en more strongly than they can smell a cat. So these facts prevent my
recommending a mongoose on any account. I have also heard of people
experimenting with different sorts of

DRUGS AND CHEMICALS

for enticing Rats out of their holes. I hope none of my readers will be
attracted with this device. I hold that there is nothing that will tempt
a Rat from its hole like hunger. The nearest approach that I have found
to entice the Rodent out of its hole is oil of aniseed or oil of rhodium,
but the latter is expensive. I can rely best on oil of aniseed, because
I have often successfully tried it in experiment upon the plate of a set
trap. I have placed only three or four drops of oil of aniseed upon the
plate of a set trap without bait, and often the trap has closed and
trapped the Rat by the nose; so that it will be seen that the Rat must
have been licking the plate, or it could not be caught in that manner. I
have also frequently noticed when I have set, say, 20 traps covered with
meal and sawdust mixed, that if I have put only two drops of oil of
aniseed on half the traps I should find next morning on looking at the
traps that most Rats are in those in which I had placed the aniseed. I
think that oil of rhodium and oil of aniseed are very good to drop on the
traps after setting, or to mix with the stuff with which the traps are
covered.

There is also another way of bolting Rats. Sometimes when the ferret is
put under a boarded floor, all the Rats will run together and pack
themselves in a heap at the end of a joist. When the Rats pack
themselves on each other thus, the ferret on reaching them will tackle
only one at a time. You can always tell when this happens by the ferret
working a long time and bolting no Rats. Now, immediately you notice
this, put your mouth near the hole where you have put the ferrets in, and
make a squealing noise with your mouth to imitate a squealing Rat. This
causes the heap of Rats at the end of the joist to disperse through fear,
and when they get running about they will bolt into the net. Many times
I have not had a bolt for half-an-hour and when I have squealed at the
hole I have had four or five Rats in the nets at once.

These are some of the methods of clearing Rats from various places, and
from experience I think they excel all others.

PART II. HOW TO KEEP AND WORK FERRETS.

The first necessity in ferret-keeping is that they shall be kept in
hutches or