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OHIO EXPERIMENT STATION: BULLETIN 208 



The tops of those small mounds are usually kept quite bare by 

 the sweeping force of the winter winds, even if there be several 

 inches of snow on the ground. Mice will not venture out on these 

 exposures to feed on the bark of the trees; and burrowing into the 

 freshly packed soil is not likely to be attempted in the winter, even 

 in open weather. 



The mounds may be left through- 

 out the year, but they should be 

 tamped hard and repaired by the 

 addition of fresh soil each autumn. 



Where cinders are available these 

 are a most excellent and inexpen- 

 sive material with which to mound 

 the stems of all kinds of fruit trees. 

 Mice will not burrow through the 

 cinders as they do through soil. 



THE WIRE SCREEN 



This is the ideal and complete, 

 all-round protector and it is, there- 

 fore, given first place among the 

 mechanical forms. True, it is more 

 expensive than many others, but it 

 is lasting and thoroughly effective 

 against all kinds of rodents which 

 prey upon the stems of young trees. 

 Being so light and open, it presents 

 the least obstruction to strong 

 winds; the air and sunshine are free- 

 ly admitted; no dark and secure 

 places of concealment, such as in_ 

 vite woolly-aphis and other forms 

 of insect life are afforded. 



This protector is made of galvan- 

 Fig. 6. Vicious work of woodchucks. ized wire cloth of one-quarter inch 



mesh (four 22 gauge wires to the 

 inch) which may be purchased from the larger supply houses in 

 rolls of one hundred lineal feet and in any width from twenty-four 

 to thirty-six inches. 



For apple trees the 24 inch width is usually the more convenient 

 size. This is cut crosswise with tinners' snips or shears into 12-inch 

 sections, making pieces 12 x 24 inches in size. These sections are 



