BABBITS 169 



falfa are favorites. In the Southwest they are 

 quick to seize upon garden-patches, and in 

 parts of Texas cantaloupes cannot be grown 

 unless well fenced. 



Babbits, however, are most feared by tree- 

 planters. They injure trees and shrubs in two 

 ways by cutting off the ends of branches 

 and twigs, and by tearing away the bark, often 

 until the tree is entirely girdled. The differ- 

 ence between the work of rabbits and that of 

 field-mice may easily be detected by the large 

 tooth-marks of the former, and by the height 

 (16 to 18 inches above the ground) of the 

 wound. 



Newly planted orchards are especially liable 

 to injury from rabbits, and few are now set out 

 without provisions for winter protection from 

 these animals. The losses of orchard and nur- 

 sery stock in one neighborhood in Arkansas 

 during the mild winter of 1905-6 were reported 

 at $50,000. 



Laws protecting the rabbit. In New Eng- 

 land and the Middle Atlantic States the rabbit 

 is protected, while throughout most of the West 

 and South no restrictions are placed on hunt- 



