USEFULNESS OF CATS. 89 



usefulness of the cat. He says, writing of the Midland 

 Railway : "A few miles further off, however — at Trent— is a 

 still more remarkable portion of the company's staff, eight 

 cats, who are borne on the strength of the establishment, 

 and for whom a sufficient allowance of milk and cats' meat 

 is provided. And when we say that the cats have under 

 their charge, according to the season of the year, from one 

 to three or four hundred thousand empty corn sacks, it will 

 be admitted that the company cannot have many servants 

 who better earn their wages. 



"The holes in the sacks, which are eaten by the rats 

 which are not killed by the cats, are darned by twelve 

 women, who are employed by the company." 



Few people know, or wish to know, what a boon to 

 mankind is " The Domestic Cat." Liked or disliked, there 

 is the cat, in some cases unthought of or uncared for, 

 but simply kept on account of the devastation that would 

 otherwise take place were rats and mice allowed to have 

 undivided possession. An uncle of mine had some hams 

 sent from Yorkshire; during the transit by rail* the v/hole 

 of the interior of one of the largest was consumed by rats. 

 More cats at the stations would possibly have prevented 

 such irritating damage. 



And further, it is almost incredible, and likewise almost 

 unknown, the great benefit the cat is to the farmer. All 

 day they sleep in the barns, stables, or outhouses, among the 

 hay or straw. At eve they are seen about the rick-yard, 

 the corn-stack, the cow and bullock yards, the stables, the 

 gardens, and the newly sown or mown fields, in quest of 

 their natural prey, the rat and mouse. In the fields the 

 mice eat and carry off the newly-sown peas or corn, so in 

 the garden, or the ripened garnered corn in stacks ; but when 

 the cat is on guard much of this is prevented. Rats eat 

 corn and carry off more, kill whole broods of ducklings and 

 chickens in a night, undermine buildings, stop drains, and 

 unwittingly do much other injury to the well-being of the 

 farmers and others. What a ruinous thing it would be, 

 and what a dreadfully horrible thing it is to be overrun 



