ANIMALS INJURIOUS TO FRUIT TREES. 375 



destroyed, in order to prevent their increase. The eggs 

 are deposited on the young leaves by some of the multi- 

 tudes of spring beetles. 



SECTION 3. ANIMALS INJURIOUS TO FRUITS AND FRUIT 

 TREES. 



1. Birds. As a general thing, birds are more the 

 friends than the enemies of the garden. Many of them 

 subsist in greater part on insects, and thus perform ser- 

 vices that are by no means appreciated. The early cher- 

 ries are generally the greatest sufferers by them, and 

 various devices are practised to frighten them away, the 

 most cruel of which is shooting. Moving objects resem- 

 bling the human figure, bits of looking-glass or tin sus- 

 pended among the branches, etc., are often effectual. 

 Dwarf trees are easily covered with thin netting support- 

 ed on poles and fastened at the base of the tree. 



2. Field Mice. The most effectual preventive is 

 clean culture. Leave no grass, weeds, rubbish, or heaps 

 of stones around the garden or orchard, and the mice will 

 seldom be troublesome. Their operations of girdling are 

 principally carried on beneath the snow, and when this is 

 firmly trodden down as soon as it fails, it obstructs their 

 way. A correspondent of the " Horticulturist" states 

 that he has found tin tubes fixed around the base of the 

 tree, ai> effectual remedy ; and Mr. Hooker, of Rochester, 

 has successfully driven them off with poison. He takes a 

 block of wood six inches long and three or four square, 

 and bo^es it lengthwise with an inch and half auger 

 nearly through, and places in the lower end some corn 

 meal and arsenic. He places these blocks among the 

 trees, mouth inclined downwards, " to keep the powder 

 dry." 



