RAT-CATCHERS. 
195 
think better, whicli is, to fasten a string to the old rags or 
calf's tail ; then pour some of the oil of aniseed upon them, 
and trail them the same as the herring to the place where 
you wish the rats should go. The rags should be old ones 
that have been exposed to the air ; but, in any case, you 
should handle them as little as possible, because, if the rats 
smell the odour of your hands, they will not go, but run 
away. In the third place, if you would like to follow 
the other plan, all you have to do is, to pour some of 
the oil of aniseed on the soles of yoirr boots, and take 
very short steps as you pass over the ground, the same 
as in trailing ; but, in that case, when you arrive at the 
place, you must take off your boots, and carry them 
for a distance, or else the rats will follow you to your own 
house. 
Thus, you know the whole secret of bewitching rats j and 
now I shall resume my remarks upon rat-catchers. 
Again, I say, pay your rat-catcher honestly, and he will 
keep you free from vermin. What is six pounds a year 
to pay such a man ? You may think it high ; but it is 
no such thing. What is it ? why, not two shillings and 
four-pence per week. Now, the great rat-destroyers of 
London inform me that with every economy it costs 
them at least ten shillings per week to keep a hundred 
rats ; and I will give you my word for it that they do 
not feed them up like prize pigs, sheep, or oxen, to be 
exhibited at the Cattle Show. No ; they give them just 
enough to keep them actively alive, and that is all. Now, 
at ten shillings per hundred per week, that is two shillings 
and sixpence per week for twenty-five rats. Do you think 
you have twenty-five rats about your farm ? If so, why 
then, at that calculation, they cost you twopence per week 
more than the rat-catcher would, and all this is saying 
nothing about the young they would produce. But if we 
calculate them according to the wine-glass standard, and 
value the corn at only sixty-four shillings per quarter, these 
twenty-five rats would, in three weeks, eat one glass over 
one bushel and three half-pints. Then these twenty-five 
rats would cost you two shillings and eight-pence per week, 
which is fourpence per week more than the rat-catcher ; 
but should yon have five hundred, then, by employing a rat- 
o 2 
