DESTRUCTIVE HABITS OP THE RAT. 
151 
by so doing, they will not only enrich themselves, but 
increase British prosperity and native independence. 
In the first place, do not believe for one moment 
that I am going to dictate to the farmers, or lay down 
rules and plans for the better cultivation of the various soils 
and acres on their farms. Such an attempt on my part 
would be neither more nor less than the veriest impudence 
and presumption, since 1 at once confess that my knowledge 
of agricultural matters is of a most limited character. In 
the second place, should I, in the course of my observations, 
let fall any remark or remarks that may appear at all pointed 
or personal, I trust my readers will receive them with a 
kindly spirit, as my most anxious desire is to heal, not to 
wound, and it is quite impossible for any physician to cure 
his patient until he has made himself thoroughly acquainted 
with the nature and causes of the complaint. 
I shall now commence by giving a few general statistics, 
collected at various times, and arranged under separate 
heads, according to their respective counties, countries, or 
localities. 
The following important details were published by a 
gentleman from Shropshire, of whose veracity and local 
knowledge of the subject the author has no doubt. 
The writer commences by stating a few facts as to their 
numbers on a farm of a given size, and the damage they occa- 
sion to both landlords and tenants, without any equivalent 
benefit to either ; " for in this country," he says, " they 
are not turned to any account, as they are in France, where, 
first, they are used to breed maggots from, for catching 
frogs ; secondly, their bones are boiled down to make size 
•of; and, thirdly, their skins are used to make gloves with." 
He then proceeds to relate that at a barn and small home- 
stead near a pool, but a considerable distance from the 
farm-house, principal farm-buildings, and rick-yards, a boy 
was employed at spare times to catch the rats by means of a 
wire snare at the end of a stick, bent and fastened down in 
the usual way with a wooden peg. This lad,- at this small 
but distant homestead, in about four months, caught no less 
than 630 rats. " Now, is it more than fair," the writer says, 
*^ to suppose that; those he did not kill, which were spread 
about the farm-house and principal farm-buildings, where all 
