MISCHIEF OF MEADOW-MOUSE _ 65 
pointed out. ‘The protection and encourage- 
ment of these valuable allies of the farmer can 
not be too strongly advocated. 
Trapping, systematically continued, is of 
great service; and advice upon it is given at 
the end of this book, as also for poisoning these 
small pests. - 
Food of wild mice. Returning now to a 
further consideration of the mice in the normal 
numbers which are always with us, an under- 
standing of their feeding is most important as 
a preliminary to repressive measures. 
In summer the principal food is green vege- 
tation and unripe seeds of grain and grasses. 
As the season advances, ripe grain and seeds 
take the place of the immature; and in winter 
bulbous and other roots are in part substituted 
for stems and leaves. It is mainly in winter 
that apple orchards and young forest trees suf- 
fer, for meadow-mice invade cleanly cultivated 
fields only under shelter of snow. Unlike the 
foreign voles, our American species do not, as 
a rule, lay up winter-stores-in any considerable 
quantities, as do some other American mice— 
the deer-mice, for instance. Instead, our mead- 
