392 THE PESTS OF GARDEN PLANTS 



the creature is endowed. But if again and quickly assailed in a 

 similar manner, death is certain to follow. Therefore if one salting 

 or liming does not answer, a second is likely to prove completely 

 effectual. 



RATS AND MICE are irrepressible garden vermin, and we must 

 consider ourselves fortunate if we can keep them somewhat in check. 

 Traps are good while they are new, and almost any reasonably good 

 contrivance will answer for a time, but will fail at last, or at least for a 

 season. To keep down Rats and Mice effectually, there must be 

 invented a succession of new modes of action, for these creatures 

 Rats especially are so clever that they soon see through our devices, 

 which then fail of effect. Generally speaking, two rules may be 

 prescribed. In the first place, we think it imprudent to fill up their 

 holes or stop their runs ; let them have their way. If you stop 

 them, they will make new thoroughfares, to the further injury of 

 the foundation ; and, besides, when you know of their runs you 

 know where to put traps and poison for them. As for the best poison, 

 there is nothing so effectual as arsenic ; but it should be employed 

 with great care, and the safety of the bulk should be considered be- 

 fore it is brought on the premises. A fat bloater split down and well 

 rubbed with common white arsenic will kill a score of Rats, provided 

 only that they will eat it. Cut it into four parts, and place these in or 

 near their runs, and cover them with tiles or boards to prevent dogs 

 and cats obtaining them. If this fails, try bread and butter dressed 

 with oil of rhodium and phosphorus. The oil of rhodium seems to 

 possess an irresistible attraction for these vermin. When dry food 

 is preferred, there is nothing so good as oatmeal, and it is a golden 

 rule to feed the Rats for a few days with pure oatmeal, and then to 

 mix about a fourth part of arsenic with it. A correspondent of 

 Chambers'* Journal (Part 235, page 473) disposed of a colony of Rats 

 by catching two in a wire trap and well smearing them with tar. 

 They were then restored to their runs. Every Rat migrated to other 

 quarters, and not one of them returned. A good fox- terrier will keep 

 a large garden free from Rats and Mice. 



TURNIP FLY is well known to the gardener, and is the most im- 

 portant of all the aerial pests of the farm, and one with which it is 

 most difficult to cope, not only because of its general diffusion and 

 numbers, but because it produces a succession of broods throughout 

 the summer, and is therefore always in force, and ready to devour 



