GENERAL PRACTICK.~ENEMTES. 



290 



will do what is netted. Pit-falls dug in solid ground in places frequented, about 15 

 inches deep, 4 to 6 inches wide at the mouth, and sloping under the soil to a 

 considerably wider bottom, are very effectual, as the voles fall in and cannot get out. 

 In loose soil, glazed jars may be sunk to their rims, with water in them, and alluring 

 baits. The long-tailed field mouse (Mus sylvaticus) does little harm, but, having no 

 useful properties, should be caught by traps. 



Rats are very destructive, carrying fruit from stores, gnawing and spoiling great 

 quantities. The devastation they commit in a house of ripe grapes is appalling. They 



, . ' I ' '\ - 



\\\> <i- si,, 



Fig. 93. TREE BARKED BY RABBITS, AND GAP BRIDGED OVER WITH SCIONS. 



References: Y, apple tree stem torn by hares, and girdled by rabbits; Z, ^tucks and scions prepared for insertion ; 

 A t scions adjusted to stocks, bridging over gap ; B, injured part hay-banded. 



get into the drains and drainage of borders, make almost perpendicular burrows by 

 the walls, or pillars supporting the hot -water pipes, or gain entrance to fruit houses 

 by the covered channels of the hot-water pipes, in which they hide and are difficult 

 to dislodge. Rats also enter by the front or top ventilators when open, scamper over 

 the vines, eat some grapes, and carry away more to their burrows. The Norway or 

 brown rat (Mus decumanus), having almost extirpated the black rat (Mus rattus), is 

 the most rapacious. The brown rat was first noticed in England in 1730, and is much 



larger than the black rat, supposed to have come into Europe about 1200. Our water rat 



f\ 



