MANAGEMENT OF FRUIT TREES, &c. 189 



the places where the traps are set as private as possible ; and 

 when you set them for catching, mix no bread with the bait, 

 as the rats will in that case be apt to carry it away. 



When you find the holes quiet, and that no rats use them, 

 stop them up with the following composition : Take a pint of 

 common tar, half an ounce of pearl-ashes, an ounce of oil of 

 vitriol, and a good handful of common salt, mix them all well 

 together, in an old pan or pot. Take some pieces of paper, 

 and lay some of the above mixture very thick on them, then 

 stop the holes well up with them, and build up the mouth of 

 the holes with brick, or stone, and mortar : If this be properly 

 done, rats will no more approach these, while either smell or 

 taste remains in the composition. 



To kill Rats in Places where you ca?inot set TrapSi 



Take a quart of the bait already described, then rasp into 

 it three nuts of nux vomica, and add a quarter of a pound of 

 crumbs of bread, if there was none before ; mix them all well 

 together, and lay it into the mouth of their holes, and in dif- 

 ferent places where they frequent ; but first give them of the 

 bait without the nux vomica for three or four succeeding nighty ; 

 and when they find it agrees with them, they will eat that mix^ 

 ed with the nut with greediness. 



Rats are frequently very troublesome in shores and drains. 

 In such case, arsenic may be used with success, as follows : 

 Take some dead rats, and having put some white arsenic, fine- 

 ly powdered, into an old pepper-box shake a quantity of it on 

 the foreparts of the dead rats, and put them down the holes, 

 or avenues by the sides of the shores at which they come in ; 

 this puts a stop to the live ones coming any further ; for when 

 they perceive the arsenic they will retire immediately ; where- 

 as, if you were to put down the dead rats without the arsenic,, 

 the live ones would eat them* 



What has been said relates chiefly to rats j we shall now 

 give some directions for destroying mice. 



Take a quart of the bait prescribed for rats before there is 

 any bread mixed with it ; then take four nuts of nux vomica, 

 and rasp them very fine, otherwise the mice will pick out the 

 food from it, on account of its bitter taste ; rub them well to- 

 gether ; lay some of it on apiece 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, take away in 

 the morning, and replace it at night. If this be in a garden, 

 shelter it with boards, or tiles, that it may not get wet. 



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