290 The Principles of Fruit-growing 



cient to fire blank cartridges a few times to scare the birds 

 away, and thereby obviate the necessity of killing them. 

 Small trees and garden-plats of small-fruits may be 

 protected from birds by means of netting manufactured 

 for that purpose. 



Rodents. 



Mice and other vermin injure trees mostly in cold 

 winters, when green food is scarce. They are likely to be 

 especially bad in new countries. The best preventive of 

 injuries from mice is to see that there is no material, as 

 dead grass or weeds, close to the base of the tree, in which 

 the rodents can nest. If the litter is not taken away, it 

 should at least be tramped down tightly before winter 

 sets in. The best preventive of injury by rabbits is not to 

 have the rabbits. If the brush-piles and old fence-rows, 

 in which the animals harbor, are cleaned away, there will 

 commonly be little trouble; and, at all events, a smart boy 

 who is fond of hunting will ordinarily solve the question 

 without help, so far as the game laws allow. 



If mice are very damaging, it may be advisable to put 

 cylinders of wire netting about the trees, as elsewhere 

 recommended (page 293). Rolls of birch bark are some- 

 times used in regions where the paper-birch grows. It 

 should be considered, however, that such covers for the 

 bodies of trees interfere with clean culture about the base 

 of the tree, and they are likely to afford a most excellent 

 place for the lodgment of insects. 



Girdled trees. 



Trees that have been girdled by rabbits, mice or 

 otherwise should have the injured parts pared down to 

 live tissue and the wounded surface then covered with an 



