Mole Catching The news that ten million moleskins are needed
for export will recall the days when, during and after the last war, mole-catching was one of the most profitable of country crafts; Pelts fetched high prices ; a man and a boy could trap hundreds of moles in a week, skinning and pegging out the pelts in the intervals of trapping. As the price of pelts declined, trapping in many districts ceased alto- gether, with the result that thousands of acres of pasture now look as if scarred by the upheavals of tiny bombs. Those who plan to do a little amateur mole-catching should not be deluded into think- ing that a molehill is the place to catch a mole. Moles work along certain regular tunnels, from which they make brief branch-excursions in search of food, without which it is said they cannot survive for more than four hours. Once that main tunnel is discovered—most often by a hedge, where soil is dry and light and workable—mole can be trapped with ease as they pass up and down.. A good mole- trapper knows that passage, as he opens it, by the way footpnnts have padded it continually down. Skins will now fetch threepence to fivepence each ; during the last war the price was at one time, believe, as high as ninepence.
Previous page
