R RI TR

224 AGRICTULTURAËE SURVEY

Vermin This is an obje that requires more general ate

tention than has hitherto been paid to it.

Individuals may have exerted themſelves, and incucred great expence; but theſe exertions are of ſmall avail, whilſt ſur- rounding neighbours are arbouring nurſeries, to make future depredations upon thoſe premiſcs which they find untenanted, Several town(hips have, of late, aſſociated together, and en- gaged a mole-catcher, at the rate of four-pence per acre, for a term of ſeven years; in which period of time the mole- catcher imagines he can nearly have deſtroyed the race of thoſe animals in the diſtri&t, This effort, towards a total extirpa- tion, muſt bé more efffflMcacious than the greateſt exertions of in- dividuals. Itis a doubt, after all, whether moles may not be uſe- ful animals in the deſtrudtion of certain noxious earrh-worms.

Kats are a very deſtruQive animal, not only amongſt grain, but other articles; they are frequêntly brought in abundance into the ſea-ports in corn, and other veſſels. The ſame mode has been very lately adopted, by particular townſhips, towards a general deſtruction of theſe very troubleſome and voracious animals#,:

Sparrows SSSR,

€ THROUGE the vehicle of Mr. Young?s uſeful Annals, T am informed of the eſtabliſhment of a moſt excellent and honour- able Board of Agriculture, under whom, I find, you are appointed to the furvey of this county. To you therefore, I beg leave to addreſs this, though it is not a diret anſwer to any of the queries propoſed by the Board; yet, I truft, it may be conſidered, as having ſome relation to the former part of the laſt. This country 1s, to a very great degree, infeſted with that moſt deſtruétive vermin, rats: I ſhall not, now, attempt any îtatement of the probable damages they may be ſuppoſed to do us; but the annual loſſes we ſuſtain by them in our buildings, corn, and other goods, is very confſider- able. I, and mott of the principal farmers, and others, for a circuit of about 20 or 30 miles, have, for ſome time, employed Edmund Heathcote, of Ormſkirk, who has a very expeditious, efffeCual, and ſafe mode of de- ftroying them; but this affords us only a temporary relief, for we are, (perhaps from our neighbours, who had not theirs deſtroyed) before long,

again infeſted.

<“ In ſome townMips they have employed him to clear the whole for a ſtipulated ſum, paid annually, out of ſome pound-rate-ley, which is fo trifling, as not to be felt by any individual: and has, IL hear, nearly the wiſhed-for effet(a). But even this is ceriainly a plan too circumſcribed to zuíwer any great end. My reaſon, therefore, for troubling you with thisy

(a) About one halfpenny in the aſleſled rates»