LTIVATION ro DES1 R(n M i« I . 
Trapping has special advantages for small areas such a la 
gardens, and vegetable <>r nurserj pits and packing here 
a limited number <>l" mice are present, and wherever, for an} 
there are objections to the laying out of poison. A.a vole do n<>t 
readily enter cage traps, simple wire traps of the guillotine order, 
in which mice are instantly killed, are ih<' most effective (text 
figures •_' and B). 
Traps without bait ma\ be set across the runs of the 1 1 1 i < * '. where 
tlif animals spring them by coming in contact with the trig 
or they may be baited with oat or coin meal. For trapping pine 
mice an opening should be made in the underground tunnel I 
enough to receive the trap, which should l>e set aero-- the bottom of 
the runway. The traps may be baited or not, but the opening should 
l)f covered. 
I i LTD \Tlo\. 
Thorough cultivation of fields tends to keep down the number of 
roles. Cultivation implies the destruction of weeds and all the an- 
nual growths that provide winter shelter for the animal-. The mere 
blowing of a field badly infested by mice is sufficient to drive out most 
of them. However, as a rule the animals escape to adjoining fields 
and return to their old haunts when growing crops or weeds afford 
sufficient shelter. 
The Scottish vole plague of L892-93 originated in hill pastures, 
wli.-iv heather, mo—, and numerous grasses afforded abundant shelter. 
The outbreak on the border farms in L876-77 occurred under similar 
condition-. The Thessalian vole plague of L891 and L892 apparently 
brew out (d* peculiar condition- of cultivation. The district visited 
hv the mice is an extremely fertile one on the plains near Larissa. 
The land- are mostly in large holdings, the owner- of which rent the 
fields to peasants who live in the villages. Owing to primitive methods 
of cultivation, each peasant has only a small tract. A- the number 
of renters i- -mall, a system of rotation i- practiced which brings the 
same tract- into cultivation about once in three year-, while two-thirds 
of the district lie- fallow. In the fallow lands voles multiply until at 
times they invade the cultivated land- and ruin the crops 
While a high state of tillage doe- not always bring immunity from 
vole-, it doe- much to lessen the danger of attack- from them. A sys- 
tem which regularly brings all the land of a district under the plow 
and permit- little of it to lie unu-ed will secure the greatest immunity 
from these pests, 
a Prof. T. Loeffler, Centralblatt fur Bakteriol* gie and Parasitenkunde, vol. 12, 
pp. 1-17. July 5, 1892. 
