6 



FARM PRACTICES TO LESSEN INJURIES 



The modern orchardist does not permit these things to exist, and 

 in his orchard there is to be found no tangle of matted grass to 

 afford a hibernating place for mice and countless insects. Intelli- 

 gent pruning will not only shape a tree, but the burning of the 

 branches cut will destroy many eggs of aphids and of other insects. 

 Systematic spraying of trees with the proper compounds is a 

 necessity for one who would produce marketable fruit, and fre- 

 quently protects an orchard, not only against insects which eat 

 the leaf and fruit, but against other pests as well (Fig. 7). 



FIG. 5. A weedy fence row harbors many insect pests. (Bull. 77, U. S. Bu. Ent.) 



Early mulching of trees or of any crop should be avoided, for 

 field mice that work all winter look, in the fall, before freezing 

 occurs, for snug nesting places for the winter. 



A field of timothy which has been in sod for a number of years 

 is likely to become infested with army worms. Intelligent rota- 

 tion, therefore, is practiced to-day by the wide-awake farmer, care 

 being taken not to follow one crop with another equally as attract- 

 ive to the insect he seeks to exterminate. 



Sod land is the natural abode of wire worms and cut-worms, 

 and corn or grain or some truck crops following sod are likely to 

 be injured. 



