54 THE PESTS OF THE FARM. 



This is to be added to the compost, in the proportion of about 

 10 drops to the ounce. If kept in a well-stopped bottle, and a bit 

 of bladder tied over the stopper, it will retain its strength for a 

 length of time. The compound of phosphorus and lard was 

 known to professional rat-catchers before Dr. Ure communicated 

 the above formula to the Agricultural Society. A few applications 

 will effect the clearance of the entire premises, and the object then 

 to be desired is to prevent their return. In the " Farmer's Maga- 

 zine," vol. viii., p. 452, the following receipt is given for this impor- 

 tant purpose : " Take one pound of nitre, and one pound of alum ; 

 dissolve them together in two quarts of spring water ; get about a 

 bushel of bran, and make a mash thereof, putting in two pints *>f 

 the above liquid, and mixing all together. When you build your 

 stacks, every second course, take a handful or two of the mash, 

 and throw upon them till they come to the easing. I have never 

 seen this tried, but an agricultural friend states he has tried it, and 

 found it so successful that he never has a stack put up in any other 

 manner. 



Rats may be destroyed in great numbers in a barn, in the fol- 

 lowing manner : Before all the grain is removed, get some com- 

 mon iron chafing-dishes, which fill with lighted charcoal, upon this 

 strew a quantity of broken stick brimstone, quit the barn as rapidly 

 as possible, holding your breath the while, close fast the door, and 

 leave the building shut for the next two days. On re-entering the 

 barn, you will then find quantities of rats lying dead round the 

 chafing-dishes. Some may have been stifled in their holes, and 

 their bodies might, if no precautions were taken to prevent it, 

 create for some time an unpleasant smell ; to prevent this, you 

 have only to stop up all the holes with mortar. Perform this 

 operation again the following harvest, just previous to storing, and 

 you will no longer have any reason to complain of annoyance from 

 the rats. As to the grain in stacks, it will be impossible for rats to 

 injure them, if they be built upon proper staddles or platforms of 

 stone or iron the former should be built with an overhanging 

 ledge, which will prevent vermin from ascending this is unneces- 

 sary in the case of the latter, the iron legs presenting a sufficient 

 obstacle to their ascent. 



The water-rat, or more properly, water-wZe, is somewhat larger 

 than the common rat, has a short tail, and small round ears. Tnis 

 animal rarely exists in numbers sufficient to do any very great 

 amount of mischief; a ferret and a brace of terriers will, at all 



