36 AN ECONOMIC STUDY OF FIELD MICE. 



This eating was always below the snow line or under cover of litter of any 

 sort that hid the animals from the eyes of hawks and owls. These and foxes 

 are their natural enemies. 



The greatest absolute loss that season was in the destruction of red clover 

 (Trifolium pratense).. Many fields that went into winter with a beautiful 

 aftermath of clover and other grasses came out in the spring bare of any 

 profitable cover and had to be replowed, the clover roots having all been eaten 

 out. 



The favorite dainty with the mice is celery, when it is trenched in and cov- 

 ered with fodder. — Colora, Cecil County, Md. 



Field mice are abundant here. While I have personally had no losses of trees 

 from them, very many orchards and nurseries in this vicinity have been nearly 

 ruined, especially where they were neglected and grass and weeds were per- 

 mitted to grow. I prevent loss by thorough cultivation and by mounding up soil 

 at the base of the trees late in the fall. — Boone. Boone County, Iowa. 



I had perhaps 10,000 trees destroyed by mice and rabbits during the past five 

 years, mostly by mice, in 1904 and 1905. Loss. $2,000. —Twin Bluffs, Wis. 



Mice are abundant here. We have suffered no damage, but some young or- 

 chards have been completely ruined. They were left with quite a mulching of 

 grass and cover. This made a harbor for the mice, and they girdled nearly all 

 of the trees. — Oakland, Kans. 



We lost $2,000 worth of nursery stock in 1904 and 1905. 



— Rochester, N. Y. 



We have a few thousand nursery trees destroyed by them each season. 



— Charles City, Iowa. 



Field mice abundant. My nurseries have been damaged to a great extent, 

 especially last year during heavy snow. — Ellisville, Mo. 



During the winter of 1903—1 mice were very abundant throughout the valley 

 and, indeed, in most of the State. The damage to nurseries and orchards 

 was about 25 per cent. Shade trees, as well as apple, were injured. The 

 following summer the mice were exceedingly abundant in clover fields. Early 

 in the spring they greatly disfigured lawns in the city and in the cemetery 

 by burrowing on the surface of the ground under the snow. [The species in the 

 valley is M. pennsylvanicus modest us.] — Bozeman, Mont. 



Ten years ago we scarcely noticed any damage from mice. Some six years 

 ago they began doing more or less damage and became very troublesome in the 

 winter of 1903-4. They mowed off our two and three year old evergreens by 

 the thousands, so that we had to* rake over the beds before counting out trees 

 to ship. We had piles of small trees the size of haycocks. I can not tell the 

 monej^ value, but think it much higher than I put it ($2,000). 



I laid the trouble in this section to hunters. Hawks, owls, minks, skunks, 

 etc., used to be very plenty, but they have nearly all been killed. Their prin- 

 cipal food is mice. A short-eared owl wintered near our sheds in an evergreen, 

 and you could hardly believe the piles of mice skins under that tree in spring. 



Two years ago a pair of weasels took up their abode in our tree cellar, 

 breeding there last year. They kept most of the mice killed off. In the summer 

 we saw the old one quite often carrying mice to its young from outside the 

 shed. * * * This winter has been very mild, with no snow. Mice have 

 been plenty in meadows, but grass kept green and tender, and they did our 

 nurseries little damage. — Waukegan, 111. 



