Knoxville journal. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1874-1986, 1874-12-17
Bank Up Your Fruit Trees.

In sections of the country whore so,.
mice are liable to gnaw off the bars :.
fruit trees near the surface of the oron,.a VI
a small mound of earth should no ra;aua
around the body of every tree M
seldom gnaw the bark so long as thera; =
no snow on the ground, but soon ats
snow has fallen to the depth of on,,,
three or four inches the pests will COZ,
mence forming runs beneath the snow -,
the surface of the ground. Strang. ~
relate, the runs will always extend from
tree to tree and in numerous Other a;
rections. When there is not a lihar.I
supply of such feed as feld.mice orc
fond of they will attack the bark of ANU
sort of fruit tree. When there il prass
and rubbish around trees mice will offer
gnaw the bark, even when the ground ;s
not covered with snow. In localities
where deep banks have formed alon,
trees mice have been known to gnaw all
the bark off for distance of three feet
from the ground We have in mind
farmer having large orchard, more than
1 200 of whose trees were completely
girdled by the mice during short perioa
in the month of March while the ground
was covered with snow. 1t is unsafe In
allow fruit trees to remain during the
winter without mound of earth or some
| other protection around each one. When
the mice work along beneath the snow
and encounter mound of earth they
will run around the base and BASS by the
tree. This explains the philosophy of
banking fruit trees. Where the ground
Is mellow laborer can throw up a con.
ical mound twelve to fifteen inches high
in less than one minute 1t is always better
to pack the surface of the mounds with
shovel than to allow mellow earth to re.
main not smoothed off. Mice will often
girdle trees that are six to ten inches in
diameter. When trees are standing in
grass ground, the easier and more conven.
lent way to bank them is to draw mel
low earth that can be handled readily
with shovel and build conical mound
around every tree. Then during the fol.
lowing spring let the earth be spread
evenly around about the trees The
practice of going to every tree and tread
ing the snow down tightly close to the
body is frequently recommended. But
this plan is not always reliable, as mice
will often form runs beneath snow that
has been packed firmly as one can tread
it. Besides this, it will be an expensive
job to tread the snow firmly around only
few hundred trees several times during
the winter. 1t will not be sufficient to
pack small quantity about a tree; but
if snow is two or three feet deep it must
be packed firmly on the ground, then
more snow hauled up to the tree and trod
down, and SO on until firm bank has
been formed as deep as the snow has
fallen on a level. There is danger of
injuring trees by applying tar of any
sort to the bodies, as coal tar is so poi
sonous that only thin coat of it will
destroy the vitality of the bark. When
it is desirable to protect trees from the
ravages of rabbits, as well as field-mice,
the most satisfactory way is to procure
heavy brown paper, wrap piece around
each tree, secure it with Irvine, then
apply coat of coal tar to the paper.
Neither mice nor rabbits will gnaw
through tarred paper.--N. Y. Herald