21 APRIL 1928, Page 12

. This is, with some omissions, what he writes :

" With

reference to the article in the Spectator of March 24th, 1928, I can say nothing in favour of the use of the steel trap for catching rabbits, but I know of no other means of keeping' down rats, stoats and weasels. To do this there is no necessity to set the trap in the open. It can always be set in either the rat hole or in artificially made runs covered with turf and other material to disguise them. If these runs are not made too large, there should be no danger to dogs, cats or foxes, or to pheasants or partridges, and it seems to me that if the height and breadth of the run' was strictly defined it would very greatly diminish, if not entirely do away with the risk oi catching animals other than vermin, which' it would be difficult to keep down without the use of the steel trap. I see no necessity for its use 'in keeping down rabbits. On one estate I managed in the Eastern Counties they used to sell thouSands, and these were all caught with ferrets and nets.".

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