This section is from the book "The Gardener's Monthly And Horticulturist V24", by Thomas Meehan. See also: Four-Season Harvest: Organic Vegetables from Your Home Garden All Year Long.
Having profited by the valuable information contained in the Gardener's Monthly, I feel it my duty to contribute something for the benefit of fruit growers. A few years ago I was greatly annoyed with rabbits barking my young apple trees. To prevent their depredations I made ropes out of hay, commonly known as "thumb ropes." These I wound around the trunk of the trees, from the roots to the first limbs, in the fall. I left them on all the following summer, and when I took them off in the fall, I found the bark fresh and healthy and free from blotches. I repeated the operation for some years, leaving the ropes on during the summer, removing them in the fall and replacing them with new ones. I have healthy, vigorous trees, free from fungus and all disease, and yielding an abundance of fruit. I .recommend the process, not only to protect the trees from rabbits, etc, but to protect the bark from the cold winds of winter and the hot sun in summer.
 
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