79 



CONEYS AND NUTMEG TREES. 



A correspondent in the east of the island complains of the bark of his 

 Nutmeg trees being stripped off apparently by the native coney. The 

 following from an American agricultural publication is suggestive : — 



Our correspondence indicates that mice and rabbits are often serious 

 pests. Banking up the trunks in the fall from 12 to 15 inches with 

 earth so as to form a mound with steep sides is a good safeguard against 

 mice. This is easily done and also protects the roots on young trees. 

 The mound should be leveled in the spring. To guard against rabbits 

 it is a good practice to wash the stem in the fall with whitewash, 

 thickened with copperas and sulphur. This wash should be renewed as 

 often as necessary, if washed off by heavy rains. These two methods 

 have long been used by many orchadists in the Northwest. The last few 

 years, however, wire cloths such as is used for screen doors, has come 

 into favour in several large orchards. The wire cloth is cut so as to 

 lap over and allow for several years' growth ; the sheath is set into 

 the ground about one inch, extends up the full width of the wire screen- 

 ing, and is fastened near top and bottom with wire. This guards 

 against both mice and rabbits and has proven inexpensive and effective. 

 The whitewash can be used if necessary above the wire screening on the 

 stem and main limbs. G\ A. Tracey, of Watertown, writes in the Da- 

 kota Farmer : 



" For rabbits I have for the past twelve years used liver, either hog 

 or beef. I take a piece and go through the orchard, rub it on some of 

 the limbs and bodies of the trees, but do not put it nearer than two or three 

 feet of the ground, for fear of the mice, for they will eat it and the 

 bark with it if it is near the ground. I have failed yet to find a single 

 instance where a rabbit has been nearer than four or five feet of a tree so 

 protected. I use tar paper around the trees, or a little earth banked up 

 around them to protect from mice In using tar paper on small trees I 

 put a stick on the south side to hold the paper a little away from the 

 bark, I have used other remedies, but none suit me so well or is as 

 quickly done as the above'" 



The use of tar paper in orchards is very generally condemned by 

 fruit growers as it often proves very destructive to the bark, especially 

 on young trees. 



Commenting on the above, A. J. Phillips, West Salem, Wis., 

 Secretary of the Wisconsin Horticultural Society writes ; " I am in- 

 clined to give yon the benefit of my experience for the past fifteen 

 years, which, if followed, will be useful to many of your readers. 

 Liver, tar paper, white wash, carbolic acid and Paris green, all fade into 

 insignificance when compared with a good protector made of eight lath 

 woven together with common broom wire, and placed around the trunk 

 of the tree. The length of the lath is to be guaged by the height of the 

 limbs of the tree. This protects against sunscald, rabbits, mice and 

 sheep ; plenty of air goes in between the lath. After seven to ten 

 years the tree will fill it full and the bark will be smooth and green 

 under the same, and I never yet have found a borer in a well protected 

 tree of this kind. Banking the earth is a delusion nine times out of ten, 

 as the grower fails to remove it and it remains and sods over with June 



