The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1894-01-08

methods adopted for fighting these ver-
min is to scatter about mixture Of
powdered burnt gypsum and dry wheat
meal, to which sugar and a little aniseed
oil are added. The mice eat the stuff
with avidity. When taken into the
| stomach it combines with the gastric
juices to form solid ball, and Mr..
Mouse diessof indigestion.
! In Frnconia, Germany, the farmers
catch the mice alive and smear them
with mixture of cart grease and fish
oil, afterward letting them run free.
The odor of this preparation is so often
sive to the animals that they leave their
burrows and are easily killed, while it is
said that many actually run themselves
to death. One efficient, though costly
remedy, is the digging of pitfalls, wider
at the bottom than at che top, into
which the mice fall. Being unable to
get out, they die Of hunger. Cats have
been employed to destroy them. while
terrier dogs are even more effective. An
active man, armed with a spade, can
STAY thousands in day in an infested
district Poisons have not been found
TO work very well; besides they are dan
| gerous to domestic beasts.
Another method adopted is to scatter
small hay cocks over the land which
attract mum bers OF the mice for shelter.
Around the haycocks bitches are dug,
and then@iir is set to the hay. The ami
mails jump into the bitches and are read
| lily destroyed. On a single large estate
in Saxony 100000 of the little pests
were killed in seven weeks and delivered
to manure factory, which paid for
them at the rate of one cent for eight
nave suggested that field mice might
be inoculated with anthrax or scab.
The latter disease, it has been urged,
could be propogated among them with
out difficulty. Unfortunately the failure
of Pasteur's attempt to infect the raj bits
of Australia with fatal and contagious
complaint has thrown discredit on such
experiments. In Thessaly the resident
Turks regard the mouse plague as WISH
tation os God and are indisposed to
adopt any remedial measures. During
their recent affection they sent messen-
gers to Mecca to fetch molly water for
sprinkling ION the fields.
BumbIebees Destroyed.
1t is reckoned that two-thirds of the
humble bees in Great Britain are de-
honey stored away by those insects and
SO starve them. Now it is literally true
that anyone who kills a cat is upsetting
the natural balance of life to an extent
which will have an unfavorable effect
on the productiveness of garden and
field. Pussy's death permits more mice
to live. They wipe out the humble bees,
on which clover and many other plants
absolutely depend for their fertilization.
In the absence of the bum BILE bees these
plants do not fipen seed, and thus the
next crop is affected. ss2
Herodotus, the father of history, tells
an odd story of the invasion of Egypt
and Judea by Sennacherib, king of As
syria. The army of that monarch was
assailed by swarms of mice, which
poured in upon the soldiers, devour-
ing their quivers, by strings, and the
of arms, they fed in disorder, and great
numb ers of them were killed" This
event was COMMUNICATED by statue of
the Egyptian ruler with mouse in his
hand. Very nearly related to the field
mice are the Jennings, which are in
their way among the most remarkable of
animals. They are about five inches
long, with very short tails. Dwelling in
the highlands of the. great central noun
tain chain of Norway and Sweden, they
build their nests s.of straw, lined with
hair, under stones and hussocks of grass
They are very pugnacious. When dis
turbed instead OF trying Ito escape they
sit upright, kissing and showing fight.
Certain cultivated districts of Sweden
anu Norway, where these creatures are
ordinarily unknown, are occasionally at
intervals of from five to twenty-five
years, overrun by armies of them,
which steadily and slowly advance, al
ways,,in the same direction, regardless of
all obstacles, swimming across streams
and even lakes several miles in breadth,
and committing great devastation. In
turn they are pursued and harassed by
crowds of beasts and birds of prey, such
as bears, wolves, foxes wildcats,
weasels, eagles, hawks and owls. Even
domestic animals, cattle, goats and
reindeer. join in the hunt.
The Onward March Never Ceases.
None of these migrant jennings ever
return by the course from which they
come. The onward march of the sur
vivors never ceases until they reach the
sea, into which they plunge, and, swim
ming onward in the same direction as
before, perish in the waves. One re-
markable theory offered in explanation
Of this performance is that they are act
ing in obedience to an instinct inherited
from vastly more ancient times, and are
still seeking more congenial home in
supposed submerged Atlantis, to which
their ancestors of the micocene period
were won't to resort when driven from
their ordinary dwelling places.by crowd
ing and scarcity of food. AS matter
of fact, the JENNINGS which perish in
the sea are acting under the same blind
impulse that led them previously to
cross smaller pieces of water in safety.
No survivors of the migrating hordes
ever live to transmit their final and fatal
experience to subsequent generations, and
SO this gigantic mistake is periodically
repeated. Abnormal increase of numbers
and constant necessity for food bring
about the migrations from the highlands
to the lowlands, winding up in the
ocean. The animals only travel at night,
and pause when they find sustenance
plentiful. Exhaustion of the food sup
ply compels them to proceed. Naturally
they would not turn back on their
tracks, the region behind being eaten
bare. 1t is a curious fact that during
these journeys they multiply enormously
and even more rapidly than at home
Such a migration lasts f~-~-saeqe to three