APPENDIX 



TRAPPING THE TRUE AND LEGITIMATE WAY TO 

 DESTROY VERMIN 



I HAVE put together the following directions for the trapping 

 of vermin, in order that gentlemen may judge of the merits 

 of their keepers in this respect ; being well aware how few 

 have anything like a perfect knowledge of this most neces- 

 sary part of their business. No moors or manors can abound 

 with game unless the vermin are killed off; and if the traps 

 are not set with much skill, and the places for planting them 

 for the different kinds of vermin selected with great judgment, 

 more harm than good is done, as few are caught, and the rest 

 put on their guard, and thus rendered more cunning and diffi- 

 cult to be trapped afterwards. 



A gentleman should first ascertain if his keeper can per- 

 form the mere manual act of setting a trap. This must be done 

 by cutting a shape for it with a mole-spade in the turf, thinly 

 sprinkling the plate with earth, and then giving a top-covering 

 precisely the same as the ground : when set, it should be neither 

 higher nor lower. After having satisfied himself of the neat- 

 ness of the setting, the gentleman may spring the trap, and if it 

 closes clear of grass or leaves, he may rest satisfied that his 

 keeper knows the A B C of vermin-killing. If, on the contrary, 



