No. 5. 



Rats. — Cheap Food for Winter. 



163 



the habit of putting a hand to the plough 

 than pen to paper, am free to offer it as a 

 small contribution to the pages of the Cabi- 

 net. "Very respectfully, A Farmer. 



Salem County, Uthmo, Nov. 30th, 1840. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet, 

 Rats. 



SUFFER NOT YOUR SnBST.tNCE TO BE DEVOURED BY RATS. 



An eminent English agricultural writer es- 

 timates that each and every rat in that coun- 

 try, eats and destroys on an average one pint 

 of grain, or its equivalent in other food, per 

 week, and there is no good reason for suppos- 

 ing that our Republican rats on this side of 

 the Atlantic, are less voracious than their 

 European brethren and sisters. Now, as this 

 description of vermin are pretty liberally en- 

 tertained by farmers generally throughout 

 Pennsylvania, it appeared desirable that an 

 estimate should be made, of the aggregate 

 amount of the cost of their keep in this com- 

 monwealth ; and, in order to do this, we must 

 first take the census to determine their num- 

 ber, and Congress having neglected to insert 

 this very important item in the law furnish- 

 ing instructions to the marshals who perform 

 that duty, we must arrive at a probable result 

 by approximation. The census for 1840 not 

 having been completed yet, we must go by 

 that of 1830, when it was estimated that 

 Pennsylvania contained 150,000 farmers. 

 Now how many rats has each farmer, on an 

 average, to support out of the proceeds of his 

 industry, throwing the mice into the bar- 

 gain 1 Would ten be too high an average ? 

 I think not ; for although some very nice, 

 careful farmers have but a small stock, others 

 make up for their deficiency by their hun- 

 dreds. Well, we will say ten to each, on an 

 average, and if any think the number too 

 great or too small, they may calculate for 

 themselves. Ten rats, at a pint each per 

 week, is upwards of eight bushels a year for 

 each farmer in the State, or one million two 

 hundred thousand bushels for the whole num- 

 ber ! ! This sounds large, but I think it 

 within the mark. 



Put this at fifty cents a bushel, which is 

 certainly too low, and the amount of loss sus- 

 tained in each year is -^600,000, being legal 

 interest on ten millions of capital. A pretty 

 considerable sum this, and it is neither more 

 nor less in consequence of its being sustained 

 by a large number of persons. We have 

 laws giving premiums for wolf scalps, fox 

 scalps, wild-cat scalps, &c. &c., and this de- 

 scription of legislation seems to be very po- 

 pular in Pennsylvania, for there is scarcely a 

 session of the legislature without some en- 

 actment in regard to these vermin, yet the 



rats have so far escaped the attention of poli- 

 ticians. 



I have been thinking what it would cost 

 to extirpate the whole race of rats in this 

 State, and am inclined to the opinion that 

 one-tenth part of one year's depredation 

 would destroy the whole race amongst us ; 

 and if the legislature don't engage in its ac- 

 complishment, the farmers must go to work 

 in good earnest, each for himself, and the ene- 

 my will soon be conquered by united exertion. 



Now for the way ; every farmer should 

 have a terrier or rat-catching dog, and a pair 

 of ferrets, and the business will soon be ac- 

 complished. The ferrets pass into the lodg- 

 ings of the rats and either catch them or 

 drive them out, when the dogs pick them up 

 in a twinkling. Several farmers have adopted 

 this plan with complete success, and if others 

 would wish to try it, the editor of the Farm- 

 ers' Cabinet can inform such where ferrets 

 can be procured at five dollars a pair. A. 



Cheap Food for Winter. 



A CORRESPONDENT of the Poughkeepsie 

 Telegraph states, that his crop of sugar-beets 

 and mangel-wurzel, which he was then har- 

 vesting, will be one thousand or twelve hun- 

 dred bushels, from less than half an acre of 

 land; his six largest sugar-beets weighing 

 sixty-seven pounds; the cost of raising not 

 exceeding six cents per bushel. 



Although we have numerous instances of 

 the large yield of these roots and their great 

 value for stock, showing that the cultivation 

 must be very profitable, yet many farmers are 

 still slow in adopting this great improvement 

 in their business, under the impression that 

 " green crops pay no rent :" as the country 

 becomes more thickly settled, however, farm- 

 ers will be more limited in their extent of 

 lands for mowing and grazing, and in order 

 to keep as much or more stock on less land, 

 they will then be compelled to raise roots; 

 and with proper attention to this business, two 

 or three times as much stock can be support- 

 ed, and in better condition too, from the same 

 land, as there can be by feeding on hay and 

 grain ; for the crops of sugar-beets have been 

 known to yield forty tons and upwards per 

 acre, equal, as winter food, to ten or twelve 

 tons of hay. 



The fall of the year is the best time for 

 preparing the land for this crop, and if a coat 

 of long manure can be ploughed in, so to re- 

 main for the winter, and after the spring till- 

 age, another sprinkling of dung that has been 

 fermented, be ploughed in very lightly (re- 

 serving one-half the manure for this purpose) 

 the effect will be found to be surprisingly 

 great: the largest crop of the present season 

 has been raised in this way. — Yankee Far. 



