MARCH 73 



to the mole-catcher in spreading the freshly turned 

 mole- cast, thus securing the finest possible top dressing 

 for your pasture. There is the greater necessity for 

 this, because the presence of moles is the only effective 

 check on leather grubs and wireworuis, especially on 

 permanent pasture. When the land is in rotation, 

 indeed, rooks, starlings, and, in maritime districts, sea- 

 gulls, follow the plough and devour large numbers of 

 them ; but where the land is laid down to grass, these 

 pests enjoy complete immunity from any penalty which 

 the ingenuity of man can devise. Swallows, nightjars, 

 and other birds take toll of the perfect insect, but the 

 life of the perfect insect is brief and harmless; it is 

 during the three years which the larvae spend under- 

 ground that they carry on their depredations, summer 

 and winter. 



Where the mole has been exterminated, as in some 

 highly cultivated parts of France, the local authorities 

 have to grapple directly with these insect pests, and pay 

 rewards for their destruction. We have the authority 

 of M. Reiset for the statement that, in four years ending 

 in 1870, 867 million perfect cockchafers and 647 

 millions of their larvae were destroyed and paid for by 

 the authority of the Seine inferieure. 



The European mole has its analogy in every quarter 

 of the globe all small, soft-furred, burrowing animals, 

 with tiny eyes, and possessed of extraordinary strength 

 in proportion to their size. 



Foreign moles, though resembling in habits, and 

 sometimes in appearance ; our native Talpa, generally 



