Rats. I submitted my price to do the job, and when I went down one night
with 40 traps, dog, and two ferrets I thought I should catch 20 or 30
Rats, but I found that they had plagued them so much with their attempted
trapping that I only caught three in the whole night. This place
belonged to a limited company, and when I went before the committee the
next morning they were not satisfied. I told them that their own
workpeople had tormented the Rats so much with traps that the Rats would
not go near one. I then told the committee that I would still stick to
my terms, but I would leave the job over for a fortnight. Now during
that fortnight I went down a good many times, and laid the sawdust as I
have already described, and thus got the Rats used to it. The first
night that I went catching I took with me 33 traps. I had them all set
by 8-30 p.m., and by 12-30 a.m. I had trapped 45 Rats; the next night 31
Rats; and before I completed the job, with the trapping and the other
ways that I have mentioned, I caught 183 Rats! This I give merely as an
illustration to show the necessity of engaging an experienced man to
catch Rats--that is, if you want them caught. And to confirm the
statements above, I shall be most happy to supply privately the name and
place of the firm, and also to give a personal interview if necessary.

And now a word or two respecting the different ways in which Rat-catchers
are treated. Many people think that a Rat-catcher is favoured if they
give him permission to catch Rats on their farms or round the banks of
their corn or wheat fields. Well, on some occasions I grant this may be
a favour, for I have seen when I have had an order in hand for about 10
dozen Rats, and have had only a day or two in which to get them. Such
are the only times and circumstances when a Rat-catcher gives his
services gratis, and simply because he wants the live Rats. Most farmers
will send you word when they are threshing their corn, and then the value
of the Rats are worth the day's work to the Rat-catcher.