Mice, Rabbits 



shrews, bats, and one or two others which are 

 carnivorous, are to be regarded as friends of the 

 garden, whUe mice, rats, rabbits and hares, and 

 sometimes the squirrel, are distinctly harmful. Of 

 all the " mice," perhaps the short-tailed field mouse 

 is the worst, but other mice and voles commit serious 

 depredations at times, especially among bulbs and 

 seeds, either fresh -sown or left to ripen. The 

 efforts made to destroy owls and kestrels often lead 

 to an inordinate increase in these troublesome 

 creatures, which will often gnaw the bark of trees in 

 hard weather and expose the wood below to drying 

 up. Trapping (the brick trap or figure-of-four trap 

 or a break-back trap are best) is the only means open 

 to the gardener, though sometimes the strewing of 

 ohopped-up furze about choice plants will protect 

 them, and of all baits probably a small piece of fat 

 bacon or a piece of taUow are the most effective. 



Where rabbits or hares are troublesome, trapping 

 again must be resorted to, but the protection of the 

 garden by a wire fence with at least nine inches below 

 ground, put up before anything is planted, and the 

 whole ground thoroughly scoured to destroy rabbits 

 and hares, is the wisest course. For some reason 

 the choicest apples in a plantation are nearly always 

 the ones to suffer attack upon their bark by these 

 gnawing ardmals. Cox's Orange Pippin, for instance, 

 coming in for marked attention, while others around 

 are neglected. If trees are barked in this way it is 



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