Among the best mechanical contrivances for protecting trees from rabbits
are cylinders of woven wire netting. Poultry netting of 1-inch mesh,
made of No. 20 galvanized wire, will answer every requirement. Rolls 18
inches wide are used for cottontails, and the material is cut into
1-foot lengths. One of the sections is rolled into cylindrical shape
about the trunk of each tree and fastened at several places by bending
and twisting the projecting ends of wire. No other fastening is needed,
but stakes or spreaders may be used to prevent rabbits from pressing the
wire against the bark and doing injury through the meshes. These guards
should be left on the trunks, and will last as long as the trees require
protection. The cost of material is less than 2 cents for each tree.
These protectors may vary in size to suit the requirements of any
particular locality or kind of tree. They may be adapted to protection
from the larger rabbits by using wider rolls and to protection from both
meadow mice and rabbits by using wire of finer mesh and by pressing the
lower edges into the ground.
Veneer and other forms of wooden protectors are popular, and have
several advantages when used for cottontail rabbits. When left
permanently upon the trees, however, they furnish retreats for insect
pests. For this reason they should be removed each spring. While the
labor of removing and replacing them is considerable, they have the
advantage when pressed well into the soil of protecting from both mice
and rabbits. They cost from 60 cents a hundred upward, and are much
superior to building paper or newspaper wrappings. The writer has known
instances where rabbits tore wrappings of building paper from apple
trees and in a single night injured hundreds. "Gunny-sack" and other
cloth wrappings well tied on are effective protectors. Cornstalks
furnish a cheap material for orchard protection when cut into lengths of
18 to 20 inches, split, and tied with the flat side against the tree, so
as fully to cover the trunk. However, they last but one season and
putting them in place involves much labor.