to hurt them in taking them from the traps; for their cries never fail to excite terror and mistrust to all in the vicinity, and will generally prevent any more being taken within the succeeding twenty-four hours; it will therefore be proper to take the rats to some distance to destroy them. The greatest degree of precaution should also be used not to suffer a rat to escape after being taken, for animals have generally powers of conveying their apprehensions of danger to each other, though they do not seem at all capable of informing each other of the form or nature of the enemy or danger apprehended.

"The traps will require to have a small quantity of prepared malt thrown into them each day; and it will be necessary to renew the scented straw once in five or six days. It is always advantageous to take out the rats as soon as possible after the traps have struck; and, therefore, when the rats are numerous, and have entered the traps freely, it will not be eligible to let them remain set when they are left for the night; because few rats only can be taken by the traps during the night when they are not attended, and the remainder come more boldly into the traps the next day, if they have had full liberty to enter the traps with impunity during the preceding night, than if, during the same period, they have seen one of their companions labouring to break through the bars of his prison. But when the number remaining is small, and the destruction of a few rats comparatively important, the traps may remain set during the night; and it will not unfrequently happen that a rat having been struck by the falling of the doors, or otherwise rendered suspicious, will not approach the trap till late at night, when all is quiet. If there be any cats about the house or buildings where it is proposed to take the rats by the preceding means, these should be previously confined or taken away; for they will otherwise often approach, and even enter the traps; and when one is taken, it communicates a scent to the trap, which will render it wholly useless, till it has been exposed some time to the air and rescented. Dogs should also be prevented approaching the traps, and no person, except those employed previously in baiting and setting them, should be permitted to touch them; for animals of many kinds probably distinguish

individuals of the human species from each other by their scent and smell; and the rats, after part of their number have disappeared, will sometimes take alarm at a stranger; and it will on this and other accounts be desirable to select such places for the traps, wherever that is practicable, as can be secured by locks.

"Should any particular trap be found not to take like the others, it will be proper to examine it, and make its doors fall and set again; for the falling of the bridge will sometimes be prevented by some substance getting under it; and it may also, where proper care has not been taken, rest upon the floor of the trap; in which case, it cannot possibly be disengaged by the weight of the rats.”

We have always found that the best time for catching is early in the morning, as at that time, and during the day, the traps are most easily attended to; and it is an injurious thing, and to be avoided if possible, allowing the rats to remain long in the traps before you destroy them. In some cases, however, where they have been made suspicious and shy, it is necessary, although inconvenient, to carry on the war during the night.

The book itself is written in a clear, distinct, and intelligible style, and does credit to the education of the author.

He subjoins also some rules for catching the common mouse and the long and short tailed field mouse, which are deserving of attention, and which we recommend to the notice of those who suffer from their depredations.

ON THE MANURE REQUIRED FOR A COURSE OF CROPS, AND THE PROPORTION OF IT WHICH THE DIFFERENT SPECIES

ARE CAPABLE OF PRODUCING. By Dr COVENTRY, Professor of Agriculture in the University of Edinburgh.

AGRICULTURE and the management of live stock form the principal departments of husbandry. The object of agriculture is the acquisition of such vegetable produce as will best suit the situation and purpose of the husbandman. It consists of two branches.

First, The cultivation and general management of arable lands, either such as are already tilled, or such as might be rendered fit for tillage, and profitably kept in common course, for a longer or shorter term, under that mode of culture: And, Secondly, The treatment of lands not under tillage, with the application of their produce.

What relates to the cultivation of the former class of lands may be included under three heads. 1. The means commonly employed in the culture of arable land in general, chiefly drainage, tillage, and manuring: 2. The culture and management suited to the different species of crops respectively: And, 3. The schemes of cropping, with the order in which the different species should be raised.

It is an important subject of inquiry, how the kinds of produce best adapted for different situations, soils, and purposes, should be selected and assorted, so as to obtain, at the cheapest rate, and with the most certain success, those which are the most advantageous, and best correspond with the nature of particular possessions, and the husbandman's means of raising them, keeping in view general economy and profit, and the full supply of manure requisite to support the fertility of the soil.

The circumstance of any situation alone can determine what are the most proper species of crops for culture; the best proportion in which the different species should be cultivated; and the best order or succession with respect to one another, in which they should be raised. Certain particulars, also, in different cases, require the attentive consideration of husbandmen, when about to settle the mode of culture for their arable fields; and there are some of them of general import, and others more connected with particular or separate possessions.

First, The general circumstances, or those which relate to the husbandry of the district, and which require attention in fixing a rotation or course, are,-1. The character of the climate: 2. The general nature of the soil: 3. The acquisition of manure, and particularly whether any extraneous supply of putrescent manure can be obtained: 4. The markets, as more or less distant, or as adapted for the disposal of some articles of produce more than others: 5. The kind of husbandry followed

in other parts of the cultivator's own land, or the general husbandry pursued by him, and that pursued in the district at large, so far at least as it may concern his interest or affect his own scheme: in order that the whole might form one rational, consistent, and united system of husbandry.

Secondly, Those particulars which are more connected with the management of separate possessions, and fields, are,1. The advantages of having, at suitable times, and of managing in a proper manner, an herbage crop, such as grass, clover, &c. The expediency and advantages of cleansing the land of weeds, either by a fallow, with the loss or with the delay of a crop, or with the substitution of one crop for another; or by a hoed crop, otherwise called a "fallow crop :" 3. The benefits which attend the raising of crops best adapted to the nature and state of the land: 4. The propriety of raising the crops most suitable to the condition of the manure: 5. The benefits that arise from causing the manurings and the cleansing process correspond in the times when they are performed, and of making the endurance of the herbage crops, and the length of the whole course, such as will suit with these operations, and accomplish this purpose: 6. The advantages of raising different species of corn and other crops, to divide the labour, and ensure more success otherwise: 7. The advantage of regularity in cropping, and in the general arrangement of labour.

The foregoing particulars being all of them more or less kept in view by the husbandman, he should next endeavour to compare different schemes of culture and cropping, in order to ascertain how far the latter agree with the rules which may be drawn from a consideration of the former. He will never be able to determine what are the most beneficial courses of crops, namely, such as enhance his own profit, and promote the improvement of the soil, till he shall understand how the peculiar advantages resulting from such courses arise, and what are the disadvantages which, in certain cases, attend them.

All schemes for the cultivation and cropping of arable land, should invariably be formed after duly considering the three leading particulars on which their relative value or preferableness chiefly, if not wholly, depends. These are the labour of cultivating the different species, which very much determines

their prime cost to the cultivator; the manure requisite for the species composing the course; and the quantity they are capable of affording respectively,-considerations of vast importance, as, by the proportion of it required and afforded, one is able to judge how far any particular course of cropping is capable of being supported; and the price which the different sorts of produce bring in the market, or the return which they otherwise make to the cultivator. It is at present proposed to direct attention to the second of the particulars here referred to, namely.

manure.

What relates to the quantity of manure necessary for raising a course of crops on arable land, and the proportion which the different species are respectively capable of affording, when they are consumed on the possession, as forage or litter to live stock, or otherwise, forms an inquiry of primary consequence in every situation. Ignorance and wrong notions about this matter, have often produced serious errors in practice; and the information concerning it found in books on agriculture, is in general scanty, and seldom correct. It is therefore an object to ascertain, as precisely as possible, what are the particulars that merit chief notice on the subject of cropping, the selection of the proper species, the most suitable proportion that should subsist among them, and the most useful and convenient order in which they should be raised. Here some general data, or admitted facts, must be assumed, before one can be in a condition to reason correctly on the subject, or be able to reduce the numerous observations that have been made on it to an useful shape, and to combine, with good or just effect, the various considerations and circumstances connected with it, so as to regulate and improve the practice.

As to the quantity of manure requisite, it may be sufficient to observe, that, from different accounts, it is probable that ground of a medium degree of fertility, and of a medium situation and character, as to altitude and climate, would require, per acre, about five tons of ordinary putrescent manure for each year of

The manure is supposed to be the putrescent mass of common "muck," or the farm-yard compost, made up of the dung and straw from the different offices, and in its ordinary state of preparation, or to be just so rotten as to spread equally over the ground for a turnip or potato crop (for it is not