68 AGKICULTURE OS THE KIIINE. 



undiminished force. In various villages the remedies 

 attempted are different. Sometimes a reward in money is 

 offered per one hundred skins, and the youthful population 

 is encouraged to exert its skill and passion for the chace 

 on the modern hydra. All such efforts prove, however, 

 ineffectual to keep down the numbers of the general foe, 

 whose paths across a corn-field are nearly as broad as 

 those trodden by single foot-passengers, while the hoard 

 abstracted from his crop is estimated by the farmer from 

 the number of straws nibbled ofi" at a short distance from 

 tlie ground, the ears from which have disappeared within 

 the Subterranean labyrinths, that often repay the labour of 

 digging up. In the neighbourhood of Jiilich a mode of 

 smoking out the mice has been introduced from Belgium. 

 An iron pan, two feet high, has at bottom a grating su{> 

 jjorted by a pin. On the grating some charcoal is laid, 

 and the pan, when filled with rags, leather, and sulphur, 

 is fastened with an air-tight cover which has a small 

 tube, into which a small hose connected with a bel- 

 lows is inserted. The pan is held by an upper and a side 

 handle. The night before it is used the field is sur- 

 veyed, and all open mouse-holes are trodden close. In 

 the morning such as are re-opened indicate those which 

 are tenanted, and one being selected, the lower part of 

 the pan is pressed against it, and the bellows being set at 

 work, the smoke issues from the orifice near the grating, 

 and penetrates into the runs or galleries that connect the 

 holes. A number of assistants are required to tread the 

 crevices close through which the smoke is seen to escape ; 

 and if all due precautions be taken, great numbers of these 

 diminutive enemies may be slaughtered, and at the same 

 time buried in their subterranean holds. 



