HOW TO EXTIRPATE VERMIN. 
207 
mises througli the night, you can be employing yourselves in 
the grounds through the day, by hunting out al] the rat- 
holes in the hedge-rows, ditches, and the water-side, and 
indeed, anywhere and everywhere where you are likely to 
find any. Then, as you find them, put into each some 
poisoned food. The best implements to use are a decent- 
sized milk-can, with a lid to it ; let it hang at your side by a 
strap passing over the shoulder. It should be kept for the 
purpose, and if it were made to fasten with a padlock it 
would be all the better, as that would prevent accidents. 
Then to convey the poison from the can to the holes, you 
should have a large, deep table-spoon, fastened to the end of 
a stick, — say a broomstick ; but be sure to put the food far 
enough down the holes, and then no harm can come to any 
of the farm-stock. You must not fill the spoon too full, for 
fear of spilling. You should hold it over the can, and with 
a knife or piece of wood make it strike measure. Two of 
these will be enough for one hole, and as rats run from hole 
to hole during the night, those from the neighbouring holes 
you have missed will be sure to find it, and so you will get 
rid of them. This plan is both simple and easy, at the same 
time most efiectual. By going the rounds a few times during 
the summer, and each time poisoning the holes, the result 
will be_, that by the autumn there will be scarcely a rat left 
to come into the farmstead. You will thereby not only 
reap the full benefit of your abilities and industry, but the 
country also will enjoy the full blessings of a bountiful 
harvest, both of which are, of all earthly blessings, the 
greatest next to health. 
There is another point to which I wish to draw your par- 
ticular attention ; I mean the old drains about your pre- 
mises, which form most safe retreats for rats to live and breed 
in. I would recommend you to do away with all those 
that are useless. But those that are absolutely necessary 
you should put into good repair, and have them secured at 
each end with sliding gratings dropped into grooves ; so that 
at any time you can lift them up, either to sluice out the 
drain, or remove any obstruction, and then replace them. 
This will save a great amount of trouble and expense, 
besides most efiectually keeping out the rats. But of all 
things, for drains, there is nothing, in my opinion, equal to 
