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FARMERS BULLETIN 102. 



injury through the meshes. These guards should be left on the 

 trunks, and will last as long as the trees require protection. The cost 

 of material is less than 2 cents for each tree. These protectors may 

 vary in size to suit the requirements of any particular locality or 

 kind of tree. They may be adapted to protection from the larger 

 rabbits by using wider rolls and to protection from both meadow 

 mice and rabbits by using wire of finer mesh and by pressing the 

 lower edges into the ground. 



Veneer and other forms of wooden protectors are popular, and have 

 several advantages when used for cottontail rabbits. When left 

 permanently upon the trees, however, they furnish retreats for insect 

 pests. For this reason they should be removed each spring. While 

 the labor of removing and replacing them is considerable, they have 

 the advantage when pressed well into the soil of p otecting from both 

 mice and rabbits. They cost from 60 cents a hundred upward, and 

 are much superior to building paper or newspaper wrappings. The 

 writer has known instances where rabbits tore wrappings of building 

 paper from apple trees and in a single night injured hundreds. 

 " Gunny-sack " and other cloth wrappings well tied on are effective 

 protectors. Cornstalks furnish a cheap material for orchard protec- 

 tion when cut into lengths of 18 to 20 inches, split, and tied with 

 the flat side against the tree, so as fully to cover the trunk. How- 

 ever, they last but one season and putting them in place involves 

 much labor. 



OTHER MEANS. 



Few of these methods for the protection of individual trees in 

 orchards or elsewhere are applicable to young woodlands or forest 

 plantations where trees grow close together. In these cases the only 

 remedy is the destruction of the animals or their exclusion by wire 

 nettings. 



Clean cultivation, generally, possesses advantages in preventing 

 rabbit depredations, since it reduces the number of places of refuge 

 for the animals; but rabbits go long distances in search of food, 

 especially in winter, and clean cultivation can not be applied on 

 the western plains, where dense windbreaks are essential to successful 

 orcharding. 



Feeding rabbits in winter to prevent their attacks on orchards has 

 been practiced successfully, on the theory that it is cheaper to feed 

 than to fight them. One plan is to leave the winter prunings of 

 apple trees scattered about the orchard. Another is to furnish corn, 

 cabbage, or turnips in sufficient quantity to provide food for the 

 rabbits during cold weather. These methods have considerable 

 merit, particularly the first, which seems to give satisfactory results 

 when both mice and rabbits are present. 



WASHINGTON : GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1916 



