120 THE PESTS OF CULTIVATED PLANTS 



kinds of rodents which prey upon the stems of young trees. 

 The screen protector is Hght and open and presents the least 

 obstruction to strong winds, yet at the same time admits 

 the sun and the air. The wire screen neither affords any 

 dark nor obscure places for the concealment of any kind of 

 injurious insect pests. 



The wire screen protectors vary in size, depending primarily 

 upon the size of the tree. A good size that seems to be 

 adapted to many trees is twelve by twenty-four inches. 

 This protector is really nothing more than a piece of gal- 

 vanized wire cloth with one-fourth-inch meshes. It is then 

 bent or rolled over a small, round piece of wood, shaping 

 it into a cylinder about two and one-half or three inches in 

 diameter. The cylinder is then placed about the stem of the 

 tree where its own tension will hold it in place. A protector 

 made from the ordinary one-inch mesh, galvanized chicken 

 wire is quite effective against rabbits, but this size of wire 

 will not protect the trees from mice. Spiral wire protectors 

 are sometimes made from a galvanized iron wire. The 

 spiral protectors are in the form of a spiral or a spring, and 

 while they are effective against rabbits they are not to be 

 recommended generally. Their chief drawback is the large 

 spaces between the wires, which permit the rodents either to 

 squeeze through entirely or to push their heads in far enough 

 to reach the base of the tree. 



Probably one of the most effective plant protectors for all 

 purposes is found in the wood veneer protector. This style 

 is quite effective against all kinds of rodents. However, 

 they are close and tight, and exclude almost all the light, and 

 often various forms of insects harbor in the crevices and the 

 rough portion of the bark and may become troublesome. 

 The A^eneer protectors should be removed from the trees 

 during the summer and replaced before winter. 



In addition to the wire protectors already mentioned, which 

 are classed as more or less commercial articles, there are 

 several home devices which may be used with varying degrees 

 of success. Cornstalks, for instance, are Aery effective 

 against rabbits and ground hogs, and at the same time have 

 the advantage of being very cheap. There is practically no 



