394 Biology in America 



"On March 16, 1906, I found that of 380 apple trees, 

 164, or over 43 per cent, were ruined, being completely gir- 

 dled, some to a height of 8 to 10 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 inflicted early in the 

 fall. . . . 



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



MEADOW MICE 



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

 plagues. From an illustration by Morita. 



Courtesy of the U. S. Bureau of Biological Survey. 



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 had made a luxuriant growth throughout 

 the orchard. Over much of the area, apparently, no attempt 



