And I maintain that the mongoose cannot compare with the ferret anytime, for the simple reason that a small ferret can get anywhere that a Rat can, whilst the mongoose must wait until the Rat comes out to feed.  For instance, if a board of a floor be left up for a mongoose to get under the floor, it can only get into one of the joists; but a ferret can follow a Rat wherever it goes.  Then again, the Rats can smell a mongoose even 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.