No. 16. 



Rats. 



309 



old trees that were planted by his industrious 

 and thrifty predecessor, and which furnished 

 a pretty good supply of fruit, for some years, 

 by the ravages of insects, and the eftects of 

 old age, liave ceased to exist, and left no rep- 

 resentatives to supply their places. He 

 now begins to think he is too far advanced in 

 the vale of years to propagate trees, the fruit 

 of which he shall not, in all human probabili- 

 ty, live to partake of: so that, although I am 

 many years the junior of my neighbor, there 

 appears but a very dull prospect of my seeing 

 an orchard on the adjoining farm during my 

 life time. This, Mr. Cabinet, is only a sam- 

 ple of the effects of the operation of procras- 

 tination in my good neighbor's concerns — for 

 he has a hedge occupying the best strip of 

 land on his farm, that has been cut down, and 

 the ground ploughed up and made into a com- 

 post-bed in imagination twenty times within 

 that number of years, and yet it still stands, 

 casting its shade further and further each suc- 

 ceeding year. He has also a goodly quantity 

 of stones and rocks scattered through several 

 pf his inclosures, wliich he has often dreamed 

 were hauled off, and deposited nicely in the 

 bottom of at large gully, that intersects one of 

 his fields, and which might be filled up in 

 three years, so that it could be brouglit into 

 fine grass, but there it still remains in all its 

 original ugliness, gaping at every passer-by 

 and seeming almost to articulate 



Oh! the detestable vice of Procrastination. 



O. 

 P. S. I was near forgetting to remind you 

 of the saying, that, "as the old cock crows 

 the young ones learn," for there are several 

 young cocks on my neighbor's farm, who, I 

 think, crow a little louder than the old pro- 

 crastinating rooster. 



Tor the Farmers' Cabinet. 



Rats. 



"A pennyworth of prevention is worth a pound of cure. 



A writer in your last number is desirous of 

 being informed of a remedy for getting rid of 

 rats; and having some knowledge of those 

 animals and of their depredating propensities, 

 I will trouble you with a few lines on the 

 subject. 



In the first place when you find yourself 

 annoyed with any malady or special inconve- 

 nience, inquire particularly into the various 

 causes which have given rise to it ; and when 

 that discovery has been made, go at once to 

 work on the back iracA:,and remove the cause 

 as quickly as possible, and in ninety-nine 

 cases out of a hundred the complaint will van- 

 ish when the cause has been removed from 

 which it originated. 



In the second place, I take it for granted 

 that every farmer who is considerably an^ 

 noyed by rats, has provided for them some 



commodious and comfortable harbor, where- 

 in they can breed and rear their young with 

 perfect safety and comfort ; for a rat is a very 

 sensible and knowing animal, and never fixes 

 his quarters intentionally and aforethought in 

 a situation for a permanent residence where 

 his peace, safety or repose, is likely to be in- 

 vaded by his enemies. Of course, when he 

 is in search of quarters, he always gives a 

 preference to the barn, stables, barracks, 

 stacks, or corn cribs of the most careless and 

 dirty farmer he can find, because by such 

 he is least likely to be disturbed. 



A stack or barrack so fixed that a cat or 

 dog can't get under it, furnishes especial good 

 accommotlations ; and so does a hog pen with 

 the floor fixed just so far from the ground as 

 to make the ingress and egress convenient, 

 and not to admit larger intruders which might 

 endanger his safety. Various other suitable 

 and convenient places for breeding and safely 

 harboring rats might be pointed out, but I 

 presume it will not be necessary, as every 

 farmer of ordinary comprehension will be 

 able to point out sucli conve liences as may 

 be best adapted to the purpose. 



It has been truly said that if you have a 

 pigeon-house you will have pigeons, so if you 

 have suitable conveniences and accommo- 

 dations for rats, you will have rats without 

 doubt, for they are always on the look out 

 for undisturbed quarters, and the best plan 

 that I know of to avoid troublesome tenants, 

 is to remove and destroy all accommodation 

 for them. Let them see that if they remain 

 witli you they must continue in a state of per- 

 petual discomfort, and my word for it, they 

 will soon begin to tliink seriously of emigra- 

 ting to some place of repose. 1 know a far- 

 mer in Montgomery county, who has a large 

 fai-m and three barns on it, and where it 

 would be as strange a sight to see a rat, as it 

 would be to see a snake or a toad in Ireland. 

 The only remedy against their invasions is 

 constant and unremitted care and cleanliness. 

 Let no harbor for them remain about your pre- 

 mises in any shape whatever; keep your 

 stacks and barracks so far from the ground 

 that dogs and cats can pass under them ; keep 

 a terrier dog of high blood and good descent, 

 and teach your cats to stay at the barn in- 

 stead of living m the kitchen. If you 

 should unfortunately have a stock of rats on 

 hand at this present time, begin their perse- 

 cution at once with ferrets and terriers, and 

 don't give out while one remains to propa- 

 gate from, and then resolve to keep your pre- 

 mises in such order that a rat would be afraid 

 to show his face about them, for 



What profiteth it the husbandman, to gather the grain 

 into the gamer, if it be eateu by rats. 



Whitpajn. 



April 26, :833. 



