142 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS. 



Your Committee have reluctantly been led to the con- 

 clusion that they are unable to recommend any specific method 

 of dealing with or putting an end to the present outbreak. 



It appears to be an instance of the power which small 

 animals are well known to possess, of prodigiously rapid 

 multiplication under favourable climatic conditions and with 

 a plentiful supply of natural food. 



Experience shows that a combination of such favourable 

 conditions will always tend to bring about a recurrence of 

 the plague. That being so, it ought to be the endeavour of 

 every farmer and shepherd to be on the alert, and report 

 without delay to the land-agent, and to the secretary of the 

 local farmers' club, or agricultural society, the first signs of 

 the multiplication of vermin, so that palliative measures may 

 at once be adopted, not on isolated farms, but everywhere 

 throughout the district. 



The most effective measures appear to be periodical and 

 timely burning of grass and heather, followed by active 

 pursuit of the vermin by men using wooden spades and dogs. 

 If this were promptly done in the earlier stages of the out- 

 break, it is quite possible that it might be averted altogether, 

 or greatly mitigated in severity. 



It is hardly necessary to point out that the proprietor of 

 the land should be informed as soon as any one else, because 

 his keepers and others might be usefully employed in assist- 

 ing to prevent what amounts, if unchecked, to a common 

 calamity upon all classes connected with land. 



Where plantations of limited extent are attacked, pitfalls 

 wider at the bottom than at the top, and about 1 8 inches 

 deep, should be dug. The voles fall into them and cannot 

 escape, and the ground is soon cleared of them in this way. 



Your Committee cannot speak with approval of the use 

 of poisoned grain, except where the area affected is very 

 limited. 



Nor have they been able to come to any conclusion 

 favourable to the adoption of Professor LoefHer's method of 

 destroying voles by means of bread saturated in a preparation 



