down under the growth of lespedeza or bluegrass. lf you find a fresh runway,
you may know you have orchard mice.
Bait traps
 
Many apple growers have found bait traps very useful and economical.
The simplest way to prepare and use bait traps is as follows; split a roll of
,S_ heavy 3-ply paper roofing. You can do this easily with an old saw while the
paper is inthe roll, or you can unroll it and use your pocket knife or "roof—
ing snips. " Then cut the long strips of roofing into squares 18 in. by 18 in.
Take these squares of paper tothe orchard and lay them directly over the
mouse runways and leave them there. Ten days later, carefully raise one
i corner of the "traps" and where you find a fresh runway, place a teaspoonful
y of the poison bait, consisting of either strychnine-treated oats, or apple, or
sweetpotato cubes treated with zinc phosphide.
You can purchase these specially prepared poisons from your local
orchard supply firm, or you can write to me at the Experiment Station,
Lexington, and 1 will send you a quantity of the poison, at cost.
1 visited some orchards of Polly Eades, Transparent, and Golden Deli-
cious varieties where the owner had picked over 20 bushels of No. l apples
per tree in 1950 that had sold for $3 a bushel, or F60 per tree, and to the
owner's surprise, the mice had girdled the trees completely this fall. A
good livestock man would pay a veterinarian for services and sit up all night
doctoring a sick cow worth less than the mature apple tree, yet the little
mouse was not considered to be a problem - until it was too late.
"WET FEET" IN KENTUCKY PEACH ORCHARDS - 1950
W. W. Magill
More peach trees were lost from "wet feet" in Kentucky in 1950 than the
total loss in any five-year period from 1924 to 1949. Yet there is no mystery
concerning the cause of this tree loss. Let us forget peach trees for the
moment to think back and study the weather record. For example, Kentucky
had 45 inches of rain during the first seven months of 1950, and this amount
is the average rainfall for an entire year. The following figures give some
round—number facts on Kentucky rainfall from November through May:
Month Above or below Normal
November, 1949 Z inches below normal
December, 1949 2 inches above normal
January, 1950 8 inches above normal
l` February, 1950 .2 inches above normal
91*111 March, 1950 1 inch below normal
N-ds April, 1950 1 inch below normal
I\/by, 1950 3 inches above normal
In southwestern Kentucky the rainfall exceeded that around Lexington
and some other areas of the state. Thus, with the waterlogged soil, a nor-
, mal peach tree growth was prevented and the peach foliage turned yellow in
V MAY OT early June and the peach roots died, causing death of the trees.
Many trees also looked very weak and sick all through the season and it is