238 MR. I10GG ON THE KFEECTfr OF MOLE-CATCHING. 
an appeal to them, either individually or as a body, if my state¬ 
ment of facts be not correct. 
“ It is well known that the late Duke Henry of Buccleuch was 
the first who introduced mole-catching into Scotland, on a scale 
so extensive and sweeping, that it might be termed an act of 
extermination for the Scottish moles. He let the moling of his 
princely domains to a company or companies of Englishmen, 
who undertook to clear his land of moles and keep them clean 
of moles for a stated period. As an equivalent to his Grace for 
the expense thus incurred, a heavy impost was laid on the farm¬ 
ers. The successors of the Duke have followed his example, 
and the process is still continued in spite of the farmers’ most 
earnest remonstrances to the men employed. They tell them 
that they cannot, and will not, let a mole live that they can get 
hold of. And, to say truth, the men have performed their busi¬ 
ness conscientiously and well. 
u But what has been the consequence ? Why, no more than 
this : that, on all the farms that were most over-run with moles, 
it has reduced the stock, at least, one-sixth, in some instances 
one-fifth: and not only that, but it has introduced two exter¬ 
minating diseases, the pining and the foot-rot, which, in some 
seasons, have nearly annihilated the stocks on these farms, as well 
as the substance of the men who possess them.” 
“ Why, now, it is wonderful to hear some people’s effrontery ! 
It is true that a number of farmers have taken it into their wise 
heads that what you state is the case; but you have no proofs, 
none whatever, that the pining and foot-rot are occasioned by the 
rooting out of the moles.” 
“ Neither have I, that the tides of the sea are ruled and af¬ 
fected by the changes of the moon. But while I see the one al¬ 
ways attendant upon the other, without the smallest deviation, 
then I am forced to admit that there must be some sympathy 
between them. So is it precisely with these diseases. Neither 
pining nor foot-rot was known, in this extensive district, at least, 
till the destruction of the moles, and it is only on those rich lands 
that were formerly most over-run with them where these diseases 
have prevailed; while, on the hard heathery soils, where there 
were iew moles originally, and where the herbage was only in a 
slight degree affected by the innovation, the pining is not yet 
known, and the foot-rot, if at all, very slightly.” 
There are no arguments so cogent as a simple statement of 
facts. And now so sensible are his Grace’s tenants of the de¬ 
triment done to these soft lands and to their stocks by the extir¬ 
pation of the moles, that two bodies of them have joined in a 
head, one in Ettrick Forest, and one in Tiviotdale, in order to 
petition their young chief to spare the remnant of their old 
friends the mowdics, and suffer them to breed again. 
