statp: pomological society. 79 



reason yet for cbanging the conclusions arrived at while seated on 

 that bowlder, and have acted accordingly. 



Knowing mice prefer oats to any other grain, I have supplied my 

 mice each fall with the amount my judgment told me would be siiffl- 

 cient to winter them, and that is the principal protection I have given 

 my orchard. My method is to carry oats into the orchard late in the 

 fall, take a bailed basket full on one arm and drop handfuls in the 

 hollows and along the edge of the wet land alluded to above, and 

 where the snow drifts on. A little observation in spring has shown 

 me where the most mice winter and there I leave the most feed. I 

 have used tarred sheathing paper around trees to a limited extent, 

 but if mice are driven to the necessity of living on the bark, they 

 will gnaw the tree above the paper. A little observation during the 

 summer and fall will determine whether there are few mice or many, 

 ^u(\ I provide for them accordingly. When the mice are thick cn^er 

 winter I seldom see a pile of oats in spring not eaten. When there 

 are but few they are not eaten so clean. 



Now for the result of my method of protecting trees from mice. 

 ,1 have now about seven hundred trees. I commenced setting 

 .sevent/^en years ago and liave set some every spring since I have 

 probably lost in the time one hundred trees (losing eighty-five fall 

 planted at one time), so I have set out eight hundred trees. In ad- 

 dition to this, I have sowed two nurseries in the time and within the 

 limits of my crchard. The trees in the oldest one are all disposed 



■ of, and nearly all in the other. All the trees I have lost by mice 

 in the orchard and nurseries in seventeen years can be numbered on 

 the fingers and thumbs of m^'^ two hands. I think no one will 



■ doubt the eflficiency of my method of protection, but the question 

 of expense may be raised, and in anticipation of such an event I 

 will answer in advance, it is not as expensive as paper or birch 



*bark. The extra time required in putting on the bark or paper in 

 the fall, and removing them in spring, will more than balance the 



■ cost of oats above that of the bark or paper. 



Thousands of trees girdled by mice are given up as spoiled, that 

 could be saved b}' timely care. 



Visit the orchard often in early spring, and if trees are found 

 :gnawed, immediately apply mortar made of clay and horse manure, 

 and wind with woolen cloth. Trees with the bark removed to the 

 wood, treated in this way, before they have been exposed to wind 

 and sun long enough to sear the wood, nine times in ten, will form 

 a new hark .and come out all right. 



