HOW TO GROW GOOD FENCES. 249 



little care upon this head. His sucking of cows has 

 never heen witnessed hy any competent observer, and 

 with such the idea was never entertained, nor can it 

 be sujiposed that a cow would suffer the approach of 

 a creature so thoroughly armed with spines as the 

 hedge-hog. In the words of Yarrell we may con- 

 clude that " this is about as well-founded an accusa- 

 tion as that of Pliny, exaggerated as it is by Sperling, 

 who assures us that it ascends trees, knocks off the 

 apples and pears, and, throwing itself down upon them 

 that they may stick to its spines, trots off with the 

 prize ! iElian gives us the same story, substituting 

 figs for apples, and omitting the climbing power of 

 the animal." 



3. This section contains creatures for which few of 

 us entertain any affection ; at the same time, it may 

 perhaps be true that some of the greatest of farm 

 pests, in the shapes of rats and mice, have greatly 

 increased since the destruction of the polecat, stoat, 

 and other of our smaller carnivorous quadrupeds. 



As regards mice in general, one source of alarm 

 connected with their former occupancy of the hedge- 

 row has nearly vanished from among us. We allude 

 to the supposed injury they were thought to inflict on 

 any creature over w r hich they might creep. 



At one time, if a cow or sheep offered any symptom 

 of paralysis or injury, more particularly of the hind- 

 quarters, the creature was said to be " mouse-crope," 

 for which were several popular remedies, which were 

 used by way of direct applications, such as a liberal 

 application of rods of wytch-hazel, drawing twigs of 

 mountain-ash or rowan-tree over the affected parts ; 

 but the more general plan of action was to operate 

 x 



