Full Revelations of a Professional Rat-catcher | Page 7

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 "cotes," as they are commonly called. Care must always be taken to have their places well swilled with carbolic water, and then allowed to thoroughly dry before whitewashing the inside, which is also essential to keep them healthy. This should be done at least four times a year. Always have your hutches leaning from the wall, so that wet or refuse will not lodge, for when the bottom of a hutch is always wet it is liable to give the ferrets a disease called foot rot, which is very frequent where ferrets are neglected. Always keep the feeding part of the hutch well covered with sawdust.
In feeding ferrets for the purpose of Rat-catching, never do so before going out with them; I think it is quite sufficient to feed them every 24 hours. If you feed them oftener they are liable to get too fat, and also lazy and unwilling to work as they should. The best food you can give them is bread and milk, and occasionally a little raw liver. Mix the bread and milk with a little hot water, stir well with a spoon or squeeze through your fingers, so that the ferrets will have to eat it where you feed them; if not they will carry the large pieces of bread that are wet into the corners of the sleeping place, which would soon cause that part of the hutch to smell very sour and become injurious to the health of the ferret, especially where four or five are kept together, as they are of a very perspiring nature. Always give them plenty of room to run about when you can; if you don't they are likely to take cramp.
Ferrets are usually subject to distemper. The first symptom is the ferret's neglect of its food. When you see this you will observe a little matter at the corner of the eyes, and the ferret will have a slight running at the nostrils. Immediately you see these symptoms separate that ferret from the others, as this is, I think, the worst disease one has to contend with.
In the whole of my ferret-keeping experience I have found distemper, if caught in time, can be cured; but if it gets too far I know of no cure for it. I have known a gamekeeper to have dogs with the distemper, and he has not touched his ferrets or handled them at all during the time his dogs were bad, yet a week afterwards his ferrets caught the disease. He tried all the remedies he knew of, but in 14 days 12 hitherto good, strong, healthy ferrets died: all he had. This will show at once that the disease is very contagious. The moment you see signs of distemper coming on feed the ferret as little as possible. Give it as little to eat as will just