THE PEOPLE'S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. 



171 



I*, and on the lower end of which the bait is placed. One side, of the trap is 

 represented as set, the other as sprung. 



SETTING AND BAITING THE TRAP. 



In setting this trap, when the rats are abundant, we have always baited 

 the trap for several nights before setting it in earnest ; we fasten the bait to 

 the hook, and then fix the trap so it cannot be sprung, then strew Indian 

 meal or other feed around the bottom of the 

 trap. In a few nights the rats will make 

 this quite a feeding ground. We have 

 caught, says a writer in Moords Rural 

 New- Yorker ) twenty-seven rats in a single 

 night ; sixteen at the first setting and 

 eleven at the next. Then perhaps it would 

 be a week before we would catch another in 

 that trap ; meanwhile we would start 

 another. 



FIG. 1 COMMON Box TRAP. 



THE BOX OR BARREL TRAP. 



One simple arrangement has caught scores for us. In any building or 

 cellar where the rats abound put a water-tight box or barrel ; if a box, it 

 should not be less than two and a half feet deep ; about one-third down from 

 the top hang a lid or trap-door, hanging it from the side of the box or barrel. 

 (See fig. 2.) Cover this lid with a piece of tin or sheet iron in such a way 



that there is no roughness to make a foothold for 

 rats. To hold up this lid, make a common wire 

 spring, thus X, X, passing through the side of the 

 box or barrel, to the ring of which attach a cord ; 

 carry this cord to the outside of the building or 

 cellar, so that it can be pulled without being 

 obliged to enter the room where the trap is. The 

 lid should hang so as to drop, not lift or raise. 

 Sprinkle some corn meal or other feed on the lid, 

 having previously put about six or eight inches of 

 water in the box. At any time during the day or 

 night, when you are passing, pull the spring and 

 FIG. 3-BARREL TRAP. d ro p the lid ; a minute's time will reset the trap, 



and, although you may often catch nothing, you will sometimes catch half a 

 dozen at a time. We have known over a dozen caught during a single 

 evening, and in the course of a month a house almost depopulated of rats. 



WEASELS, MINKS AND SKUNKS. 



In the country we also have weasels, minks and skunks to fight against. 

 If the place abounds with mice the weasel will rarely touch the chickens, the 

 former being his favorite food. But when the weasel once gets a taste of 



