394 



Biology in America 



"On IMarch Ifi, 1906, I found that of 380 apple trees, 

 164, or over 43 ])(>r cent, were ruined, being completely gir- 

 dled, some to a height of 8 to ]() inches above the ground. 

 Thirty-six others, nearly 10 per cent, were less badly injured, 

 while 180, or 47 per cent, apparently, were uninjured. Of 

 200 pear trees in the orchard 50 were more or less seriously 

 damaged. The injury to these was intlicted early in the 

 fall. . . . 



"In December, 1903, I examined a large orchard in Marion 



Meadow Mice 

 A great pest wliicli sometimes become so numerous as to form veritable 

 plagues. From an illustration by Morita. 



CotirtiHU of the U. ;S'. liurcitii of Jiioloyicul Purvey. 



County, Kan., where field mice were causing much damage. 

 . . . The orchard comprised 480 acres and contained about 

 26,000 trees, mostly apple, eight to ten years transplanted. 

 The trees averaged about 4 inches in diameter, but many 

 measured 5 or 6 inches. The majority were headed low, their 

 outer drooping branches touching the ground. In the spring 

 of 1903 corn had been planted by listing it in the open spaces 

 between the rows of trees ; but owing to an unusually wet sum- 

 mer, the crop had been abandoned, and sunflowers and other 

 weeds and grasses luid made a luxuriant growth throughout 

 the orchard. Over much of the area, ai)parently, no attempt 



