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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



his paste and his book : the most servile suggestions are 

 made with that view, and, as the book commences in 

 that way, so it ends, by suggesting to landed proprietors 

 that they should make all their tenants a present of a 

 copy of it. 



We have then another book oa the subject of rat- 

 catching, published in the year 1789, called " Directions 

 for taking alive or destroying rats and mice, either in 

 houses, ships, mills, farms, &c., by a method hitherto 

 unattempted ;" by John Middleton, late of Waltham- 

 stow. Printed for the author, and sold by him at Strat- 

 ford Green, Essex. 



This is the best of all the old treatises : there is no 

 gammon about it. Though now long out of print, there 

 is no modern treatise on rat-catching to be compared 

 with it. After a well-written introduction, the author 

 says, " One doe rat will breed about three times in a 

 summer, and seldom bring forth less than twelve young 

 ones at a litter, I have taken fifteen young ones from 

 a doe rat, and have found several does with the same 

 number." 



He does not approve of poisoning rats in dwelling- 

 houses, because, in addition to the danger incurred by 

 laying poisoned food about where there are children, 

 dogs, poultry, or other live tame creatures, there is the 

 unendurable stench, for several weeks, of dead putrid rats, 

 which lie under floors and between walls, to the disgust 

 and annoyance of every inmate of the house. He re- 

 commends the use of the hutch trap as by far the better 

 means of extirpating the premises of these vermin. It 

 should be set in the following manner : — 



" Set the back part of the trap close to the wall, so 

 that the rats cannot run behind it, and about 18 inches 

 from the hole or run, where they come in at ; then tie or 

 confine the falls of the trap so that it cannot go down ; 

 and leaving them about half up, or rather higher, so 

 that the rats may pass under the flap with ease ; then 

 take two small bundles of clean straw, tie them up tight, 

 and place one at each end of the trap ; this prevents 

 their having any notion that it is a trap ; let the bundles 

 of straw be about two feet long, and as big as a small 

 wheat sheaf, setting them aslant against the wall, and 

 before the mouth of the traps." 



Never set two traps in the same quarter ; by so doing 

 you prevent their coming to either. 



Never remove a trap after the rats have once taken to 

 it, for that makes them shy. 



Rats are more likely to enter freely when the traps 

 have contracted a smell from the dung. They will 

 seldom enter a new trap until they have been accustomed 

 to it a few days. Hence appears the impropriety of 

 washing the traps, as is frequently practised by some 

 people, in order to take off the scent, A trap should 

 never be washed. 



If it be intended to hunt the rats taken alive, they 

 must be put into a store cage ; but keep them out of the 

 hearing of those which are not caught. It is a rule 

 with ratcatchers to look to their traps very frequently ; 

 and when the rats are very numerous, the trapper sits 

 up all night to attend to his traps ; he is then within 

 bearing, and directly he hears a trap sprung, goes to it> 



and takes out the rats, or turns them into the store* 

 cage. 



The next day you may fearlessly put your hand into 

 the store-cage and take the rats out, one at a time, and 

 turn them to your dogs, as they will not make the least 

 attempt to bite when they have been kept in the cage all 

 night ; it greatly terrifies them, and particularly if they 

 see dogs or people about them, when they always endea- 

 vour to screen and hide themselves. 



There is no occasion to dress your hands with any 

 scent or drug : such is a fallacious notion, and of no use. 

 When you take the rats out of the cage, lift them by the 

 tail, and turn them among the dogs. 



The best time for taking rats is, the first two or three 

 quiet hours of the night, after the good people are gone 

 to bed. 



It is always difficult to poison rats in barns, corn 

 stacks, and granaries, because they live so well, that 

 they will seldom be tempted to eafc the poisoned bait. 

 By far the better plan is to trap them ; and where the 

 animals are numerous the hutch- traps are the best ; ten 

 and twenty times more may be taken in these than in the 

 iron traps, which catch only one at a time, whereas 

 some of the others take ten or a dozen at a time, 



For catching water-rats the steel traps are to be pre- 

 ferred ; these should be set in the earth near their holes, 

 being placed in cavities dug out so as to fit the trap 

 exactly, and bring it level with the surface, covering it 

 over lightly with dust or grass. 



The oils used by rat-catchers for the purpose of 

 mixing with the baits, and enticing the rats to the traps, 

 are oil of carraway and oil of rhodium, sometimes both 

 mixed together ; rats are very fond of the scent of these 

 oils. 



Besides the works referred to, which may be termed 

 "the black-letter books on rat-catching," there is a 

 modern work, which for abundance of matter, anecdote, 

 and narrative, exceeds any ever before published on the 

 subject. I allude to a book bearing the following title— 

 " The Rat, its history and destructive character, with 

 numerous anecdotes ; hy James 22o<7we?/ (Uncle James). 

 1858." The author states in his introduction that his 

 object in writing this work is for the purpose of rousing 

 among the people one universal warfare against these 

 enemies of mankind, " which, by their voracious habits, 

 contribute to the impoverishing of our farmers and the 

 privation of our fellow-creatures." 



Rats feed, frolic, and fatten in the dark ; they prefer 

 night to day, and are so wary of the approach of human 

 form, that if we enter a barn or granary where hundreds 

 dwell, none will be seen, unless disturbed or driven from 

 their hiding places. 



Though our kitchens and cellars are nightly invaded 

 by these pests, we rarely catch a glimpse of them, hence 

 it is that we seldom think of them ; but if they could, 

 by any means, be made to live in open sight, on the face 

 of the earth, every man, woman, and child would per- 

 secute them to death. 



This work contains many amusing and laughable 

 incidents connected with rats ; some of them, however, 

 are so improbable and romantic, that, although the 



