ant
are thoroughly eradicated. This may be accomplished by smoking
the trap over burning paper, hens' feathers or chips, taking care
to avoid a heat so extreme as to affect the temper of the steel
springs. All rat-traps should be treated the same way, in order to
insure success, and the position and localities of setting should
be frequently changed.

THE BOX DEAD-FALL.

[Illustration]

This trap is an old invention, simplified by the author, and for
the capture of rats and mice will prove very effectual. It consists
of a box, constructed of four slabs of 3-4 inch boarding, and open
at both ends. The two side boards should be 10 x 18 inches; top
and bottom boards, 6 x 18 inches. For the centre of the latter,
a square piece should be removed by the aid of the saw. The width
of this piece should be four inches, and the length eight inches.
Before nailing the boards together, the holes thus left in the
bottom board should be supplied with a treadle platform, working
on central side pivots. The board for this treadle should be much
thinner and lighter than the rest of the trap, and should fit loosely
in place, its surface being slightly below the level of the bottom
board. This is shown in the interior of the trap. The pivots should
be inserted in the exact centre of the sides, through holes made
in the edge of the bottom board. These holes may be bored with
a gimlet or burned with a red-hot wire. The pivots may
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consist of stout brass or iron wire; and the end of one should
be flattened with the hammer, as seen in (_a_). This pivot should
project an inch from the wood, and should be _firmly_ inserted
in the treadle-piece. The platform being thus arranged, proceed
to fasten the boards together, as shown in the illustration, the
top and bottom boards overlapping the others. We will now give
our attention to the stick shown at (_b_). This should be whittled
from a piece of hard wood, its length being three inches, and its
upper end pointed as seen. The lower end should be pierced with a
crevice, which should then be forced over the flattened extremity
of the point (_a_) as shown at (_c_), pointed end uppermost. The
weight (_d_) is next in order. This should consist of a heavy oak
plank two inches in thickness, and of such other dimensions as will
allow it to fit loosely in the box, and fall from top to bottom
therein without catching between two sides. A stout staple should
be driven in the centre of its up