THE MOLE. 35 



familiar and even affectionate, as is the case with 

 most animals, when treated kindly. It is to be 

 hoped that these facts may assist in rescuing it 

 from the persecution to which it has so long been 

 subjected. 



The Mole, also, is another of those useful ani- 

 mals which the ignorance and prejudice of man 

 has doomed to destruction, and against which he 

 wages continual warfare. Such is the impression 

 of the injury done by them, that in some parts of 

 Somersetshire the farmers are in the habit of 

 carrying a gun, when they walk in their fields, in 

 case they should see the earth in the act of being 

 turned up by the moles ; when this is the case, the 

 farmer fires at the spot, and thus many moles are 

 killed in the course of the year. 



So far from the mole being an injurious, it is a 

 most useful animal to the farmer. The little hil- 

 locks it casts up are generally composed of a rich 

 and fine mould, extremely beneficial to the land 

 when spread, and this should be done daily, or as 

 often as the mole-casts are observed. A little boy 

 may thus be profitably employed at a trifling 

 expence. Young wheats, for instance, this sort 

 of top-dressing invigorates, and besides, the runs 

 of the mole beneath the surface are either so 

 many channels to convey water to the roots, or 

 they serve as drains to prevent too great an accu- 

 mulation of it in one spot. There can be no doubt 



