Ground Vermin Baits and Drags. 283 



there will be most likely to prove efficient. In order to 

 till the traps in a satisfactory manner under the gate, it 

 should be opened and fixed back ; the person setting 

 the gin should be, for preference, on that side of the 

 gate opposite to the one towards which it opens. The 

 actual setting of the gin is in no way different from 

 the manner already described, but when it is set, a flat 

 stone or two may be placed on the side opposite to 

 the spring, which must be put parallel with the line of 

 the gateway, and a few bits of briar bush and grass be 

 placed on the opposite side to the stones, so as to form 

 an artificial run under the gate when it will be again 

 closed ; by way of this run the vermin will perceive it 

 is apparently most easy to pass. The gins set between 

 the gate and the hanging post, and between this and 

 the wall, should be placed one with the spring inside 

 the field, and the other with its spring outside the gate, 

 so that you offer on each side one fair trap. 



These gins, as will be seen, do not require any bait, but 

 the employment of one of the " drags " already described, 

 and in the manner named, will be found advantageous, 

 and likely to lure vermin towards the gateway, where the 

 tracks come to a centre at the gap where the traps happen 

 to be set. There are often in close proximity to gates and 

 openings in hedges or banks some large stone, or perhaps a 

 heap of small ones, deposited there to be out of the way. 

 Such are likely places where vermin would come and rub 

 themselves, which they do in much the same fashion as a cat. 

 Here, again, we have an obviously favourable chance for 

 effecting a capture, and one or two gins may be artistically 



