Mrs. Hale's Receipts for the Million: Containing Four Thousand Five Hundred and Forty-five Receipts, Facts, Directions, etc. in the Useful, Ornamental, and Domestic Arts
John Stuart Mill · en
1059. _To destroy Vermin in Granaries and other Outbuildings._--Cover
completely the walls and rafters, above and below, of the granaries,
&c., which are infested with weevils and other vermin, with
quick-lime slaked in water, in which trefoil, wormwood, and hyssop
have been boiled. This composition ought to be applied as hot as
possible.
1060. _To destroy Worms in Gardens._--Water your beds with a strong
decoction of walnut-tree leaves where there are worm casts; the worms
will immediately rise up out of the earth, and you may easily take
and cut them to pieces, and fatten your poultry therewith, or feed
fish in ponds with them.
By laying ashes or lime about any plant, neither snails nor worms
will come near it. As the moisture weakens it, you must, more or
less, continue to renew the lime or ashes.
1061. _To destroy Worms in Gravel Walks, &c._--Pour into the holes a
ley, made of wood ashes and lime; this will also destroy insects, if
trees are sprinkled with it. Salt and water will do as well.
1062. _Usefulness of the Wren in destroying Insects._--As a devourer
of pernicious insects, one of the most useful birds is the house
wren. This little bird seems to be particularly fond of the society
of man, and it must be confessed that it is often protected by his
interested care. It has long been a custom, in many parts of the
country, to fix a small box at the end of a long pole, in gardens,
about houses, &c., as a place for it to build in. In these boxes they
build and hatch their young. When the young are hatched, the parent
bird feeds them with a variety of different insects, particularly
such as are injurious in gardens. An intelligent gentleman was at
the trouble to observe the number of times a pair of these birds
came from their box, and returned with insects for their young. He
found that they did this from 40 to 60 times in an hour, and in one
particular hour, the birds carried food to their young 71 times. In
this business they were engaged the greater part of the day; say
12 hours. Taking the medium therefore of 50 times in an hour, it
appeared that a single pair of these birds took from the cabbage,
salad, beans, peas, and other vegetables in the garden, at least 600
insects in the course of one day. This calculation proceeds upon the
supposition that the two birds took only a single insect each time.
But it is highly probable they often took several at a time.
1063. _To destroy Rats and other Vermin._--Sponge, if cut in small
pieces, fried or dipped in honey, and given to vermin, distends their
intestines, and effectually destroys them. The addition of a little
oil of Rhodium will tempt them to eat.
A better method would be to feed them regularly two or three weeks
in any apartment which they infest. The hole, by which they enter,
being first fitted with a sliding door, to which a long string may be
added; any apartment might thus be turned into a gigantic rat-trap.