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Mulched trees, or trees growing in orchards where cover 

 crops are used, are more liable to injury. Damage to strawberry 

 plantations and to various kinds of garden crops have been 

 reported from several localities. Irish potatoes and sweet pota- 

 toes have been especially subject to attack. 



In the spring of 1907, several instances were noted of seed 

 potatoes having been eaten after they were planted, and before 

 they had had time to germinate. This injury in some cases was 

 so serious that the ground was rep lowed and used for other 

 crops. A few complaints were heard of injury to newly planted 

 corn fields by the mice burrowing along the rows, from hill 

 to hill, and eating the seed corn before, or soon after, germina- 

 tion. In several cases, however, where fields were examined 

 that were supposed, on account of the sickly appearance of the 

 young plants, to be suffering from the underground attacks of 

 meadow mice, it was found that the trouble was due to wire- 

 worms and corn root-aphids, instead of mice. 

 i 



11 BROOM-SEDGE" FIELDS AS BREEDING PLACES. 



For a number of years there has been spreading 

 over the cleared lands of some sections of the state, 

 a kind of wild grass commonly known as ''broom 

 sedge." (The correct name for this plant is Vir- 

 ginia beard-grass, Andropogon Virginicus). The plant seems to 

 prefer thin land and is partial to old pasture fields. It makes 

 a dense and luxuriant growth in summer, and the yellow, leafy 

 stalks remain standing into the winter until broken down by 

 heavy snows. These "broom-sedge" fields make ideal breeding 

 places for field mice. I have found scores of their nests, com- 

 posed entirely of the blades of "broom-sedge," hidden near 

 the ground among the denser growths of the same plant. 



Serious injury to planted crops has several times been 

 noticed in fields lying adjacent to these "broom-sedge" fields. 

 Examinations of such places showed that the mice had evidently 

 invaded the cultivated areas from their protected retreats and 

 breeding places among the "broom-sedge." The green stalks 



