THE MOUSE PLAGUE IN AUSTRALIA.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXV, Issue 2820, 9 August 1890, Page 6 (Supplement)

THE MOUSE PLAGUE IN AUSTRALIA.

! ♦ \ STARTLING INFORMATION. ! The Mundoora correspondent of the i Kapuuda Herald writes undes date June J 10: —"During the harvest farmers noted [ the number of mice, and said it presaged i a dry winter. It is certain that Hie dry i weather has caused a great increase, I until now the land swarms with inieo, ! and we pray for the frosts and rain to i destroy the pest, for the mice destroy or damage everything that is eatable, and tho paddocks show that a large quantity !of the gnin has been devoured. One ■ farmer has to resow seventy acres, ami several have had to do small pieces, ; whilst I know of one instance where no I crop is expected from over 100 acres, as the farmer says he will not resow now it : is so late. The wheat stacks are in an . awful mess. Thousands of bags must j have holm cut open in the station yard I alone. The grain ran out of the bags until it was two bags high on the outside, and the stacks began to collapse, I and although several men were constantly refilling for several days, it still remains a bag high. Tlia mice also devour a great deal. Our blacksmith had a bag (if wheat in his shop, and they ate I fully a third of the bagful. They fall ; into tha tanks by thousiuds, and spoil J the water. They ate the only bolltopper jin tho village, and the owner of Uiat. ! article one evening made out his accounts, i and next morning found that the mice I had got iuto his pocket and eaten I hem ; J they also destroyed a quarter of fresh ' beef for him. They ate the binding ot books, and havo given great, trouble at the public and Sunday schools in this way, and even the siicred cdiliees arc not spared, nor tho Snored. Word respoeled. A hole will be drilled through your best suit or dress as readily as a wheatbag, and whin you retire to rest they endeavour to emulate the Fijiau, and appreciate long pig. I have seen persons with pieces bitten off their hands and their feet, and know a lady who, having a sore linger, and poulticing it, had the poultice eaten and a part of the skin as well. One does not relish his diuuer after seeing twenty mice caught in a tea chest, and 103 caught iu a single night within a yard of the Hour bag with no other trap than a wheat bag containing a few grains laid on the kitchen lloor, and six cats iu the same room to keep the mice from going ' iu ;this is a fact, and I counted the mice. Hundreds of thousands must be slain ! daily, yet they decrease not. A fanner told me he had bought a pound of poison, and yet every evening he catches several hundreds by putting wheat in the drums of strippers, and then giving the beaters an occasional turn. Another ; captures as many as !)00 in a night iu one stripper. A neighbour set poison, and ] next morning found eighty-six dead mice on his table. Tlio same man huug a S wheat sack on tho side of tho barn, and caught 700 in it at once. At Mrs Haines's last night they trapped 1,000 in it zinc-lined bin. When tho children j went to capture them they rushed t; a ■ corner and piled up on each other, and j many of the top ones leaped over. This i week a man caug-bt 290 in a single hollow post, and it is the rulo to catch sever.il hundreds at each farm house nightly, and mauy of them keep about twenty eats. Tho cats aro satiated, and the mico are :nost audacious. I have sat still for a few minutes iu a room, and had a score of mice running about me ; one on one occasion coolly climbed upon my lap, and another stood looking at the candle until some hot grease was dropped on it. They run about the children's feet when they are at school, and tho members of the quadrille class have had them out on the i tloor as soon as a dance stopped. You I people in the south will not be able to ! realise what vast numbers there are of the pest even with the figures 1 have ; given. At first I thought the farmers, as i usual, were grumbling at nothing, Iso I visited a farm, and after dark J took a lantern and visited the barns and sheds, and I was astonished. If I ever saw a mouse, 1 saw 50.000 that night. When we opened the barn door they rushed over the hags iu a black mass quite covering the basis, and tha noise made by their lent was like that of a largo mob of sheep rushing nway. Kverywhere they rushed before us, and every part seemed alive with the little creatures. Next morning I counted over 000 that had fallen into kerosine-this and other utensils about the sheds. No doubt they destroy the seeds of many weeds. and they effectually clean the cesspits, but we shall not be sorry to see the hist of them.