626 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
AUG. 29 
Practical Experience Condemns 
Moles. 
A. W. S., Amkricus, Ga..—I know that 
science and all rural authorities say that 
moles will not eat vegetable matter, that 
they feed on worms and insects exclusively. 
In spite of these authorities, however, until 
certain practical observations of my own 
can be proved erroneous, I shall remain un¬ 
convinced. Until it can be explained how 
every row and every hill in each row of 
nearly an acre of sugar earn, planted mid¬ 
way in about 30 acres of common corn, was 
visited by moles and nearly every grain of 
the seed destroyed while few, if any, of the 
common corn kernels were disturbed ; and 
how the moles come to go through every 
hill of water-melons planted early, though 
the manure is “ in the hills” and these 
are 10 feet apart, eating or destroying the 
seeds before they come up, while they do 
not go through the sweet potato or moon- 
flower rows, though there the manure is 
continuous; or why they should burrow 
under Manettia bicolor vines within two 
feet of the moonflowers—at least they do 
not cut the roots of the latter while they 
do cut those of the Manettia—or why they 
should this year destroy five Manettia vines, 
(for which they have a decided fondness) all 
I had planted out, though they were 60 to 
75 feet distant from each other, and separ¬ 
ated by hard walks or a close turf of grass, 
not merely burrowing under, but cutting 
the roots so that the vines could be lifted 
without resistance, I shall believe that our 
moles do eat vegetable matter and roots, 
the more so since after having many times 
packed down the run of one, which came 
to my front steps, it was only to find it 
anew next morning. On dropping a 
“ Mole Bean ” into the run, there was no 
reappearance of the mole. 
Again, a mole got into my hot-bed where 
I was propagating cuttings, and showed its 
fondness for Manettia there also, only bur¬ 
rowing under the others. I directed my 
young man to drop a “ Mole Bean ” into the 
run and again the mole disappeared and we 
had no further indication of its existence. I 
cannot believe that the mere fact of the 
bean being in the run caused the pest to 
“ cease from troubling ” but I thought it 
likely that he ate it and was either killed 
or disgusted. 
The “ Mole Bean ” was sent me last year 
by a friend who stated that if planted in 
my garden the moles would leave. My ex¬ 
perience with dropping the beans into the 
runs is confined to the two cases cited and 
in these it was most satisfactory. I know 
that some claim that a rat is a companion 
to every mole, following and eating the 
vegetable matter; while the mole indulges 
only in animal diet, but it must be a very 
knowing rat that would cause the mole to 
select those hills in which were the sweetest 
and most delicate morsels, and avoid those 
whose contents were not so toothsome. 
Imagine the rat bridling the mole and 
driving him ahead from hill to hill of the 
sugar corn, skipping the common kinds; 
and also making him travel 60 to 75 feet 
east, southwest and northwest, according 
to the situation of the Manettia vines, in 
order that the driver might get a delicate 
morsel; and if the “ Mole Bean ” was eaten 
by the rat, did he warn the mole not to go 
back again, as it had not agreed with him ? 
I do not believe the rat story to that ex¬ 
tent. 
Capillary Attraction and Soil Mois¬ 
ture. 
J. W. I., Bradford County, Pa.—M r. 
F. Hodgman, Kalamazoo County, Mich., 
is not the only person in the world who 
has grave doubts about capillary attraction 
being the cause of moisture rising through 
the earth from the reservoirs or water level 
beneath. Many are disposed to dispute the 
diction of the learned men who profess to 
have made the discovery, but fear that by 
so doing they would be considered stupid 
and ignorant. No man wants to run 
his head against a stone wall and be picked 
up and lai i out by the college professors 
and agricultural editors. That moisture 
in large quantities sinks into the earth 
when it rains, drawn down by the attrac¬ 
tion of gravitation, and that afterwards 
much of it returns to the surface when it is 
needed—drawn up by some power strong 
enough to overcome the attraction of gravi¬ 
tation—nobody disputes. What causes this 
phenomenon of nature ? If the attraction 
of gravitation is strong enough to draw 
water towards the center of the earth, why 
should it not be powerful enough to hold it 
from rising ? Did some philosopher make a 
small mistake when he said that capillary 
attraction was the cause ? The influence 
by which in small tubes or porous sub¬ 
stances liquids rise above their levels Is 
called capillary attraction. “ The cause 
of this,” says J. L. Comstock, in his Phil¬ 
osophy, “ seems to be nothing more than 
the ordinary attraction of tbe particles of 
matter for each other.” That being the 
case, it could not account for the rise of 
moisture from any great depth. In fact, 
the particles of earth and water acting on 
each other would tend to produce an 
equilibrium, and the moisture, instead of 
rising, would gradually sink by drainage. 
If the end of a small glass tube be placed 
in water, the water on the inside will rise 
higher than the level of that on the out¬ 
side of the tube. The smaller ths tube, the 
higher the rise, but the difference is but lit¬ 
tle, and no tube has ever been made small 
enough to raise the water a single inch. 
When the oil rises up through the lamp 
wick, the water through a lump of sugar ora 
piece of sponge, we must seek for some 
other power than capillary attraction as the 
cause. That cause may be a force not yet dis¬ 
covered, or It may be produced by the same 
force that causes the tides on the ocean, 
which in some places have been known to 
rise 60 feet above the level of the sea. 
Moisture in fair weather is constantly ris¬ 
ing from the surface of both land and 
ocean into the air several miles high and 
remains there until it rains down. Is this 
great rise caused by capillary attraction ? 
If you call it evaporation, what is evapora¬ 
tion, and may not the power of evaporation 
act below as well as above the surface ? 
There is no doubt that the water that rises 
to the surface has started to the celestial 
regions, and unless it Is prevented by a 
mulch of some thing, It is sure to get there. 
Why may not the rise of water from be¬ 
neath the surface, and from the surface, 
be reasonably ascribed to the attraction of 
the sun and moon and of the whole solar 
system f 
Not Unfriendly To Moles. 
C. S. Rice, Lewis County, N. Y.—The 
plot of ground I have used as a garden for 
the last six years has been infested by 
moles during the whole time. It is 12 rods 
long and is bounded on one side by an old 
stone wall and under this the moles have 
their homes and hiding places. *A-t first I 
supposed that they would damage the gar¬ 
den and began to inquire for some way to 
destroy them. The garden is used for the 
growth of small fruits, peas, sweet corn, 
cabbage, turnips and other vegetables in 
rows the entire length of the plot. The 
moles usually work parallel to the rows 
at a short distance from them, but I have 
not been able to see any damage done by 
them in the six years. At times they are a 
real help in keeping the soil mellow and no 
doubt they destroy the white grub and cut 
worms so often troublesome during the 
early growth of garden plants. Thanks to 
the industrious moles, my garden is prac¬ 
tically free from these pests, Peas and 
corn are planted at Intervals of time, to in¬ 
sure a succession through the season, and 
the moles work close to hills or rows but do 
no damage and are welcome to live undis¬ 
turbed in my garden so long as they con¬ 
fine themselves to their natural insect 
diet. 
About a Hen’s “ Moult.” 
F. A. P., Dudley, Mass.— In Brevities, 
on page 564, The Rural asks: “ How long 
does the average hen’s ‘ moult’ last ?” I 
should say from one to three months, ac¬ 
cording to the way she may have been bred, 
fed and managed beforehand. As a rule, I 
think a yearling hen will moult more quick¬ 
ly than an older one, but the time required 
to shed the old and grow a new plumage is 
greatly influenced by the natural vigor of 
the individual hen, and the way this vigor 
has been husbanded in the past. If she has 
been stimulated to her greatest possible pro¬ 
duction of eggs during the preceding season, 
she will, of course, lack the vigor and re¬ 
served strength to carry her through this 
trying ordeal, that one would have which 
had been managed in a more natural way. 
If infested with vermin that are sapping 
her strength, she will also require longer to 
moult than if all her feed went towards 
making feathers instead of fattening para¬ 
sites. Again, if the food furnished her does 
not contain a liberal supply of the elements 
contained in the feathers she is growing, 
not only will the process be delayed, but 
she will, very likely, more than exhaust the 
reserved stores in her own body and thus 
require more time to fully recover from the 
exhaustion of moulting. Undoubtedly those 
poultry keepers who have been freely feed¬ 
ing their flecks on some of the many med¬ 
icinal nostrums known as ** egg foods,” will 
experience more trouble in getting their 
flocks safely through the annual moult 
than those who have depended on good food 
coupled with intelligent care, for keeping 
their fowls up to a profitable condition. 
Not long since a retired veteran breeder 
who had been very successful as a breeder 
of thoroughbred poultry, and also as an ex¬ 
hibitor in show rooms, told me that if I 
could tell him when a fowl was hatched he 
would tell me at what time in the summer 
or fall, she would moult. He claimed that 
the time of year at which a fowl was hatch¬ 
ed controlled, in a marked degree, the time 
at which it would moult. It strikes me 
that if this point could be worked out to a 
certainty, a poultryman could, by keeping 
a record of the date at which each fowl was 
hatched, know just how long he could keep 
his laying stock without getting caught 
with a lot of moulting fowls on his hands 
that he did not wish to ktep over, as is 
sometimes the case. Who amongst the 
readers of The Rural can give us any posi¬ 
tive information on this subject ? Would 
a fowl hatched in July or August go 
through the winter and moult early or 
late ? 
Another question I would like to see dis¬ 
cussed is the following: ” Is there any good 
reason why a properly bred hen fully sup¬ 
plied with the right kinds of food and 
otherwise well cared for need stop laying 
when moulting any more than a cow need 
stop giving milk when renewing her coat 
of hair ?” Experiment stations in the East 
might profitably give their attention to the 
solution of some of these poultry problems 
instead of giving so much attention to in¬ 
vestigations of pig teeding, milk produc¬ 
tion and husbandry, all of which are either 
overdone or cannot be properly carried on 
here in the East. 
Land Unfriendly to Clover. 
T. H. Hoskins, Orleans County, Ver¬ 
mont. —My friend J. W. Newton’s remarks 
on page 574, headed ** Chemicals and 
Clover,” contain muca food for thought. I 
am myself making a study of the subject, 
and at the outset am encountering the stern 
fact that in the ordinary way land must be 
in pretty good order before our common 
red clover will grow upon it. Last year I 
seeded down 25 acres (previously in potatoes) 
with Herd’s Grass and clover; but the 
clover shows, as on a map, the richer spots 
on the field, being in some places very 
heavy, especially where piles of manure 
have stood in years past, but generally over 
the field very thin, with sorrel as a pretty 
conspicuous part of the crop. The clover 
seed either id not even sprout, apparently, 
on many wide spaces, though it was sown 
with perfect evenness by a machine. On 
the poorest six acres, in view of the bad 
(Continued on next page.) 
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