[Chap. 



a share of what is thrown out, there is still a 

 great deal left to be trampled into the dirt and 

 to be totally destroyed ; and, as to rats and mice, 

 if you keep a moiv standing until the spring of 

 the year, which you are frequently compelled to 

 do, and even into the middle of the summer; 

 if you do this, the rats and mice have a good 

 tenth part of your crop, in spite of rat-catchers 

 and mice-destroyers, and of all the traps and 

 cats that you can set or put into motion. Even 

 ricks are not ahvays a protection against these 

 vermin. The mice will get into ricks in spite of 

 you. The rats may be got out by ferrets if they 

 get in, but they frequently are not; and you 

 often see holes in the thatch out of which they 

 come to lick up the rain or the dew. Ingenuity 

 has been exhausted in attempts to discover the 

 means to rid farm buildings and yards of these 

 vermin, and exhausted too, without any thing 

 worthy of the name of success. 



135. The corn -crib is a complete ))rotection 

 against all these losses and inconveniences ; and, 

 which is another great advantage, you know 

 the amount of your crop the moment you have 

 husked your corn; for, a bushel of ears produces 

 exactly, or so nearly as to justify one in calling it 

 exactly, half- a-bushel of corn. That this is the case 

 I need only tell the reader, that, when corn is sold 

 in the ear in America, a bushel of ears is counted 

 for half-a-bushel of corn. 1 think that the pro- 



