it will never look at another. It is a very bad plan to let a pup play with a Rat too much, for this causes the pup never to put a hard mouth on the Rat. When this latter occurs it is the best plan not to allow the same pup to see another Rat until it is a month or two older. If you will take care and trouble with a pup you can bring it up to your own liking, and to do anything you want. I have worked seven years with a curly-coated retriever bitch, and when ferreting a brook she would stand in the water and catch the Rats that escaped from the nets into the brook and bring them to me alive in her mouth. I have sold hundreds of Rats she has caught in this manner, and to show you how the dogs can be brought up with the ferrets I need only mention that this bitch would lie down and let two ferrets kill a Rat on the curly coat of her back.
Farmers know too well of the many restless nights the cows and horses experience through Rats. I have seen when trapping all night at a farm the Rats running over the cows and horses whilst sleeping: and when horses have been working in the field all day they want better rest in the night. I have known when farmers would not let the Rat-catcher ferret their buildings gratis, simply because they have
a few hens sitting. They don’t consider that when the hens have hatched the eggs the Rats will take the chickens. Whenever a farmer has refused to let me ferret at his farm I have passed that farm ever afterwards. To show you the different dispositions of farmers I have met, I may mention that when once ferreting at a farm, we caught nine rats and lost the ferret, and two days afterwards the ferret was found on the farm, and I sent for it, but the farmer demanded two shillings of me for the ferret’s keep. This same man I may add farmed about two hundred acres.
Of course, there are other farmers just the opposite, who will not only pay you for your trouble, but take great interest in helping you to catch the Rats. I relate these facts and incidents to show you the contrast in the disposition of different people one meets in this business.
I don’t think the Rat-catcher’s life is one of the worst if he looks well after his business, for he has a few advantages over other occupations. In the first place, he is his own master, and need only doff his coat when he chooses, there being for him no such summons to work as a factory bell. And if he fancies a day’s outing in the country he can always take his dog and ferrets with him, and make a
day’s pleasure into a remunerative business, by reason of the income from the Rats, and I find from experience that the best friends he has are his dog and ferrets, if he will look well after them and treat them kindly, for I think that a Rat-catcher in the country without a good dog might walk over scores of Rats and never know they were there, so you will see that his dog is chiefly what he has to trust to.
And now, in conclusion, let me express the hope that this book will prove instructive, entertaining, and profitable to my readers, inasmuch as I have endeavoured to make it so to the best of my ability and within the somewhat limited scope and sphere of a Rat-catcher’s calling. Of course, I might have made the narrative portion of the book more startling and exciting, had I drawn upon my imagination, but I have thought it best to adhere to cold fact and actual experience.
HINTS ON RABBIT SHOOTING.
Always have your gun made at your gunmaker’s to your own liking.
Always be prepared for the worst of weather, and be sure to have good strong boots.