1900. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
10-43 
PROTECTING TREES FROM VERMIN. 
One of the most timely and useful bulletins we 
have seen in a long time is a recent pamphlet issued 
by the Ohio Experiment Station (Wooster). Mr. F. 
H. Ballou gives practical methods of protecting young 
trees from the attacks of mice, rabbits and other ver¬ 
min. As all fruit growers know, these little animals 
often cause great loss by gnawing the bark from the 
base of the ground up. The damage is usually worse 
in hard Winters when the natural food of these ani¬ 
mals is scarce. We have, however known them to 
work in open Winters and to girdle completely some 
of our best young trees. Mice are worst with us, as 
the hunter puts most of the rabbits out of commission. 
There is more damage done in sod than in open 
ground, as the mice like to nest in the grass. One 
of the surest ways to invite disaster is to leave a 
mulch close around the trunk of the tree. The mice 
will work under it. If there is a bare space for a few 
inches around the tree there is usually little danger, 
for the mice rarely cross a bare place to work at the 
bark. In an ordinary Winter we find a mound of 
earth or coal ashes almost a foot high at the base of 
the tree ample protection. With deep snow this often 
fails, as the mice sometimes work under the snow if 
there is a nest near by. With rabbits, of course, this 
mounding will not answer. Mr. Ballou gives a num¬ 
ber of plans for protecting the tree trunk. His pic¬ 
tures are so clear that little description is needed. 
We have reengraved three of them this week, with 
several more to be shown later. The object is to put 
prices mentioned are f. o. b. or delivered. It is also 
important to know the distance from the railway 
station to the point where the lime is to be used. If 
the soil is light, sand or gravel, or a light, sandy, 
or gravelly loam, and especiallv if inclined to become 
very dry, the finely ground unburned limestone would 
[‘HOEING” A SOUTH AFRICAN CORNFIELD. Fig. 566. 1 
be safer, particularly for corn and grass, than the 
freshly slaked burned lump lime. There would be 
less risk using the latter, however, for the Alfalfa, 
than for the other crops. One should insist that 
ground limestone shall all pass a sieve containing 50 
meshes to the linear inch, and should not accept any¬ 
thing coarser. 
If, on the contrary, the soil is a heavy clay, or silt 
loam, and contains a considerable amount of vegetable 
matter, the slaked burned lime can be used with 
safety, if care is taken to apply it from 10 days to 
soil is one on which it could be safely used, since the 
finely ground limestone would probably not contain 
more than about 55 per cent of actual lime. The re¬ 
action of the soil as shown by the litmus paper is 
such as to indicate that lime is needed, if the test was 
properly made. My suggestion would be that the in¬ 
quirer place a rounded teaspoonful of soil in two- 
thirds of a glass of water, and add one or two tea¬ 
spoonfuls of dilute ammonia water. He should 
then stir up the whole mass and allow it to stand for 
some hours. If the liquid at the top shows a very 
dark chocolate or black color, this is an indication of 
a lack of carbonate of lime or carbonate of magnesia 
in the soil, and will support the test with the litmus 
paper. H. j. wheeler. 
R. I. Experiment Station. 
R. N.-Y.—We will repeat what has been said be¬ 
fore regarding the chemistry of lime. A pure lime¬ 
stone or carbonate of lime contains 56 parts of lime 
combined with 44 parts of carbonic acid. When 
burned or roasted in the limekiln the 44 parts of 
carbonic acid are driven off by the heat and the 56 
parts of lime are left. This is called ‘‘stone lime”, or 
“quicklime.” Limestone is seldom pure, there usu¬ 
ally being magnesia or other minerals present. The 
proportion of lime to carbonic acid is constant, and 
thorough burning leaves the lime and other minerals 
together. This “quick” lime or lump lime is “slaked” 
by taking up water, which it does in definite quantity. 
Thus 56 pounds of quicklime will take 18 pounds of 
water and make 74 pounds of dry slaked lime. Thus 
100 pounds of pure limestone or carbonate of lime 
when fully burned would yield 56 pounds of quick¬ 
lime which will make 74 pounds of . slaked lime. The 
burned lime is finer and more quick in its action than 
CORNSTALK PROTECTOR. Fig. -565. 
STALKS AND WIRE NETTING. Fig. 567. 
WIRE NETTING PROTECTOR. Fig. 569. 
something around the tree trunk which will keep the 
vermin away. If rabbits abound this protection should 
be high enough to prevent their reaching over it when 
standing on their hind legs. Perhaps the simplest 
plan is shown at Fig. 565. Here ordinary cornstalks 
are used—cut to the proper length, placed around the 
trunk and tied with wire or string. We understand 
that rabbits do not tear the stalks off—as we would 
expect them to do. Mice would gnaw them, and to 
circumvent them a roll of wire netting can be used 
as shown at Fig. 567. This is put at the base of the 
tree outside the stalks. Another plan is shown at 
Fig. 569. This is the way Mr. Hitchings protects 
the young trees. A sheet of fine netting is rolled 
around the tree, pressed a little into the ground and 
fastened. This keeps off both mice and rabbits, and 
to some extent, aids with borers. It is always better 
to clear grass or mulch from the base of the tree and 
make a small mound around it. 
BURNED LIME OR LIMESTONE. 
I have a small place here of about 30 acres. The soil 
is very acid, see inclosed litmus paper test. I can get 
crushed unburned limestone in bulk for $4.45 per 2,000- 
pound ton, 30 lo 50 mesh, said to contain 98.99 per cent 
carbonate of lime: also burned lump lime at $4.15 per 
2,000-pound ton, said to contain about 90 per cent carbonate 
of lime. I want to use the lime on about five acres 
of Alfalfa, and the remainder on lands for corn, grass, 
etc. On the basis of value in crops, which lime should 
I purchase and why? For each dollar paid for ground 
unburnt lime what should 1 pay for burned lump lime? 
Why? j. j. h. 
Maryland. 
It is impossible to advise satisfactorily whether 
ground unburned limestone or burned lump lime 
should be purchased, without knowing more concern¬ 
ing the character of the soil, and particularly whether 
two weeks in advance of the time of planting, unless 
the soil is one which becomes most unusually dry 
early in the season. The statement to the effect that 
the burned lump lime was said to contain about 96 
per cent of carbonate of lime is an error, and proba¬ 
bly the lime contains 96 per cent of actual lime (cal- 
A YOUNG DEVON BULL. Fig. 568. 
cium oxide), or else it was made by burning lime¬ 
stone which contains 96 per cent of carbonate of lime. 
If the prices given were for lime delivered at a point 
near where it is to be applied, and the burned lump 
lime contains 96 per cent of actual lime, it would be 
better economy to buy the burned lime, provided the 
the ground limestone (unburned). All these points 
should be considered in purchasing agricultural lime. 
SNOW FOR AN ICEHOUSE. 
Would you kindly let me know the best process to use 
to pack an icehouse with snow? Owing to the shortage of 
the ice crop last year a good many people packed their 
houses with snow, which turned out very nicely. 
Gettysburg, Pa. h. j. V. 
If it is desired to pack the ice-house with snow 
in blocks in the form of -cubes of ice, farmers who 
have hay presses of suitable for mhave utilized the 
hay press to compress the snow into blocks of con¬ 
siderable density and then packing the blocks in the 
ice-house as they would ordinary cut ice. It would 
not be a difficult matter, in the absence of the hay 
press, to build a form into which the snow could be 
tamped, especially if a day were selected when the 
snow is packing some. Or. if it is freezing weather, 
the forms could be filled partly with snow, packing 
as far as practicable, and then saturating this section 
with cold water, adding another layer and saturating 
again, until the form is full. If the water is pumped 
in a large trough at a time when it could have its 
temperature reduced to freezing there would be very 
little melting of the snow and, if the snow is below 
freezing at the time the water is added, pretty solid 
blocks could be secured of snow and water in this 
way. 
In certain localities where the snow is right and 
clean it might not be difficult to take advantage of 
the right conditions, and simply roll the snow into 
suitable sized snowballs and square these up if de¬ 
sired and, if the snowball is not sufficiently dense, 
these could easily be saturated with cold water at a 
time when they would freeze solid, before packing 
in the ice-house. If it is desired to fill the ice-house 
with snow it would not be impracticable to add a 
foot or two of snow, tramping it, and then at a time 
of suitable temperature, saturate this with water, thus 
increasing its density and, after this is frozen, add a 
second layer, repeating the process until the desired 
amount has been stored. f. h. king. 
