KAT-CATCHERS. 
197 
comparatively free from rats, it will be a proof that the rat- 
catcher, like an honest man, is doing his duty, and therefore, 
instead of discharging him, as has too often been the case, 
let the farmer make him a handsome present, as a reward for 
his honour and industry ; and take my word for it, he will 
kill every rat as it makes its appearance. 
These men ought to be as actively employed in the summer, 
as they now are in the winter. For as the spring advances, 
the majority of rats leave the ricks and barns for the hedges, 
ditches, and water-side. There he ought to be frequently at 
work, with two or three well -trained dogs, to find out the 
holes ; and into which holes he ought to put poisoned food. 
The consequence would be, that when the harvest was 
brought in, there would be scarcely any rats left to seek the 
barns and ricks for winter quarters. 
Now, give these matters your most serious considera- 
tion, and I am satisfied that the more impartially you 
consider them, the more clearly will you see the removal of 
one of the greatest causes of misery and distress among 
agriculturists in general. As a proof, if each of you had by 
you now all that rats have deprived you of during the last 
ten years, what would be your present condition and circum- 
stances ? Probably you would all be rich men. 
However, let me wind up this part of my subject by 
again adverting to the error among farmers in general, as to 
the time and manner of employing the rat-catcher. In most 
cases they never think of rats till they have become so 
numerous that they threaten destruction to everything 
around them. The ricks must be drilled full of holes, and 
the barns become a living mass, and yet it is not time to send 
for the rat-catcher, because he wants a few shillings more 
than the farmer feels disposed to give him. No, he must 
wait till the corn in the barn is thrashed out ; and when it is 
thrashed out, instead of so many quarters of corn, as the 
farmer expected, he perhaps does not find one-half The 
rats have eaten it. Then what is to be done to make up 
the quantity ? Why, such a rick, which has been standing 
for years, and, according to the price of corn, is now worth 
so much, must be unthatched, to make up the desired 
amount for the market, because rent-day is at hand. Well, 
it is unthatched, and pray what do they find ? That, in 
