THE RABBIT AS A FARM AND ORCHARD PEST. 



341 



Mechanical contrivances for protecting young orchard trees are 

 many. Where protection from rabbits only is required, woven wire 

 netting is recommended. This should be made of No. 20 galvanized 

 wire, 1-inch mesh, such as is often used for poultry netting. For 

 cottontail rabbits rolls 18 inches wide are recommended, but as a pro- 

 tection against jack rabbits wider material is safer. The wire is cut 

 into 1-foot lengths, and one of these sections is rolled into shape about 

 the trunk of each tree, the ends being brought together and fastened 

 at several places by means of the wire ends. No other fastening is 

 needed. The wire is not in contact with the trunk and may be left on 

 the tree permanently. It will probably last as long as the tree re- 

 quires protection, and the cost of material need not be over If cents 

 for each tree. For young evergreens, material of the same kind 1 

 foot Avide and cut in IJ-foot lengths will give excellent protection. 



If trees are to be protected from both rabbits and mice, materials 

 of closer mesh must be used. Wire window-screen netting is excellent 

 for the purpose, and the cost, when permanence of protection is con- 

 sidered, is not great. 



Veneer and other forms of wood protectors are popular and have 

 several advantages. When left permanently upon the trees, however, 

 they furnish retreats for insect pests. For this reason they should be 

 removed each spring and laid away until cold weather. While the 

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

 advantage, when pressed well into the soil, of protecting from both 

 mice and rabbits. They cost from GO cents per hundred upward, and 

 are much superior to building paper or newspaper wrappings. The 

 writer has known instances where rabbits tore wrappings of build- 

 ing paper from the apple trees and in a single night injured hun- 

 dreds of them. " Gunny-sack " and other cloth wrappings, well tied 

 on, are effective protectors. Cornstalks also furnish a cheap material 

 for orchard protection. They are 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. 



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 such cases the only 

 remedy is destruction of the animals or their exclusion by wire 

 nettings. 



Clean cultivation, generally, has some 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 wind-breaks are essential to successful 

 orcharding. 



