np YORKSHIRE. 379 



putable point whether the moufe or the 

 tithe-man is a greater enemy to the farmer *. 



The barn and the flackyard are ufually put 

 under the care of the cat : to fet a moufe-trap 

 in a barn full of corn has perhaps been con- 

 fidered as a thing fo unlikely to be efFedlive, 

 that it has feldom been tried : I have never 

 met with an inftance of it, excepting one in 

 this Diftridt, in whiph its fuccefs has been ex- 

 traordinary. A barn, which for many years 

 had been remarkably infefted with mice 

 (notwithftanding a numerous guard of cats), 

 has, by a proper ufe of traps, been kept in 

 a manner wholly free from them. 



It having been obferved, during long ex- 

 perience, that thefe mifchievous animals, un- 

 contented with their deftrudlion among the 

 corn, — attacked leather, greafe, or other ani- 

 mal food, which happened to be left in the 

 barn, — traps were fet in their runs and na- 

 tural 



• This idea, however, is more applicable in a grafs- 

 land cx)untry, where corn, being lefs in quantity, is moro 

 liable to be deftroycd by mice, than it is in an arable 

 country, where the proportion of corn is greater ;— 

 where the barn is oftener emptied ; — and where pillar 

 itack-frames and pillar granaricf arr generally more 

 in ufe. 



