TOOLS AND RURAL INDUSTRIES 209 



This name remains on such farms, though the field may 

 have been put meanwhile to other uses : when it occurs, it 

 is an indication that there is probably an old limekiln not 

 far off. 



A former industry, now almost extinct in this neigh- 

 bourhood, was the catching of moles with the old wooden 

 mole-trap. 



The traps were home-made. The body of the thing is a 

 piece of wood 5] by 3 inches wide and half-an-inch thick. 

 In this, seven holes are bored with a half-inch bit, three 

 across each end and one in the middle. Two pieces of 

 green ash are whittled into shape to form the hoops. Their 

 ends are split, passed up through the outer holes and wedged 

 from the top ; a small groove having been cut or scooped all 

 along on their inner sides. The bark remains on the out- 

 sides of the hoops. 



The picture shows the arrangement of the strings. The 

 short, lower length of string has a plain knot at its end. It 

 is passed down through the middle hole, and is fixed from 

 below by a forked peg called the ' mumble-pin ' or ' mumble- 

 peg.' The butt of the peg has a rounded end, and goes a 

 very little way into the hole, only just enough to jam the 

 knotted end of the string and to remain in position while 

 the trap is being set. It holds a little firmer when the 

 longer upright length of string is fixed to the spring ' bender.' 

 The two ends of string connected with the brass wires are 

 loose when the trap is set, the wires being pressed into 

 position in their grooves on the inner sides of the ash hoops 

 In the picture, for the sake of clearness, the wires are shown 

 out of place. 



The trap is set an inch or so below the ground, so that 



the space within the ash hoops corresponds to the mole's 



2 D 



