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RATS AND MICE IN ESSEX.
By EDWARD A. FITCH, F.L.S., F.E.S., &c.
THROUGHOUT the winter and spring quite a plague of rats
and mice has raged in the eastern counties of England. I
have notes of this from Lincolnshire, Norfolk, East and West Suf-
folk, Herts, London district, and East Kent. This unwelcome visit-
ation, proving so especially destructive to farm produce, has been a
subject of common remark in our own county, and it is desirable
that a short account of the plague should find permanent record
in our pages.
I am sorry that exact details cannot generally be given. Although
almost every farmer has suffered considerable loss to his last year's
already too light crop (and in many cases the destruction caused by
these pests in the stacks has been enormous) still no exact estimate
of numbers or quantities has been attempted. Such records as the
following show this :—
CRESSING.—Farmers in this neighbourhood are great sufferers from this
pest. In many cases the rats and mice have eaten and spoilt the greater part of
the corn in the stacks, and many thousands have been killed.—"Essex Herald,"
13, v. 90.
The most severe cases of damage, in which any certain data are
given, are recorded in the following notes :—
CRESSING.—A farm in this parish has become subject to the rat plague.
Many hundreds of rats have been killed within the last three months, and they
continue to be killed at the rate of 40 a day.—"Essex Standard," 15, ii. 90.
WITHAM.—One day last week no less than 318 rats were killed from two
stacks which were being threshed on Freebourne's Farm, in the occupation of
Mr. J. Wakelin.—"Essex Standard," 8, iii. go.
HENHAM.—On Mr. Charles Marshall's farm at Henham 2,600 rats have
been killed since harvest.—"Essex Herald," II, iii. 90.
WIDFORD.—During the past month nearly 1,000 rats have been taken at
Mr. Pannell's farm. Mr. George Mann, of Chelmsford, recently caught one
weighing 1 lb. 6oz.—"Essex Herald," 1, iv. 90.
BILLERICAY.—During the last few days, at a small farm in Laindon parish,
upon some stacks of wheat being threshed by a steam threshing machine, no
fewer than 594 rats and about 1,000 mice were killed. These animals, it is need-
less to say, had made no small havoc with the corn.—"Essex Weekly News,"
25, iv. 90.
STEBBING—On Tuesday, in threshing a corn stack at Mr. Massey's,
Stebbing Park, the men found it literally swarming with rats. With the assist-