BABBITS 177 



building paper from the apple trees and in a single 

 night injured hundreds of them. 'Gunny-sack' and 

 other cloth wrappings, well tied on, are effective pro- 

 tectors. Cornstalks also furnish a cheap material for 

 orchard protection. They are cut into lengths of 18 

 to 20 inches, split, and tied with the flat side against 

 the tree, so as fully to cover the trunk. ' ' 



BABBITS AS PETS. 



It hardly falls within the scope of this book 

 to treat the subject of rabbits as pets; but 

 some brief directions for keeping them may not 

 be amiss. 



All the various forms of pet rabbits, includ- 

 ing what is called the Belgian hare, are varie- 

 ties of the wild European rabbit brought about 

 by selective breeding in domestication. That 

 under favorable circumstances they would 

 thrive and multiply wild here, or in any tem- 

 perate part of the world, is shown by the hordes 

 of them which became a formidable pest in 

 Australia. A vast amount of time and work 

 and money have been expended in trying to 

 get rid of them, and it has been found that 

 the best plan has been to fence them out of 

 the farm-lands and sheep-pastures where they 



