WILD LIFE OF ORCHARD AND FIELD 



creases so rapidly, that all his enemies have not 

 been able to rid the earth of him, but only keep 

 him in check, and thus preserve that nice balance 

 of nature in which consists the welfare of all. 



An important part of the history of these pretty 

 wild mice would be untold if I were to say nothing 

 about the mischief they do to the farmer's fields 

 and fruit-trees. From what has been said of their 

 underground stores, you may guess how they 

 make the grain -fields suffer. They really spoil 

 more grain than they consume, for they have a 

 way of biting off the stalk to get at the head, and 

 so waste a larger amount than they eat or carry 

 off in their capacious cheeks. It is done so quietly 

 and adroitly, too, that few are ever caught at it, 

 and much of the blame is put on the moles, squir- 

 rels, and woodchucks, that have enough sins of 

 their own to answer for. The meadow-mouse of 

 Europe, which is very like our own, forty or fifty 

 years ago came near causing a famine in parts 

 of England, ruining the crops before they could 

 get fairly started, and killing almost all the young 

 trees in the orchards and woods. More than thirty 

 thousand of the little rascals were trapped in one 

 month in a single piece of forest, besides all those 

 killed by animals. About 1875, again, a similar 



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