54 FARM VERMIS, HELFFUL AXD HURFFUF. 



this sort is most liable to occur in plantations that have 

 been recently thinned ; for not only can the deer move 

 about with greater freedom, but the bark becomes thicker 

 at the same time and more succulent and juicy in conse- 

 quence of the larger individual growing-space and the better 

 supplies of light, air, and warmth available for the foliage. 



Simple gnawing of the bark mostly takes place during 

 the winter months when there is a dearth of food ; but, in 

 its more injurious form of stripping, it is also often continued 

 into the spring and summer months, when the sap is in flow, 

 partly out of sheer wantonness, and partly because of 

 the succulence of the sappy bark, and the ease with which 

 it can be stripped. Having bitten through the rind with 

 the lower incisors, and taken it firmly between the upper 

 and lower teeth, the deer steps gradually back and the strip 

 of bark is torn off from the stem, sometimes to a height of 

 over six feet. The wounds thus occasioned often take long 

 to heal, and, until they become cicatrised, offer an open 

 door for the entrance of fungoid disease into the stem : at 

 the same time, by inducing sickly growth for some time 

 after the wounds are made, such injuries predispose young 

 trees to attacks from injurious insects. 



The stags strip the bark more frequently than the hinds, 

 and seem to do most damage at the time they are beginning 

 to set their antlers in the spring. It is supposed that the 

 tannic acid contained within the bark serves as a digestive 

 tonic when deer are fed with hay in deer-parks, and that 

 this and other ingredients present in the sapp}' cambium 

 stimulate the secretion of matters requisite for the formation 

 of the stag's antlers and for other physiological purposes. 

 It is worthy of special remark that scripping of the bark 

 seldom occurs except when the deer are confined within a 

 ring fence ; when thev are free to roam about over extensive 

 areas gnawing is unusual and stripping rare. The damage 

 is usually perpetrated in the morning, when the deer are 



