the traps are set as private
as possible; and when they are set for catching, mix no bread with the
bait, as the rats will, in that case, be apt to carry it away. And it is
useful, when the holes are found quiet, and that no rats use them, to
stop them up with the following composition. Take a pint of common tar,
half an ounce of pearl-ashes, an ounce of oil of vitriol, and a good
handful of common salt, mix them all well together in an old pan or pot.
Take some pieces of paper, and lay some of the above mixture very thick
on them; then stop the holes well up with them, and build up the mouth
of the holes with brick or stone, and mortar; if this be properly done,
rats will no more approach these while either smell or taste remains in
the composition. But with a view to destroy rats in places where traps
cannot be set, it is recommended to take a quart of the above bait, then
to rasp into it three nuts of nux vomica, and add a quarter of a pound
of crumb of bread, if there was none before; mix them all well together,
and lay it into the mouth of their holes, and in different places where
they frequent; but first give them of the bait without nux vomica, for
three or four succeeding nights; and when they find it agrees with them,
they will eat that mixed with the nut with greediness. However, as it is
frequently found that rats are very troublesome in sewers and drains,
in such cases arsenic may be used with success in the following manner.
Take some dead rats, and having put some white arsenic, finely powdered,
into an old pepper-box, shake a quantity of it on the foreparts of the
dead rats, and put them down the holes, or avenues, by the sides of the
sewers at which they come in; this puts a stop to the live ones coming
any further; for when they perceive the arsenic, they will retire
immediately; whereas, if they were put down without the arsenic, the
live ones would eat them. It is by means of arsenic, notwithstanding the
above observations, that the most certain method of destroying these
troublesome vermin, (provided they can be made to eat it,) takes place;
which has been found to answer best when it is prepared by being finely
levigated, and mixed up with very strong old cheese and oatmeal. But
after all, it is probable that this highly destructive animal, and great
pest to the farmer, might be most readily exterminated by parishes
uniting for the purpose, and raising certain sums of money to be applied
in this way