300 THE FRUIT GROWER'S GUIDE. 



(Arvicola amphibia) is not injurious to the fruit grower, though near streams it may do 

 harm to the roots of trees. 



Eats are prevented climbing vines and fruit trees by tying stout paper around tho 

 stem well clear of the ground and branches, securing it near the top with string, and 

 then turning it over so as to form a bell-like projection about 6 inches wide. Bunches 

 of spiny furze have also been found effectual. Box or other traps, carefully set in their 

 runs and covered over with light material, reduce the number, and if one so caught 

 be smeared with gas tar and let loose the whole colony usually migrate. 



Mice and rats are easily poisoned. Take 2 J quarts of Scotch oatmeal, scald with 

 boiling water, drain. Form 2 ounces of white sugar into a syrup with water, add 

 \ ounce powdered strychnine, stir thoroughly until a thin paste is formed. Add this to 

 the damp oatmeal, and stir well for a quarter of an hour, then add half a pint of 

 powdered sugar, and five drops each of oil of rhodium and oil of anise, stirring well. 

 Bait with the preparation, without the strychnine paste, two or three nights, and the 

 rodents having been well satisfied with it, will take the complete preparation. Take care 

 to exclude domestic animals and fowls, also to clear away the remains early the following 

 morning. The preparation must be used with every possible caution. It is a virulent 

 poison. 



Mole. The common mole (Talpa Europoea) is familiar in England and Scotland, but 

 comparatively rare in Ireland. Moles show great ingenuity and skill in the excavation 

 of the upper and lower galleries of their habitations, and in the construction of the 

 series of tunnels leading from the central point to the foraging ground. The food 

 consists of worms, insects, and larva). They are exceedingly voracious, and though 

 they do good in destroying larval pests, they also do much harm by cutting the roots 

 of plants in cultivated ground, and their earth-heaps interfere with grass-cutting in 

 orchards. It is therefore necessary to extirpate them, but they may be driven from 

 gardens and orchards by placing green leaves or parts of dwarf elder (Sambucus ebulus) 

 in their runs. The smell of common elder is very offensive to the mole, and fresh leaves 

 placed in their/ main subterranean paths, particularly where they enter the garden or 

 orchard, which is also the best place to set traps, will soon cause them to disappear. 

 Any intelligent labourer will catch them at a bonus of 2d. or 3d. per head. 



Squirrels. The common squirrel (Sciurus Europoeus or vulgaris) is exceedingly fond 

 of gage plums and nectarines, not that it dislikes other fruits, but those named are more 

 to its taste and easily carried off. The quantity of plums a nest of these pilferers will 



