BULLETIN 



OF THE 



Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station 



Number 208 August, 1909 



PROTECTION OF FRUIT TREES FROM RODENTS 



By F. H. BALLOU 



PREFACE 



CCORDING to the Official Report of the Ohio 

 Department of Agriculture for 1907, there are, in 

 the state, 266,340 acres of tree fruits including- all 

 classes. Of those classes more subject to tree 

 injury by rodents, viz., apple, pear and plum, 

 there are 247,700 acres. Of apples alone there are 

 243,716 acres. This great acreage includes not 

 only the extensive commercial plantations, but the thousands of 

 small, home orchards, scattered in every part of the state. 



There are no data available which would render possible any- 

 where near a correct estimate of the loss of and injur y to trees, 

 young and old, through the work of rodents (mice, rabbits and 

 woodchucks) in Ohio. While the loss is confined principall}- to 

 newly set orchards, replants in older orchards and the younger 

 plantations generally, this loss, in the aggregate, is considerable. 

 It certainly would not be far beyond the bornds of conservatism to 

 figure the loss and injury at one dollar per acre per year including 

 all ages and conditions of the apple, pear and plum orchards of the 

 state. The rate of loss would be less than this in the larger com- 

 mercial plantations, even where the grass-mulch method of culture 

 is practiced; for the commercial planter generally takes into con- 

 sideration the various sources of danger and makes provision to 



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