VERMIN. 



•Ml his propOrty in the purfuit of fuch field-fport. This 

 fhould be avoided and done away with whenever it can, 

 as the damage is very confiderable in many cafes. See 

 Game. 



The able writer of the Corre£led Report of tlic Agri- 

 culture of the County of Middlefcx has eftimated, that the 

 expences of guardinjj againft, and the damage produced by 

 ■vermin and game, on a farm of two hundred acres, half 

 arable and li;df grafs, without flioep-walks, amount to fifty 

 pounds in the year ; which is nearly five fhillings an acre on 

 the whole quantity of land, which fum will perhaps, it is 

 fuppofed, average the cultivated corn and grafs land farms 

 of Britain ; and that, as there are nearly forty miUions of 

 acres in this (late, thefe depredations amount to ten millions 

 the year. This is an amount which would hardiy have been 

 fufpetled by many, and which it is important in different 

 points of view to prevent as much as poffible. 



Vermin, in Gardening, is a term applied to various fmall 

 animals that are injurious to garden-crops in different cafes, 

 and as deftrudlive as in the farm-yard. 



Rats and mice are of this kind, and do much mifchief in 

 (beds and other places, where they frequently deftroy beans, 

 peas, and other feeds ; they ihould therefore be extirpated 

 as much as poffible in all fuch cafes. 



And there are different modes of deftroying them in thefc 

 inftances ; as by traps, poifon, &c. But Mr. Forfyth ad- 

 vifes never to ufe arfcnic, or corrofive fublimate for that 

 purpofe, except under particular circumftances, a^ they are 

 deadly poifon : nux vomica will, he thinks, generally anfwer 

 the end as well, without the danger He has fuggclled it 

 as a very good plan to prevent accidents, to enclofe the traps 

 in cafes, having holes in the ends of them large enough to 

 admit rats, but fmall enough to exclude dogs, cats, Sec. 



And the following is recommended as a bait for rat-traps 

 in thefe cafes : Take a pound of good flour, three ounces 

 of treacle, and fix drops of the oil of carraways : put them 

 all in a difh, and rub them well together till they are pro- 

 perly mixed ; then add a pound of crumb of bread. The 

 traps baited with this mixture (hould be fet as near their 

 haunts as poffible ; but, for two or three days, fo as not to 

 fall or ftrike on the rats going in, but letting them have free 

 liberty to go in and out at pleafure, as this makes them 

 fearlefs. Some of the bait (hould alfo be laid at the rat- 

 holes, and a little of it fcattered quite up to the traps, and 

 fo on to the bridge of each trap, where a handful may be 

 placed. It may alfo, it is fuggefted, be proper to fcent the 

 traps with the following mixture, for the purpofe of en- 

 ticing the rats into them. 



Take twenty drops of oil of rhodium, fix or fevcn grains 

 of mufk, and half an ounce of oil of anifeed ; put tlicm in a 

 fmall phial, and (hake it well before ufing ; then dip a piece 

 of twilled paper or rag in the mixture, and rub each end of 

 the trap with it, if a box-trap, and put two or three drops 

 on the bridge, leaving the paper or rag in the trap. Of 

 whatever kind the trap is, it (liould be fcentod ; but once in 

 a twelvemonth will be fufficient. Then throw fome chaff 

 mixed witli a little wlicat about the bottom of the trap, in 

 order to deceive the rats ; for they are very fagacious, and 

 will not enter a fufpicious place. This will be neceffary to 

 be done only at the firil time of fetting the traps ; for after 

 fome rats have been caught, and have watered and dunged in 

 them, rats will enter boldly when they find others have been 

 there before them : do not, therefore, wa(h or clean out the 

 trap, as Ibmc people do before they fcl it again, but let the 

 dung and urine remain in it. Keep the places whiTC the 

 traps arc fct as private as poffible ; and when they arc fet 



Vol. XXX VTI. 



for catching, mix no bread with the bait, as the rats will in 

 that cafe be apt to carry it away. 



It is advifed, that when the holes are found quiet, «ind 

 that no rats ufe them, to (lop them up with the following 

 compofition : Take a pint of common tar, half an ounce of 

 pearl-afhes, an ounce of oil of vitriol, and a good handful of 

 common fait, mix them all well together, in an old pan. or 

 pot. Take fome pieces of paper, and lay fome of the above 

 mixture very thick on them ; then (lop the hoks well up 

 with them, and build up the mouth of the holes with brick 

 or (lone, and mortar ; if this be properly done, rats will, he 

 affcrts, no more approach thefe, while either fmell or tafle 

 remains in the compofition. 



In order to deftroy the rats in places where traps cannot 

 be fet, he recommends us to take a quart of the above bait, 

 then lafp into it three nuts of nux vomica, and a quarter of 

 a pound of crumb of bread, if there was none before : mix 

 them all well together, and lay it into the moutli of their 

 holes, and in different places where they frequent ; but firll 

 give them of the bait without the nux vomica, for three or 

 four fucceeding nights ; and when they iind it agrees 

 with them, they will eat that mixed with the nut with 

 greedincfs. 



It is further obferved, that rats are frequently very 

 troublefome in fewers and drains. In fuch. cafes, arfenic 

 maybe ufcd with fuccefs, as follows : Take fome dead rats, 

 and having put fome white arfenic, finely powdered, into an 

 old pepper-box, (hake a quantity of it on the fore parts of 

 the dead rats, and put them down the holes or avenues, by 

 the fides of the fewers at which they come in ; this puts a 

 (lop to the hve ones coming any further ; for wiien they 

 perceive arfenic, they will, it is aflerted, retire immediately : 

 whereas, if they were put down without the arfenic, the 

 live ones would eat them. 



We have, however, found that thefe animals take arfenic 

 bell when it is prepared, by being finely levigated and mixed 

 up with very ftrong old cheefe and oatmeal. In order to 

 deftroy mice, Mr. Forfyth advifes perfons to take a quart 

 of the bait for rats before there is any bread mixed with it ; 

 then to take four nuts of nux vomica, and rafp them very 

 fine, otherwife the mice will pick out the food from it, oa 

 account of its bitter talle ; rub them well together ; lay 

 fome of it upon a piece of paper, or, if without doors, on a 

 piece of tile, removing all other food from the place, and it 

 will kill all that eat of it. What is not eaten, (hould be 

 taken away in the morning, and replaced at night. If this 

 be in a garden, Iheltei it with boards or tiles, that it may not 

 get wet. 



Open traps (hould likewife be fet, as mice are (hy in enter- 

 ing clofe ones. And care flioiild be taken not to convey 

 thefe animals into gardens by the draw fitter, or other fimi- 

 lar materials. 



Slugs arc a fort of vermin that are frequently found 

 harbouring about tlic foundations of walU, and abor.t the 

 roots of peas, lettuce, &c. They may, Mr. Forfyth thinks, 

 be picked oil, and killed, by putting them into a pot in 

 whicli is a little fiiie unflaked lime : or the ground »vhere 

 they are ftionld be well watered witli foap-fuds .ind urine, 

 mixed with tobacco-water. When they arc numerous on 

 the furface of the ground, which frequently happens after 

 rain, or in a dewy morning, fine undakcd lime thrown over 

 the borders, &c. will, he contends, deftroy them. But he 

 prefers the above mixture, which, if the ijround be well 

 watered with it, will bring them up out of their holes, when 

 they very foon die ; it will alfo deftroy their eggs, which 



ihey always d'pofit in the earth. 

 H 



Snails, 



