4! 8 Cultivation of Graft Land Mok-lullsDcflroying Moles Methods of 



that it can only be effectual- in cafes where they have not attained any great 

 height. 



Mole-Hills. In the more rich and fertile foils, hills of this fort are frequently 

 thrown up in great. numbers, from their abounding more with the food of the 

 fubterraneous animals that produce them. Meadows are often extenfively and 

 ferioufly injured in this way. On account of their depth of foft humid foil, moles 

 ufually refide, deftroy, and render ufelefs the grafs, not only of the very fpots 

 where the hills are raifed, but likewife to fome extent immediately round them, as 

 well as by impeding the free courfe of the fey the : for thefe reafons the extermina 

 tion of moles becomes an object of great confequence to grafs-huibandry. 



In the early fpring. months, when fuch hills are in a tolerably dry and powdery 

 ftate, no time fliould be loft in fpreading them out, and difperfing them in as 

 even and regular a manner as pofiible over the furfaceof the fward that adjoins 

 them ; as, when they remain long without being fcaled, they do confiderable in 

 jury to thegrafs plants underneath them, by blanching and rendering them tender. 

 This bufmefs may be very conveniently performed by a common iron-toothed 

 garden rake. 



But it is invariably the bed method never to fuffer the animals to remain in the 

 land, but to procure an expert mole catcher to deftroy them, and thus wholly pre 

 vent the hills from being thrown up. 



The mole is a fubterraneous inhabitant, whofe health will not bear the freeaccefs 

 of the air for any great length of time, fcldom coming upon the furface except for 

 the purpofe of changing its habitation: its food is worms, fubterraneous infects, or 

 , the roots of plants, and it is fuppofed never to drink : it is, as has been juft noticed, 

 mod prevalent in fertile foft foils, avoiding clayey or gravelly grounds ; and on the 

 introduction of water into its receffes, it immediately makes its efcape to the furface ; 

 yet it has been obferved to fwim acrofs water.* During wet feafons it betakes it- 

 felf to the upper and Ief& humid lands, returning in the fpring to the foft mould 

 of the meadows, where it can eafily perforate and find plenty of food. The breed 

 ing feafon of this animal are the months of February, March, April, and May, 

 producing generally four or five at a birth. The conftant employment of the 

 mole is to make fubterraneous tunnels, which are ufually parallel to the furface, at 

 the depth of from four to fix inches ; but when intimidated, it will penetrate a foot 

 deep for fecurity. In the formation of thefe paffages the mole-hills are raifed ; a* 



* Darwin s Fbytologia. 



