86 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTUEE. 



rodents or gnawing animals possess are wanting, their place 

 being supplied by fine teeth, incapable of severing any but 

 insect food. There are in our papers, frequently, articles in 

 which appear long descriptions of the depredations of the 

 moles, and full directions are given for their destruction. Now 

 when it is taken in consideration that these animals are incapa- 

 ble of devouring vegetable food, — and even if they were not, 

 they could not digest it, — these articles, to say the least, are 

 unnecessary and mischievous. 



Like the other mice, the arvicoUnce are very prolific, and 

 their ravages would be much greater than they are now were 

 their numbers not kept reduced by numerous enemies. As 

 they are chiefly nocturnal in their habits, they are destroyed by 

 the owls and nocturnal mammals — skunk, weasels, &c. Snakes 

 also prey upon them, and the reptilian form is well adapted to 

 following the mice in their burrows. Foxes also kill great 

 numbers, and they are favorite food with domestic cats. But 

 notwithstanding their many foes, they are so numerous in many 

 localities that the damage they inflict is often quite serious, and 

 they are regarded as unqualified pests. 



There have been many traps devised for their destruction. 

 The following, although I have described it before, is worthy of 

 notice here ; it has been tested and proved eflicacious, and my 

 description has been copied into many of the agricultural papers 

 of the country : Dig in the earth, at the beginning of cold 

 weather, in localities where these mice abound, short trenches 

 from two to four feet in width at the bottom, and considerably 

 narrower at the top, and about four feet in depth, the ends 

 inclined at the same angle as the sides. The walls of these 

 trenches, after becoming frozen, are impassable to mice that 

 have fallen in, as they will have in great numbers. In these 

 trenches many hundreds may be killed in a single season. The 

 poisons which I recommended above are also effective when 

 scattered about their haunts. If the mice are in barns, a very 

 good plan is to scatter, where they may have ready access to it, 

 quantities of fresh-slacked lime. The mice, and, indeed, rats 

 will pass over it but once, and will leave the neighborhood of it 

 in preference to frequenting passages where it is present. This 

 remedy of course can only be available under a roof. In the 

 gardens and nurseries it is well to avoid all chance of having 



