- 

 ter, they fed one upon another, this also oflen 

 taking place in the bottom of the trenches, 

 so that the total destruction in both forests 

 could not but have been far above 200,000. 

 There were two descriptions of these mice, 

 one of them, the long-tailed field-mouse of 

 BuflTon — \he mulot ; the other, a short-tailed 

 mouse, the campagnol ; but there were about 

 fifty of the latter taken to one of the former, 

 the lonsr-tailed mice having white breasts, 

 with the tail the length of the body : the 

 • long-tailed mice being chiefly caught on the 

 wet parts of the forest ; the short-tailed, both 

 on wet as well as dry ground ; these having 

 a thicker head, with ears very short, and al- 

 most lined in fur; its body being three inches 

 in length, its tail one inch ; the upper part of 

 the body of a reddish brown, and the belly a 

 deep ash colour ; their nests being under the 

 surface of the ground, where they produce 

 from seven to nine young at a time. Amongst 

 the birds of prey which made their appear- 

 ance in Dean Forest during the time the mice 

 were in the greatest numbers, was a small 

 white owl, none of which bad ever before 

 been seen on the spot; these were considered 

 to be the most destructive of any of their 

 enemies ; they were smaller than the brown 

 owl, and had a kind of ruff around the head. 

 At first, it was believed that the injury to the 

 trees had been occasioned by rabbits, but it 

 : was soon found to proceed from the mice, as 

 they were seen barking the trees, even at the 

 , height of three or four feet from the ground, 

 having climbed the trees to that distance; 

 making devastation indifferently, on the oaks, 

 ash, beech, holly and willow, but scarcely 

 touching the fir tribe. In a plantation in 

 Dean Forest of 300 acres, not more than four 

 or five trees were found which were not in- 

 jured by the mice, or indeed destroyed by 

 them; many plants, the size of a man's arm, 

 were bitten through, and the roots were 



