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fallen off’ the plants, should be used, or the most 
prickly branches made small, that they may lie 
close together, which no doubt will be difficult to 
encounter, and prove a strong protection against 
those nightly depredators. Traps also should be 
set. The most simple and useful kind I know of 
is composed of two small sticks, about 9 to 10 
inches long, and a slate of a moderate thickness, 
10 inches long and 6 broad. After making a firm 
smooth place with the back side of a spade be- 
twixt the row of peas, the sticks are to be thrust 
into the earth seven inches one from another, 
leaving only about three inches above ground. Pre- 
vious to this being done each stick should have a slit 
made about half an inch deep in the centre, at the 
top end of them. In those slits a piece of thread, 
just sufficient to bear the slates, must be fastened 
to each stick, after being thread through the centre 
of a garden Bean, with the skin peeled of, leaving 
the thread rather slackish. Then rem' the slate on 
the ground, so that about the middle of the slate 
may rest upon the thread in a sloping direction, 
with the Bean in the centre of it. The Mouse 
then gnaws he thread in two to procure the Bean, 
which lets the slate fall upon it. Care must be 
taken that the ground be level, that the slate may 
not fall hollow, and thereby suffer the Mouse to 
escape. 
Several of these traps should be set in dif- 
ferent directions, among the Peas, and at the 
time of sowing them, that the whole of the Mice 
