PROPAGATION. 



47 



Saving Mice-Gnawed Trees. — A 

 Grafting. 



Modification of 



Young orchards which are kept perfectly clean by cultiva- 

 tion, are seldom injured by mice under snow. There are 

 some instances, however, where mice will attack those which 

 stand near the boundary fences or in proximity to grass ; and 

 sometimes a hard crust of ice or snow may be formed on the 

 surface, over which mice will travel beneath a second fall of 

 snow, in committing their depredations. Many young orch- 

 ards are more or less encumbered with grass and weeds, and 

 the trees are often found girdled in spring. A preventive that 

 rarely fails, that of embanking small mounds of smooth earth 



Fig. 76. Fig. 77. 



Bridge-grafting over a Wound. 



Fig. 78. 



round the trees in autumn, is not often adopted, and hence we 

 have frequent inquiries, " What shall we do to save our mice- 

 gnawed trees?" 



Fig. 76 represents the stem of a young tree entirely girdled 

 near the surface of the ground. The tree will, of course, per- 

 ish unless a connection is made between the two portions of 

 bark. 



An easy way to repair this damage is represented in Fig. 

 ^^. It consists merely in fitting into openings, made with a 

 half-inch chisel, short pieces of round wood sharpened at both 

 ends to fit the chisel-cuts. These cuts are made by placing 

 the chisel, when making the lower cuts, nearly upright or 

 slightly inclining outward from the tree, and then placing 

 the point upward in a corresponding direction when making 



