Tree Enemies A special plea has been made to the
afforesters to see to the destruction of the grey squirrel. It is averred that it is little good replanting the felled woods in regions where this squirrel prevails, as, for example, along the Hens-Bucks boundary. The squirrel is, of course, singularly omni- vorous. It devours, for example, wah peaches and maize cobs and young birds ; but I very much doubt whether the- tips of young trees suffer principally from the squirrels. In one afforestation experiment that I watched with much interest much the greatest harm was found to be done by mice, after all sorts of other animals, including birds' had been suspected. Doubtless rabbits are the worst. One small plantation, within which all rabbits had been killed before the mesh wire was fixed, was half-ruined .because some ingenious' poacher had discovered that if he cut a hole in the wire it made the snaring of rabbits an easy job.
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