236 PESTS AND NUISANCES 



Camphor for rats and mice. 



Mix a few pieces of camphor with vegetable seeds, to repel vermin. 



French paste for rats and mice. 



Oatmeal or wheat flour, 3 pounds ; powdered indigo, \ ounce ; finely 

 powdered white arsenic, 4 ounces ; oil of anise-seed, i dram. Mix, and 

 add of melted beef suet or mutton tallow 2 1 pounds, and work the 

 whole up into a paste. 



Commercial forms of phosphorus are popular as exterminators of 

 vermin. 



To protect seed-corn from burrowing animals (chiefly field mice}. 



Drop poisoned bait into small holes made into runways, then cover 

 the holes. Corn or wheat treated as for ground-squirrels is effective. 

 Or the grain may be moistened with water containing a little gum 

 arabic, and then dusted with ordinary white arsenic. The grain may 

 be allowed to dry before using. To prepare a bait that will work in a 

 planter, it is recommended to dissolve one-eighth of an ounce of strych- 

 nia sulfate in two quarts of hot water, preferably rain water. Soak 

 the corn in this for forty-eight hours, and then spread it out and dry 

 thoroughly. A teaspoonful of coal-tar to a peck of dampened grain 

 seems to be effectual protection. 



Rabbits 



Wash for keeping rabbits, sheep, and mice away from trees. 



Some writers recommend fresh lime, slaked with soft water (old 

 soap-suds are best) ; make the wash the thickness of fence or house 

 wash. When 1 peck of lime is used, add, when hot, 2 gallon crude 

 carbolic acid, I gallon gas-tar, and 4 pounds of sulfur. Stir well. For 

 summer wash leave gas-tar out, and add in place of it 1 gallon of soft 

 soap. To keep rabbits and sheep from girdling, wash late in fall, or 

 about the time of frost, as high as one can reach. 



Blood for rabbits. 



Blood smeared upon trees, as high up as rabbits can reach, will 

 generally keep them away. 



