80 Mole-Trap. — Cheap Iron Field-Gate. 



Art. XXVI. Short Communications. 



Mole-Trjp in Use near Monmouth. — Sir, Much hav- 

 ing been said, in your useful and interesting Gardener's Ma- 

 gazine, respecting mole-traps, allow me to offer one to your 

 notice which has long been in use near Monmouth. When 

 I lived near that town, I employed a man who then lived at 

 Penault, near Monmouth, to catch my moles, or wunts, which, 

 although they abounded in very great numbers, he did most 

 effectually, at a small expense, considering the destruction, 

 after the box-traps were provided and the first year paid. 

 The contrivance is a fall-trap, made by a square piece of 

 wood or trough, the hollow in the inside about three inches 

 diameter in the square, made of four pieces of wood about 

 three eighths of an inch thick ; the whole of the trough 

 being about two feet long. In the centre of this a mov- 

 able bit of wood is fixed, or rather worked on a strong 

 wire, which, as the animal passes over it, lets him fall 

 into the trap, from which there is no return. To this trough 

 is fixed in its centre, by a willow twig, a box (well planed 

 within), much like a microscope box in form, about eighteen 

 inches deep, and about four inches' diameter in the clear at 

 top. But as your Magazine is universally read in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Monmouth, no doubt some one there or else- 

 where, where this trap is in use, will see this notice, who can 

 furnish you with a drawing of the trap, and can give you a 

 better description of it than I am capable of doing, as I have 

 not even seen one for these twenty years past. I think, where 

 moles are in but small quantities, the traps already described 

 in your Magazine may do very well ; but where they abound 

 in vast numbers, as they do near the woods in the neighbour- 

 hood of Monmouth, they are inefficient for the purpose. The 

 only objections I see to the fall-traps are, the first expense of 

 traps, &c., and their great cruelty, as, when the traps remain 

 for some length of time uninspected, the moles devour each 

 other. I am. Sir, yours, &c. — Thomas Ha'wMjis. The Haw, 

 near Gloucester, August 1. 1832. 



A vety cheap Iron Field-Gate. — Sir, With this I send 

 you a sketch (^^•. 19.) of an iron field-gate, which I think 

 you will allow that I am warranted in calling very cheap, 

 when I inform you that it can be supplied for 265. singly, but, 

 if in quantities of twenty and upwards in number, for still less. 

 For streno-th in the construction, and durability of material, 

 I have not as yet seen a gate at the same cost to compete 

 with mine. It is made of wrought iron, and the horizontal 



