The Rat; Its History & Destructive Character. James Rodwell
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CHAPTER X.
The Ferret—Gamekeepers’ Ferrets—The Polecat—The Stoat—The Weasel—A Hare killed by a Weasel—A large Cage of Bullfinches and Goldfinches destroyed by a Weasel—The Marten Cat—The Cat—Cats destroying Pigeons, Rabbits, and Chickens—The Proper Kind of Cats for Farmers—The Barn Owl—Rat-killing Dogs—Toby the Hero—The Bullterrier—The Royal Ratcatcher—The Dog Fancy—Dogs trained for Rat-matches—Tiny, the Wonderful Bull-terrier—A Hundred Pounds offered for him—His Manner of Killing—His Death—Jem, the Champion—Billy, the Ratcatcher—Rules in Rat-matches—Rat-killing in Baby’s Socks—Death of the Champion—The Expense of training Rat-match Dogs—Painted Dogs—Tiny and the Baby—True Value of Rat-pitting—Perspiration and Animal Instinct—The Poacher and the Bloodhound
TRAPPING OF RATS, AND THE VARIOUS KINDS OF RAT-TRAPS.
Right Mode of Treating and Baiting Traps—How to Catch a grizzly old Rat—The Artistic Mode of Handling Traps—Excellent Mixture for drawing Rats—Whistling Joe’s Method of Trailing Rats—His Plan of Cleansing an Estate of Vermin—His common Hutch Trap—Drawing Rats into the Traps—Ratcatchers’ Secrets—Recipe for Scenting Traps
Whistling Joe’s Poison—His Mouse Poison—His Poisonous Draughts for Barns and Ricks—Joe’s concluding Advice and Instructions—How to drive Rats away—Tofumig ate Rats—Old Methods of destroying them—Different Kinds of Poison—Arsenical Paste—Arsenic Pills—African Mode of Destroying Rats—Prescription of the “Family Economist”—Red Herrings and Arsenic—Bread, Butter, Sugar, and Arsenic—Malt and Arsenic—Sugar, Meal, and Arsenic—Danger arising from the drinking of Rats poisoned by Arsenic—Dangerous use of Arsenic in Tallow—A Rat poisoned with Arsenic Candles—Carbonate of Barytes—Fresh Herrings, Sprats, and Carbonate of Barytes—Precipitated Carbonate of Barytes
Method of preparing Phosphorus—Phosphorus Paste—Uncle James’s Appeal against the Sale and Use of Poisons—How Rats die from Phosphorus—Uncle James’s Advice for making Phosphoric Compounds—Safety of Phosphoric Pills—The best Bottles for Phosphoric Compounds, and general Cautions in using them—Phosphorus and Lard without Spirit—How to cut Phosphorus—How to obtain Poisons—To prevent Accidents to Live Stock
MISCELLANEOUS ANECDOTES OF RATS.
A Barrack for Rats—A Fox in the Loft—A Fox in the Barn—To drive Vermin out of Ricks—How to destroy Rats by Suffocation—To keep Rats out of Barns—To keep Rats out of Warehouses—Ratcatching in the Gambia—Hints to Farmers—Hints to Farmers’ Sons and Sweethearts—Hints to Farmers’ Wives and Daughters
SOME PROFITABLE HINTS ON THE BREEDING, FEEDING, AND GENERAL MANAGEMENT OF POULTRY.
Qualities necessary to make a good Fowl for the Farm
Neglect and Mismanagement of Poultry
Aunt Jane’s Management of Poultry
The Incubator, or Egg-hatching Machine
The superior Profit of Poultry over Beef, Mutton, and Pork
Pigeons and Farm Birds in general
THE RAT,
AND ITS DEVASTATING CHARACTER.
INTRODUCTION.
FOR years I have been studying the nature, fecundity, and devastating character of the RAT, and I have spared neither time nor trouble in obtaining all the information within my power. In my opinion it is a subject which materially concerns the general welfare of the human family. Nay, more; it seems to me extraordinary, that when the cleverest legislators, from time to time, have been exerting their minds and faculties to relieve agricultural and manufacturing depression, the subject of which I am now treating should have remained altogether unnoticed; for I believe these destructive vermin will be found to be a most fertile source of individual and national distress. In saying this much, it may perhaps be thought that I am attaching too much importance to the subject; but when the reader shall have perused this work, and given it that deep consideration which is necessary, I believe he will come to the same conclusion as myself.
I must here mention that none of the naturalists whom I have consulted give a clear definition of the rat. Some of them, it is true, present lucid descriptions of it as it is, even to the colour of a hair, or the length and diameter of its intestines; but as to its general habits, and what it does, they are most vague and imperfect.
Rats feed and labour in the dark; they shun the approach of man. If we enter a barn or granary, where hundreds are living, we shall not observe any, unless we disturb them in their hiding-places. If we go to a rick that may be one living mass within (a thing by no means uncommon),