56 



THE PESTS OF THE FAKM. 



prietor tried the effect of putting a pet fox to mount guard ;n the 

 lofts, and it was found that he killed such quantities of the rats, 

 that three or four were procured to garrison the place instead of 

 one. 



MICK. Of this tribe there are several varieties, which some re- 



THE JUMPING FIELD MOUSE. 



gard as distinct species, while others assert the contrary. I have 

 neither space nor inclination to enter into controversy, and shall 

 confine myself to facts. The common house-mouse, with which all 

 are familiar, is the enemy most to be dreaded in-doors, in the barn, 

 and in the corn-stack. Wherever there are rats, mice will be few 

 in number, the former preying upon the latter. In the field the 

 farmer has both the house-mouse, and two descriptions of field- 

 mice, or voles (arvicola) to contend with, a long and a short-tailed. 

 These are the principal, and include several sub-varieties. All holes 

 in a dwelling-house should be stopped with lime and pounded 

 glass. The fumigating system will exterminate them from the 

 barn, and if the stacks be built as I have directed, the corn there 

 is safe from their attacks. It is in the field that the battle has to 

 be fought it is there that mice are really formidable, and require 

 ingenuity to baffle and destroy them. Prison sown in the drills 

 will, of course, destroy mice, but poultry and birds will possibly 

 suffer with them. Our great object, therefore, must be to discover 

 some substance fatal to them, and innoxious to larger animal* 



