26 Destruction of Mice in Cucumber Frames. 



the task of ripening, however well other circumstances may accord ; for the 

 very principle of life itself seems weakened by the effort made, and a repetition 

 of similar management to this injures more vines than is generally imagined. 

 Some kinds of grapes being more hardy than others, are less liable to misfor- 

 tune than others ; Muscadine and Esperione, for instance. Some are liable in 

 an extreme degree, and become spoiled from circumstances that would not 

 affect other kinds : such are Frontignans, Muscats, Syrian, &c. A few are 

 happily situated at a medium, remarkable for their goodness and adaptation to 

 general use, though not partaking of the extreme qualities famous to the Mus- 

 cats and Frontignans : these are Black Hamburg, Dutch black Hamburg 

 (said to be a grape of first quality). West's St. Peter's, Tripoli, Damascus, iS:c. 

 One other I will mention, a Frontignan, a grape of the very best character, 

 something resembling the Dutch Sweetwater in appearance; when ripe, of a 

 beautiful amber hue, and the rich muskiness of the Frontignans is pre- 

 eminent here. The clusters are closely set, and moderately large, the berries 

 being considerably larger than any other of the Frontignan family. It is not 

 known under a recognised nomenclature here, unless it be Chasselas Musque, 

 or is probably a seedling of former times undescribed. It is, as far as my 

 knowledge extends, confined to this place. The entire stock has been pre- 

 sented to the proprietors of the Durdham Down Nursery, of whom plants 

 may be had in the following spring. I had intended to have entered into some 

 other particulars, but this paper is already sufficiently long. 

 Near Bristol, October, 1840. 



Art. X. On the Destruction of Mice in Cucumber Frames. 



By J. WiGHTON. 



In the spring of the present year, 1840, the cucumber plants 

 under my care were much hijured by having their shoots and 

 fruit cut off. At first, I thought shigs did the injury, but I 

 soon found something more mischievous, for the shoots were cut 

 through, as if eaten by mice. I destroyed several mice, and 

 amongst them two of the shrew kind, suspecting the latter to 

 have done the injury, but the mischief done to the plants was as 

 great as ever. After several fruitless attempts to discover my 

 pests, at last I caught a mouse, quite of a different kind from 

 those previously mentioned; it was the short-tailed field mouse. 

 I found he and his neighbours were the real enemies I sought 

 for, and thought that now my troubles would soon be at an end, 

 as I could easily destroy these little vermin. I soon found, how- 

 ever, that was not so easy a task as I thought; the plants still 

 were destroyed, and all my endeavours to poison or entrap my 

 enemies were fruitless, owing to their not eating food greedily 

 like common mice. Seeing this, and knowing their haunts to be 

 in woods and fields, I suspected their principal food to be vege- 

 tables and roots : in this I was not mistaken ; for when I put 

 some roots of the i^unium flexuosum, or earth nut, amongst the 

 cucumber plants, they were soon eaten up. After that, 1 found 

 no trouble in destroying them with traps baited with earth nuts. 

 Buffon describes the mouse I have noticed, and says " it is very 

 plentiful in some parts of France, where it often damages corn 

 by cutting through the stems to get at the ears, by bringing 

 them down. I consider that when they cut off my cucumber 



