HOW TO EXTIRPATE VERMIN. 
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or arms of old trees, under or round about them, so as to 
form ladders for the vermin, 
j Yes, it is said, but rats will hang in the sheaf, as it is 
I taken from one rick to the other; but, in answer, let me 
state, that I have seen a rick built nearly a yard from the 
I ground, which was still swarming with rats. How was that, 
you may ask ; why, on looking on one side, next the hedge, 
there was the arm of an old tree, half broken off, resting 
: against the rick, and forming a ladder. I drew the farmer's 
attention to it, and bade him have it instantly sawn off. 
The consequence was, that during the night the rats were 
compelled to jump down for water, or die where they were ; 
but when down, they could not get back again ; and so the 
I rick was cleared of them, and this will be the fate of those 
; rats that cling in the sheaves. 
I I've seen another instance of a rick built on staddles being 
1 drilled with holes. But in that case the farmer had built 
a haystack against it, and the rats had worked their way 
through the stack into the rick. Indeed almost endless 
cases might be adduced where ricks, though standing on 
staddles, have still been infested with rats, and which fact 
has often led farmers to make the observation, that it's no 
use building your ricks on staddles, because, whether you 
build them on staddles or on the ground, it's all the same ; 
for when the rats want them they'll have them, in spite of all 
! you can do. This is perfectly wrong, and not consistent 
with common reason. I will undertake to say, that in no 
j case whatever did rats ever get into a rick that was properly 
i built on staddles of a sufficient height, unless there was a 
ladder of some kind or other for them to get up and down 
1 by. The thing is a physical impossibility. 
A rat may sometimes be seen lapping the rain on the top 
of a rick ; and I have also seen the thatch, after a shower in 
hot weather, half covered with mice catching the drops of 
water as they run dov/n the straws. Mice will also quench 
their thirst with the night dews on the thatch ; but rats, 
like men, require something more than dew-drops to quench 
! their thirst. The fact is, rats by nature are very thirsty 
) animals ; and, in addition to that, the dry nature of their 
^ food, in barns and ricks, renders them doubly so ; the 
I consequence is, that if they do not get a plentiful supply of 
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