190 TREATISE ON THE CULTURE, 5cc. 



I would recommend setting fourth-figure traps in gardens : 

 These are so well known to gardeners, that they need no de- 

 scription. They may be baited with garden beans. 



Traps are also made by stringing garden beans on a piece 

 of fine pack-thread, as you would string beads, then driving 

 in two small stakes at the breadth of a brick from each other, 

 and setting up a brick, or stone, or a board with a weight on it, 

 inclining to an angle of about forty-five degrees ; then tie the 

 string, with the beans on it, round the brick and stakes, to 

 support the brick in its inclining position, taking care to place 

 all the beans on the under side of the brick. The mice in eat- 

 ing the beans will also cut the pack-thread, and so disengage 

 the brick, or stone, which falling on them kills them. 



There is nothing new in the foregoing method ; but, as 

 field-mice will seldom enter a close trap, I thought proper to 

 mention it. 



As mice are frequently carried into gardens with straw, or 

 litter, and are there extremely hurtful, destroying beans and 

 pease in spring, as also lettuces, melons, and cucumbers in 

 frames, it is necessary to take some pains to destroy them. 



