1900-1901.] The Mole. 155 
early spring that there is any intercommunication. How 
long they live has not been ascertained. Their numbers are, 
however, great. In a “dirty” piece of ground as many as 
112 have been caught in a day. 
A rather curious coincidence might be remarked here. The 
worm, as you know, is very useful for disintegrating the soil. 
The mole, its natural enemy, carries on the same work, and 
so the balance of nature is maintained. 
The enemies of the mole, I have said, are the weasel, the 
hooded crow, and the jay. In its endeavours to reach its prey 
_ the weasel enters the runs, and to avoid it the mole burrows 
fresh ones, throwing the earth behind itself and sometimes 
digging perpendicularly downwards. 
Some of you will perhaps wonder why the farmer should 
have such an antipathy to moles, seeing that they are not 
vegetable eaters, but feed exclusively on worms, insects, grubs, 
and the like. In a field with young turnips great injury is 
caused to the crop by drought, the runs of the mole along the 
- drills over the field acting as so many tunnels, depriving the 
plant of moisture. In the case of young grass, injury is 
_ caused by the mole-hills covering the field, and rotting out the 
grass. In pasture each mole-hill simply deprives the sheep of 
so much grazing, and the mole is of course partial to the 
richest bits of the land where its food is most plentiful. 
_ When, therefore, there are numbers of moles on a farm, it is a 
_ very material loss, On the moors, too, it is troublesome on 
- account of filling up the surface-drains made to carry away 
the water. In its progress it of course takes the easiest way, 
and when ét accidentally feels the soil easier on the side of 
| the water-channel it takes its course parallel with that, turning 
the soil into it. On the other hand, it carries on a good work 
| in keeping down insects which might grow too plentiful and 
be very injurious to crops, &c. Whether we would benefit by 
its extermination is an open question. In Scotland, however, 
it is destroyed on almost every occasion. 
The diseases of a mole is a difficult matter to say anything 
on. Being treated as vermin, there is not much consideration 
given to this, but it is known that by their promiscuity they 
contract a venereal disease which dispenses with the services 
_ of a mole-catcher; and of course they are subject to parasitic 
