2o6 Lloyd's natural history. 



at the same period. It was fine warm autumn weather, 

 apparently favourable to them to the last moment. 



" In order to give some idea of the hordes of Voles which 

 sometimes appear in certain districts, it may be mentioned that 

 in 1822, in the district of Zabern, 1,570,000 Voles were caught 

 in fourteen days; in the district of Nidda, 590,427; and in 

 that of Putzbach, 271,941. 



"In the autumn of 1856, says Lenz, there were so many 

 Voles in one district of four leagues in circumference between 

 Erfurt and Gotha, that about 1 2,000 acres of land had to be re- 

 ploughed. The sowing of each acre at current wages 6s., and 

 the ploughing-up was estimated at is. 6d. ; so that the loss 

 amounted to from ;£2,ooo to ^£"4,500, and probably much more. 

 On a single large estate near Breslau 200,000 were caught in 

 seven weeks, and deUvered to the Breslau manure factory, 

 which then paid a pfenning (half-a-farthing) per dozen for them. 

 Some of the Vole-catchers were able to supply the factory 

 with 1,400 or 1,500 per day. In the summer of 1861, 409,523 

 Voles and 4,707 Hamsters were caught and counted in the 

 district of Alsheim in Rhenish Hesse. The local authorities 

 paid 2,523 gulen (about ;£i64) for them ! 



" In the years 1872 and 1873 it was just the same, and local 

 complaints arose in all parts of the country about the Vole- 

 plague. It might be compared to one of the plagues of Egypt. 

 Even in the day, on the sandy plains of the Mark of Branden- 

 burg, thousands of Voles were counted in particular fields, and 

 in the rich corn-lands of Lower Saxony, Thuringia, and Hesse, 

 they abounded to a fearful extent. Half the harvest was 

 destroyed, hundreds of thousands of acres were left untilled, 

 and thousands of pounds were spent on their destruction. 

 Agricultural Societies and Governments were implored to seek 

 ways and means of staying the plague." 



In Britain " Vole-plagues," as they are called, have occurred 



