240 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAT, JOURNAL. [1 Mar., 1899. 
Whatever sort of bait is chosen, the trapper should be content to give 
away a little and wait. Now just the opposite is the rule of conduct with the 
novice in vermin-killing. He gets a trap and the most attractive bait he can 
think of, and then shoves it right up against a hole, as if he were trying to 
block the gangway. Now what rat with any experience would walk into it? 
No, that is how not to do it. A very nice supper but not enough to give 
a surfeit should be provided, outside the trap (of whatever sort). ‘The 
unaccustomed object should be left innocently by and set open in a manner 
that it cannot be sprung. Let your intended victim associate it in his mind 
with a pleasant evening, and he will come again with suspicion disarmed. One 
‘of the most successful traps in my experience is the bucket trick. As there 
may be readers who dv not know it, let me briefly describe the manner of 
procedure. 
DECEIVING THE RAT. 
You begin by littering corn or other food on the floor, and let this lead up 
to a bucket, against the side of which a piece of wood has been carelessly left. 
The rat climbing to the top, should find it conveniently full of corn or other 
attractive food, with chaff to give it bulk. Let him have his fill that night, or, 
better, still for several nights; then when you are ready to compass his 
destruction, fill the bucket rather more than half full of water, and lightly 
throw some chaff on top, A good inch of it will keep dry a long time, and 
your bait, of course, on top. With a misplaced confidence the rat walks up 
the stick, jumps down on.his supper only to find himself in deep water, and so 
impeded with the chaff that he is sooner drowned. This old trick was dis- 
covered by accident, and often several rats have been found in the bucket at 
one time. This latter fact would point to the importance of luring the enemy 
to destruction by false confidence, or how else could several fall victims at 
once? Surely they must have run a race for precedence, and so stumbled in 
one over another. 
ANOTHER EFFECTIVE TRAP, 
The ‘‘ dead fall” is another homely trap which costs nothing, and often 
does more execution than expensive engines purchased of theironmonger. The 
lid of a box or a stout piece of planking, 15 to 20 inches long, and about the 
same width, should be set up for a night or two, supported at one end by a 
stick and a brick or two, to ensure its not falling while the rats make their 
supper under and around the innocent-looking object. Meantime, three slips 
of wood, no stouter than will just support the board with a heavy stone on top, 
should be prepared. The cut above will show how a figure of 4 is made to act 
as a support until the movement of the bait acts as a lever, and down comes 
the weighted board on the animal beneath, 
JOHNSON GRASS AGAIN, 
REFERRING to our notices of the merits and demerits of Johnson grass, Mr. 
A. Scott writes from Taroom :—I have had considerable experience in growing 
Johnson grass, and I have found it both good and bad, according to the 
district and soil in which it has been tried. If you have good soil and a fairly 
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