18 



METHOD OF DESTROYING RATS — SMALL FARMS IN BELGIUM. 



years and of some extent as to numbers and kinds, I 

 am compelled to give the Prencli sheep a preference 

 to any other variety or breed with which I am 

 acquainted. J. D. Patterson. 



Westfield, Chautauqua co., N. Y. 



[For the GeDeflee Fanner.] 

 AN EFFECTUAL METHOD FOE DESTEOYING RATS. 



Mr. Editor : — In a late number of year excellent 

 Magazine, I noticed a communication from a farmer, 

 bewailing the state of his building, with regard to 

 those destructive animals, the rats. 



Many years ago, the old mansion in which my 

 fether lived, was so dreadfully infested with rats, that 

 the basement of the building was quite undermined ; 

 seventeen large rats were caught in one week in traps, 

 in the wine cellar alone ; many died from poisoned 

 bait, but still they increased. The servants believed 

 the honse was haunted, and certainly if the spirit 

 rappers had been in fashion in those days, we might 

 have been justified in giving credence to such out- 

 ward manifestations of the Powers of Darkness — for 

 truly, such midnight racing, and knocking, and rap- 

 ping, were enough to startle the least timid ; — but, 

 though poor, dear, old Mr. Martin Ewen got all the 

 credit for the nocturnal disturbance, it was rats, rats, 

 rats, and nothing but rats, that haunted the old hall. 

 The rat-catcher was fairly beaten out; he had lost 

 several of his best ferrets, and declared his belief that 

 the house was bewitched, and that some one had 

 charmed all the rats into the premises, — for neither 

 ferrets, nux vomica, nor any other rats-bane had the 

 least effect upon them. 



One day a stranger came to the house to buy some 

 barley, and hearing my father mention the difficulty 

 he had in freeing the house of these disagreerble ten- 

 ants, he said he could put him in the way of getting 

 rid of them with very little trouble. His directions 

 were simply these: mix a quantity of arsenic with 

 any sort of grease, and plaster it pretty thick around 

 all their holes. The rats, he said, if they did not eat 

 the poison, would soil their coats in passing through 

 the holes, and as, like all furred animals, they are 

 very cleanly, and cannot endure any dirt upon their 

 eoats, to remove the offensive matter they would lick 

 their fur, and thus destroy themselves. This plan was 

 immediately put in practice, and in a month's time 

 not a rat was to be seen about the house or barn. 



Finely pounded glass mixed with grease has also 

 acted efifectually as a poison, I have heard, but I can 

 vouch for the efficacy of the first named. C. P. T. 



SMALL FABMS IN BELGHTM. 



The small farms of from five to ten acres which 

 abound in many parts of. Belgium, closely resemble 

 the small holdings in Ireland ; but the small Irish 

 cultivator exists in a state of miserable privation of 

 the common comforts and conveniences of civilized 

 life, whilst the Belgian peasant farmer enjoys a large 

 portion of those comforts. 



The houses of the small cultivators in Belgium ar« 

 generally substantially built, and in good repair ; they 

 have commonly a sleeping room in the attic, and 

 closets for beds connected with the lower apartment, 

 which is convenient in size ; a small cellar for the 

 dairy, and a store for the grain, as well as an oven, 

 and an out-house for the potatoes, with a cattle stall, 

 piggery, and poultry loft. The house generally con- 

 tains decent furniture, the bedding is sufficient in 

 quantity, and although the scrupulous cleanliness of 

 the Dutch may not be everywhere observable, an air 

 of comfort and propriety pervades the whole estab- 

 lishment. The cattle are supplied with straw for 

 bedding ; the dung and urine are carefully collected 

 in the tank ; the ditches are scoured to collect mate- 

 rials for manure ; the dry leaves, potato tops, &c, 

 are collected in a moist ditch to undergo the process 

 of fermentation, and heaps of compost are in course 

 of preparation. The premises are generally kept in 

 neat and compact order, and a scrupulous attention 

 to a most rigid economy is everyivhere apparent 

 We observed that all the members of the family 

 were decently clad, none of them were ragged or 

 slovenly, even when their dress consists of the coars- 

 est material. The men universally wear the blouse^ 

 and wooden shoes are in common use by both sexes. 

 The diet consists, to a large extent, of rye bread and 

 milk. The dinner is usually composed of a mess of 

 potatoes and onions, with the occasional addition of 

 some pounded ham or slices of bacon. The quantity 

 of wheaten bread consumed did not appear to be 

 considerable. I need not point out the striking con- 

 trast of the mode of living here described, with the 

 state of the same class of persons in Ireland; and it is 

 important to investigate the causes of this diflerence. 

 In the greater part of the flat country of Belgium, 

 the soil is light and sandy, and easily worked ; but 

 its productive powers are certainly inferior to the 

 general soil of Ireland, and the climate does not ap- 

 pear to be superior. To the soil and the climate, 

 therefore, the Belgian does not owe his superiority in 

 comfort and position over the Irish cultivator. The 

 difference is rather to be found in the system of culti- 

 vation pursued by the small farmers of Belgium, and 

 in the habits of industry, economy, and forethought 

 of the people. The cultivation of the small Belgian 

 farms differs from the Irish — first, in the quantity of 

 stall fed stock which is kept, and by which a supply 

 of manure is regularly secured ; second in the strict 

 attention paid to the collecting of manure, which is 

 most skillfully managed ; third, by the adojition of a 

 system of rotation of five, six, or seven changes of 

 crop, even on the smallest farms, which is in striking 

 contrast with the plan of cropping and fallowing th« 

 land prevalent in Ireland, and by which so large a 

 portion of its produce and powers are every yeai 

 wasted. 



