OTHER MEANS.
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 these cases the only remedy is the destruction of the animals or their exclusion by wire nettings.
Clean cultivation, generally, possesses 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 windbreaks are essential to successful orcharding.
Feeding rabbits in winter to prevent their attacks on orchards has been practiced successfully, on the theory that it is cheaper to feed than to fight them. One plan is to leave the winter prunings of apple trees scattered about the orchard. Another is to furnish corn, cabbage, or turnips in sufficient quantity to provide food for the rabbits during cold weather. These methods have considerable merit, particularly the first, which seems to give satisfactory results when both mice and rabbits are present.