I, myself, was unwilling to take an active part in it,
although still intent on saving my trees in spite of my pity for the
little animals. Placing hundreds of cans in the orchard, with a pinch of
poisoned wheat and oat mixture in each, helped to eradicate the mice.
The bait was placed inside the cans to prevent birds from being
poisoned, and the cans were tipped at an angle so that water would not
enter them.
To be absolutely sure of preventing mice damage, one should provide each
tree with a screen guard. I have made about 10,000 screen protectors for
my trees for this purpose. I have also trapped rabbits which we were not
able to shoot and I conceived the idea of painting the traps with white
enamel. When these were set on the snow around those trees which the
rabbits attacked, they worked very successfully. The traps were a size
larger than the common gopher trap, but were not expensive. There are
other ways of catching rabbits or curtailing their activities, but on my
list, shooting comes first, with trapping as a second effective measure.
Squirrels, although they do no damage to the trees themselves, except on
rare occasions, are a definite nuisance when they come in large numbers
and cut down nuts before they are ripe.
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