1856.] Chlorine Gas, a Rat Exterminator. 221 



the weeds, and the potatoes were not disturbed until thej were duo-. Not 

 only has this method produced him a very superior potato, but it has 

 this year brought him an extraordinary yield — four bushels to the 

 square rod, or at the rate of six hundred and forty bmhek to the acre ! 



" He has tried this mode of culture for three years past, and has in 

 every instance found it to bring results superior to the common method. 

 This year he has planted at three different times, with the following 

 results : 



*' Early in April he planted Neshannocs in" both ways, and Pinkeyes 

 under the straw ; all were in the same kind of ground. The Xeshannocs 

 cultivated yielded two bushels and one peck to the square rod; those 

 covered with straw, three bushels and one peck, and the Pinkeyes cov- 

 ered, four bushels. 



" Pinkeyes planted on the 24th of May, covered with straw, yielded 

 two and a half bushels and four quarts to the square rod. They were 

 the smallest potatoes. 



" Pinkeyes, planted about the last of June, covered, brought two 

 bushels and one quart to the square rod. These, although the smallest 

 yield, were the largest potatoes, and of the best quality." 



CHLORINE GAS, A HAT EXTERMINATOR. 



In consequence of certain methods of building, extensively adopted 

 in this country, it frequently happens that whole colonies of rats intrude 

 into our dwellings, and make night hideous by the pell-mell onslaught 

 of their Punic wars. And so riotous and so ravenous do they become as 

 to, sometimes, constitute a most intolerable nuisance, and the most 

 rigorous measures have to be resorted to. in order to rid house and barn 

 of these offensive and destructive invaders. From an experiment given 

 in the Philadelphia " Farm Journal," chlorine gas is found to be a most 

 effectual remedy for ousting these vermin from our dwellings. This 

 instrumentality the editor of the Journal describes as having been put 

 into execution by a chemical friend in Boston, to expel an invading 

 army of rats, after all other means of expulsion had failed. The Jour! 

 nal says; 



"Eiising a small board in the garret floor, our friend opened a com- 

 munication between the floor and ceiling beneath, which interior com- 

 municated with the spaces between the side-walls and the laths and 

 plaster over the whole house. In this opening he placed a dish containing 



