The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1885-07-02
AREcRow
Decadence of Devices to Protect Corn
fields MI Woodruf's Supposititious

Decadence Of Devices to Protect Corn
fields = MT. Woodruf's supposititious
Cat.
Farmers complain that of late years
the scarecrow has become entirely use
less. There was q time when one
scarecrow with a st. Patrick's hat and
al Oshkosh frock coat would protect q
corn-field from crows of average in
telligence. but it is no longer e~fficacious.
The crows have become familiar with
she appearance of the tramps who in
fest all parts of the country. and it is
well understood in crow circles that
the tramp never carries a gum. n is
therefore harmless. The scarecrow SO
closely resembles the tramp that crows
fail to discriminate between them, and
imagining that the scarecrow is merely
a contemplate tramp, they steal corn
under the very shadow of its hat.
1t was always a mistake to suppose
that crows could be for any length of
time frightened by scarecrows. The
scarecrow was an imitation man, and
it ought to have been foreseen that the
crows would some day find that a scare
ROY incapable of firing a gun could do
no harm. The farmers should have ap-
pealed to that fear of the supernatural
which is inherent in all animals. Could
they have employed a ghost to protect
their corn-fields, not a single grain of
corn would have been stolen. The
success of Mr.. Woodruff efforts to rid
his house of rats by means of a ghostiy
cat is alone sufficient to prove that if
we really want to brighten animals we
must appeal to their fear of the super
natural.
1t is well known that rat and mice
can not be successfully resisted with
traps. Young rats may occasionally
wander into a trap. but every expert
enced rat knows a trap when he sees it
and simply laughs att. In every house
there are sure to be two or three leading
and influential rats who are perfectly
familiar with traps, and who warn their
younger associates to beware of them.
The old-fashioned spring trap is deci-
| dedly popular among rats, for the reason
that they can readily spring it and af
terward carry off the cheese at then
leisure. AS for those ingenious traps
designed to catch mice alive, they are
| entirely worthless. A. rat who sees a
small box with a seductive piece of
cheese displayed behind the iron bars of
an attractive-looking compartment
knows perfectly we'll that it is a trap,
and he will refuse to enter the door OF
| the box even when it is decorated with
| the legend in large plain letters: RATS
| will please enter and turn to the left.
| The best of free cheese always on hand"
MI. Woodruff having spent much
money on traps, and having found that
| poison was in vain and real cats were
lazy, decided to try the experiment OF
frightening rats by convincing them that
the house was haunted. He prepared a
large stuffed cat with green glass eyes
and a ferocious and sarcastic smile, and
placed in her interior an electric light.
There was a large closet in his bedroom
which contained half a dozen rat holes
from which rats came forth every night
on foraging expeditions. In the middle
of this closet he placed the cat and con-
nected her internal light with wires
running to a battery near his beside.
Having thus prepared his feline ghost
Mr.. Woodruff went to bed and waited
for the rats. As soon as the house was
quiet the rats came out. and when,
Judging from the noise, there were at
least a dozen in the room, he turned on
his electric light. Wild squeaks of hor-
ror greeted the awful appearance OF
the ghostly cat, with her glowing eyes
and shining teeth, and there was tho
rush of many feet as the frightened
rats fled to.their holes. MI. Woodruff,
chuckling over the success of his ex-
pertinent, arose and examined the
closet. Two rats, who had tried to
enter the same hole at the same time
and had become securely jammed. were
kicking fiercely. while three female rats
lay on the floor in a dead swoon. These
were soon seized and committed to the
vastly bathtub, aud the ghostly cat was
left to stand guard e the rat holes
till daylight.
What is still more remarkable, the
rats left the house without an hours
delay. There had previousl: been, at
a low estimate, fully 1000 rats in that
house, not to speak of swarms of sub
s;diary mice. From the hour when the
stuffed cats electric light began to
glow not a rat or a mouse has been seen
in Mr.. Woodruf's house. The animals
that had laughed at traps, Knocked at
real cats and grown fat on poison,
were frightened off the prem ses by a
single apparition of a apparently super.
natural cat, and their stores have given
the house such an uncanny reputation
that it is safe to prophesy that rats and
mice will avoid it for years to come.
The farmers should take a hint from
Mr.. Woodruff's success. If they could
invent a scarecrow representing a tramp
at work the Crows would be vanquished.
They would, of course, assume the
working tramp to be a supernatural
being, and the terror with which tn;
sight would fill them would rid the
whole region of crows for at least during