MICE. 



MICE, TRAPS FOR. 



succeed best in a dry, loamy soil, and 

 are easily propagated by cuttings or slips 

 with a heel to them. Plenty of lime or 

 mortar rubbish, road grits, and well-rotted 

 manure should be mixed with the soil in 



FIG. I. 1MCKLE JAR AS 1RAI' FOR MOUSE. 



which they are grown. The varieties are 

 very numerous. The plant is also known 

 as the Fig Marigold. It has thick, fleshy 

 leaves, and, being a succulent plant, requires 

 but little water. 



Mice. 



Much harm is done by mice in gardens 

 to peas newly sown and just growing and 

 to bulbs, which they gnaw and eat and 

 thus destroy. They are especially harmful 

 to crocuses, and will do injury 

 to most seeds of a large kind, 

 such as the seeds of cucumbers, 

 melons, vegetable marrows, c. 

 It is supposed that they are 

 guided to the seeds by their 

 acute sense of smell, and it is 

 said that rows of peas covered 

 with a coating of ashes are never 

 touched by them, in which case 

 the ashes will have acted as a deodoriser 

 and destroyed the scent which would* 

 otherwise have led the mice to the peas. 



Mice, Traps for. 



Some gardeners have used the common 



mouse trap with good effect, oiling the 

 wires to preserve them from rusting, or 

 smearing them with grease. Perhaps the 

 simplest and cheapest .trap of any is a 

 pickle jar sunk to the brim, or very nearly 

 so, in the earth, as shown in Fig. i. The 

 rim and the inside of the jar as far as the 

 shoulder should be liberally smeared with 

 grease, and the jar half filled with water. 

 A little corn, lumps of grease, &c., may 

 be placed on the earth in the immediate 

 vicinity of the jar. The mice, being 

 attracted to the trap by the grease, soon 

 manage to slip over the rim into the water 

 below, from which there is no escape. 

 Another cheap and effective trap may be 

 made of a brick, but as this only disposes 

 of one mouse at a time, and must be re-set 

 before another can be caught, it is not as 

 useful as the jar that has just been de- 

 scribed. A piece of slate of the same width 

 as the brick should be obtained and placed 

 on the ground, and the brick then set on 

 edge over the slate, as shown in Fig. 2. 

 The support for the brick is made of a 

 piece of thread about 10 inches long, with 

 a knot at each end, inserted in slits made in 

 the ends of two short sticks, which are 

 stuck into the ground, one on each side of 

 the brick and slate. On the thread tw ( o 



HG. 2. BRICK AS TRAP l-Oli MICK 



growing peas are strung, or two kernels of 

 nuts, and the thread itself should be well 

 greased. The mouse, standing on the 

 slate, is tempted to gnaw the peas or nuts 

 and the thread between them, the peas, 

 &c., being placed about i inch apart ; 



