B-YOUNG-FARMER’S| PERE TATE COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT: i a) bis ALA a ab Dein We) nis 23 Pit ies ie Deak r ney ie Al THE YOUNG FARMER’S PRACTICAL LIBRARY EDITED BY ERNEST INGERSOLL ANIMAL COMPETITORS BY ERNEST INGERSOLL The Young Farmer’s Practical Library EDITED BY ERNEST INGERSOLL Cloth i6mo Illustrated each 75 cents zed. From Kitchen to Garret. By VzurGinia TERHUNE VAN DE WATER. Neighborhood Entertainments. By RENEE B. STERN, of the Congressional Library. Home Waterworks. By Carieron J. LynpE, Professor of Physics in Mac- donald College, Quebec. Animal Competitors. By Ernest INGERSOLL. The Farm Mechanic. By L. W. CHASE, Professor of Farm Mechanics in the University of Nebraska. The Satisfactions of Country Life. By Dr. JAMES W. RoseErtson, Principal of Macdonald College, Quebec. Roads, Paths and Bridges. By L. W. PAGE, Chief of the Office of Public Roads, U. S. Department of Agriculture. Health on the Farm. By Dr. L. F. Harris, Secretary Georgia State Board of Health. Electricity on the Farm. By Frepericx M. Contes. Co-operation Among Farmers. By Joun LEE. CouLTErR. ‘plojpog Jo sseyong oy} Aq AOyINY oY} 01 UBAIS pue poydeasojoyg ‘ANWIONGA ‘ANIHSaYOAGdaA ‘qu0adaqd dO AMAd GHL JO ALVLSA AWL ‘AGHEVY NYOYOM LV daaHS GNV YaId NOIMNOd ANIMAL COMPETITORS PROFIT AND LOSS FROM THE WILD FOUR-FOOTED TENANTS OF THE FARM BY ERNEST INGERSOLL EDITOR OF THE YOUNG FARMER’S PRACTICAL LIBRARY, AND AUTHOR or “THE LIFE OF MAMMALS,” “‘ WIT OF THE WILD,” ‘“ WILD LIFE OF ORCHARD AND FIELD,” ETC. ILLUSTRATED Tew Work STURGIS & WALTON COMPANY 1911 All rights reserved Copyright 1911 By STURGIS & WALTON COMPANY Set up and electrotyped. Published April, 1911 aaa Bs Gc.az2s9699 INTRODUCTION BY THE GENERAL EDITOR This is the day of the small book. There is much to be done. Time is short. Information is earnestly desired, but it is wanted in compact form, confined directly to the subject in view, authenticated by real knowledge, and, withal, gracefully delivered. It is to fulfill these con- ditions that the present series has been pro- jected—to lend real assistance to those who are looking about for new tools and fresh ideas. It is addressed especially to the man and woman at a distance from the libraries, exhibi- tions, and daily notes of progress, which are the main advantage, to a studious mind, of liv- ing in or near a large city. The editor has had in view, especially, the farmer and villager who is striving to make the life of himself and his family broader and brighter, as well as to increase his bank account; and it is therefore in the humane, rather than in a commercial di- rection, that the Library has been planned. Vv vi INTRODUCTION The average American little needs advice on the conduct of his farm or business; or, if he thinks he does, a large supply of such help in farming and trading as books and periodicals can give, is available to him. But many a man who is well to do and knows how to continue to make money, is ignorant how to spend it in a way to bring to himself, and confer upon his wife and children, those conveniences, comforts and niceties which alone make money worth acquiring and life worth living. He hardly realizes that they are within his reach. For suggestion and guidance in this direction there is a real call, to which this series is an answer. It proposes to tell its readers how they can make work easier, health more secure, and the home more enjoyable and tenacious of the whole family. No evil in American rural life is so great as the tendency of the young people to leave the farm and the village. The only way to overcome this evil is to make rural life less hard and sordid; more comfortable and attractive. It is to the solving of that problem that these books are addressed. Their central idea is to show how country life may be made INTRODUCTION Vil richer in interest, broader in its activities and its outlook, and sweeter to the taste. To this end men and women who have given each a lifetime of study and thought to his or her speciality, will contribute to the Library, and it is safe to promise that each volume will join with its eminently practical information a still more valuable stimulation of thought. ERnest INGERSOLL. as = ee es =? a0 mae RN —— “ ca. My meee eo = Seen See a iG APD TG i a far Cee) oT 4 Uy bap PREFATORY NOTE The writer could hardly claim much original- ity for this book, were he so disposed. His aim has not been a literary one, but rather to compose a useful handbook of the mammals— the wild four-footed tenants—of our American farm-lands, from the point of view of the agriculturist, orchardist and ranchman. The United States Department of Agriculture, through its various departments and publica- tions, has from time to time issued information —vast in its sum—in respect to economic zoology; and most of the Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations in the several States have repeated and supplemented this exten- sively. The bulk of this proffered matter, how- ever, relates to the ravages of injurious insects, or to the beauty and usefulness of birds—sub- jects which may receive attention in future volumes in this Library. The economic importance of the mammals— 1X x PREFATORY NOTE the rats, field-mice, rabbits, gophers, ground- squirrels, muskrats, etc.; the fox, the wolves and the fur-bearers; the deer and their kin— have been appreciated by very few; yet the harm done annually by one unchecked class of them entails a vast waste, while the benefit which might be obtained from another class is lost because their lives are little cared for and their capabilities for profitable exploitation al- most wholly neglected. It is hoped that this book will lead to a re- versal of this wasteful and negligent state of affairs; and that by its help the farmer’s friends among the wild animals about him may be encouraged and his foes subdued. Thus the account of the agriculturist with his four- footed competitors may be changed from a need- lessly heavy balance on the loss side, to one of profit, reckoned partly in savings and partly in ‘‘new business.’’ | My sources of statistical information, espe- cially for the West, have been largely reports of investigations conducted by the Biological Survey. These reports, it is true, have been widely distributed during the past ten years, PRM WAMORY INOUE oc) x.) but they have gone out as chapters in forbid- ding public documents, or else separately in loose pamphlets which in most cases have been speedily lost. It is impracticable for the or- dinary man to get copies of them now if he tries, and their usefulness has therefore come to an untimely end. Among them are original and valuable essays by Dr. C. Hart Merriam, Chief of the Biological Survey until his resig- nation in 1910, when H. W. Henshaw succeeded to his office; Vernon Bailey, the assistant in charge of field investigations; David EK. Lantz, Wilfred H. Osgood, E. W. Palmer, Stanley I. Piper, EH. W. Nelson, Edward A. Goldman, and others attached to the Department. Knowing the accuracy and importance of this half-lost material, and also aware that nothing better could be furnished in its stead, I have not hesitated to make liberal use of it, often in its own well-chosen language. It was writ- ten for the benefit of the public; and I am con- fident the gentlemen above mentioned will gladly see it renew its usefulness in the per- manent form a bound book affords, and rejoice in the greater force their facts and recommen- Xil PREFATORY NOTH dations will obtain by being associated in an orderly array. To them belongs credit for the larger part of the facts presented in the pages that follow. I have simply arranged and enforced the material anew in the most suitable form I could devise. Attention may be called, further, to one novel feature in the book, namely, the detailed in- structions as to the cultivation of certain wild animals in captivity as an industry. Among those recommended for this purpose are the deer, for sale alive to parks, and to furnish venison to market; the muskrat for food and skins; the silver fox for its costly pelt, and — such other fur-bearers as the mink and skunk. All over the country young men are so situated as to be able to add one or more of these enter- prises to their year’s work, and to derive from them an attractive addition to the annual in- come, while contributing in no small degree to the general wealth and welfare of the country. New York, Jan. 1, 1911. CONTENTS CHAPTER I THE PEST oF RATS Varieties of rats—Cost of their board—Destructiveness— Carriers of disease—Breeders of bubonic plague—Pre- cautions and suppression—Need of coéperation CHAPTER II THE PANTRY MOUSE Dancing mice—Rapid increase—Carrying diseases—Musi- cal mice . CHAPTER HI THE MEADOW-MOUSE AND ITS MISCHIEF American voles—Prairie-mice and Pine-mice—Multiplica- tion into plagues—Prevention of plagues—Damage to crops considered—Protection of young trees CHAPTER IV PROFIT FROM THE MUSKRAT Damage by muskrats—Excellence of muskrat flesh—Fur in demand—Methods of trapping—Cultivation of muskrats . : CHAPTER V CAN THE BEAVER BE SAVED? Possibilities and difficulties of rearing captive beavers xiii PAGE 37 48 76 94 XIV CONTENTS CHAPTER VI WooD-RATS, PACK-RATS, COTTON-RATS, ETC. Habits and architecture of wood-rats—Pilfering extraor- dinary—Destruction by the cotton-rat—Jumping-mice —Kangaroo-rats, etc. CHAPTER VII THE GRAY GOPHERS Characteristics—Burrowing powers—Injury to crops and young trees—Boring in ditch-banks—Gophers as soil- makers CHAPTER VIII SQUIRRELS, Goop AND BAD Habits-.and food of red squirrels—Winter storage of food—Larger squirrels—The flying-squirrel CHAPTER IX GROUND-SQUIRRELS AND PRAIRIE-DOGS Chipmunks and their homes—Striped gophers and spermo- philes—Ground-squirrels as carriers of disease— Prairie-dogs . CHAPTER X RABBITS, USEFUL AND INJURIOUS Rabbit-flesh good food—Breeding habits—Damage to gar- dens and orechards—Protection of trees—Pet stock CHAPTER XI SUPPRESSION OF RODENTS AS PESTS Unwise destruction of natural enemies—Poisoning and Fumigation—Difficulties to be overcome PAGE 98 - 112 . 144 . 164 . 184 CONTENTS XV CHAPTER XII Motes, SHREWS AND BATS } PAGE Moles misunderstood—Trapping moles and shrews—Bats andy their cuano: Geposits io ew Wel SNA hs Om: CHAPTER XIII Foxes AND FOX-FARMING American foxes—Varieties of fox-fur—Arrangement of a fox-rearing establishment—Care of captive foxes—Im- PROVAN SNEWS STOCK (kM Ca See aim ela N oe OG CHAPTER XIV GRAY WOLVES AND COYOTES Wolf traits—Good and bad food-habits—The coyote a pest to sheep-ranches—Directions for fencing . . . . 232 CHAPTER XV THE FUR-BEARERS AND THEIR CULTURE North American fur-bearers—Ermine weasels—The weasel as a mouser—Value of the mink—Rearing minks in captivity—The otter, badger and skunk—Skunk-farm- SDE 3b SN LESLIE DR RST Na USE a a CHAPTER XVI RAISING DEER FOR PROFIT Native deer—Domestication and breeding—Venison and buckskin—Wild horses, bighorn, antelopes, ete. . . 273 CHAPTER XVII DIRECTIONS FOR POISONING AND TRAPPING Waste of effort and money—Formulas for preparing ani- mal poisons—Trapping in yarious ways and places . 288 ic Ha ih De ? x ay 3 Ni POD MeV He ; i ie ya Be RA NMAC aH Bit yay iif FE LAN) Et AER X Pie rah aaa niet TUNIC ta ya reer N ue Fae a ease i f \ pas in HN HEN HAIER ee hs } rhs ty f t aN Dei Rvat aan sh Re Ws Ne i ; a ny, Hh hae Be iat * OOK PRGA Nuit / . ay Fiiisy VAY (24 Hay His \og me 1a Ati nto Hh HAN of i A fi bi; nui } Wy eee NN, aayen Iria Ny ‘ i a pa : Ne vi ee i ; A ae i ot He i Es i ednty wea Mas “i et i a ey Hon fhe Rea ANIMAL COMPETITORS Bont oils tier Bian ay Says ae i Sas i yee ¥. a) Walyieee Rx te AA D ANIMAL COMPETITORS CHAPTER I THE PEST OF RATS We have in the United States three foreign rats, all injurious to health and property. 1. The brown house-rat (Mus norvegicus), ealled also gray rat, house-rat, barn-rat, wharf-rat and Norway rat, and, in England, Hanoverian rat. Its average total length is about 16.4 inches, of which 7 inches belongs to the tail, and it usually weighs less than a pound, though specimens have been known so much larger as to weigh 24 to 28 ounces. The gen- eral color is grayish-brown above and whitish below, the long overhairs of the back having black tips. The head is shorter, the muzzle more blunt, the ears smaller and the tail rela- tively shorter than in the other species. It is 3 4 ANIMAL COMPETITORS spread all over the continent, except the Utah basin. 2. The black rat (Mus rattus), smaller than the brown rat, and sooty or slaty black, paler on the under parts. Like the brown rat, it is of Oriental origin and seems to have pre- ceded the former in its immigration into western Hurope and thence to this continent. It was carried from Europe to Spanish Amer- ica about three and a half centuries ago, and thence spread northward to the English col- onies. Upon the arrival of the brown rat in North America toward the end of the 18th. century it began to decrease, and is now rare, surviving only in scattered colonies, but re- main numerous in many parts of the West Indies, Middle and South America, Hawaii, ete. - 3. The roof-rat (Mus alexandrinus), simi- lar to the brown rat in form and habits, but grayer above, and yellowish white on the feet and abdomen. Its history is much like that of the black rat, but it has held its own better against the dominance of the brown rat, in- habits sea-going ships, and has established THE PEST OF RATS 9) itself in all the warmer parts of the world. It is Still prevalent in our South Atlantic States, in the West Indies and in South America. The tame white rats sold as pets are mostly of this and the black species. In habits these three rats are similar, with the important exception that the black rat and the roof-rat (which some zoodlogists consider merely varieties of one species), do not bur- row under foundations, etc., as does the brown rat. On the other hand they are far more agile and addicted to climbing,—a decided ad- vantage in the tropics where a large part of their food is obtained from trees, in whose branches they frequently lodge their nests; and are less able to withstand cold than the brown rat, which survives arctic winters in whaling ships, apparently without distress. They are also less prolific, having only ten mamme to the brown rat’s twelve, and bearing on the average only about five young at a birth to the other’s eight. This difference in prolificacy alone would account for the great dominance of the brown rat, at least in North America; and it is to that species—the rat, par excellence 6 ANIMAL COMPETITORS —that we devote our attention in considering — the relation it bears to human welfare, espe- . cially on the farm. 3 ‘The rat; says Lantz, succinctly, ‘is the” worst mammalian pest known to man. Its depredations throughout the world result in losses amounting to hundreds of millions of — dollars annually. But these losses, great as they are, are of less importance than the fact that rats carry from house to house and from seaport to seaport the germs of the dreaded plague.”’ This enormous evil can be cured only by be- ing prevented; and it is not only to the personal interest of every man, but a part of his public duty, to do all in his power to stamp out a pest which is not only costing the country many millions of dollars in damages annually, but is constantly threatening each of us with horrid diseases. History. In order to destroy the rats we have, and to guard against their increase on our own premises, at least, we must become — acquainted with the haunts and habits of the animal. THE PEST OF RATS i The early history of the brown rat is prac- tically unknown. Various modern writers have asserted that it came originally from Persia or India; but W. T. Blanford, a leading zoolo- gist of British India, states that it is at pres- ent unknown in Persia, and that, as concerns India, the black rat is the generally distributed species, while the brown rat is found only along the coast and the navigable rivers. This seems to imply that the latter is a compara- tively recent immigrant into India; and other evidence seems to show that its original home was northward of the Himalayan ranges. Its resistance to cold supports this hypothesis. It seems to have entered Europe first by cross- ing the Volga into Russia in hunger-driven hordes in 1727, but it reached England from some eastern port a year or two later, coinci- dent with the accession of George I to the British throne. The general, but erroneous, be- lief in Great Britain that it was introduced from Norwegian timber-ships gives it the name ‘‘Norway’’ rat there, as I explained in my Life of Mammals. ‘‘It reached our eastern ports in 1775 and was popularly credited to the hated 8 ANIMAL COMPETITORS Hessian soldiers,—a queer echo of the London idea that it came there with the Hanoverian train of the present reigning house. By 1830 it had reached the Mississippi, and by 1857, at least, was numerous in California.’? Now no part of the country save the western deserts is free from these pests; and competent judges estimate their numbers as at least five times that of the human population, with which they more than keep pace as widening civilization more and more favors their support and in- crease. Fecundity of the rat. A consequence is that from time to time there is an overflow of rats from one locality or region to another which gives us a glimpse of the unseen crowd in the midst of which we live. ‘‘In 1903, a multi- tude of migrating rats spread over several counties of western Illinois. They were no- ticed especially in Mercer and Rock Island counties. For several years prior to this in- vasion no abnormal numbers were seen, and their coming was remarkably sudden. An eye- witness to the phenomenon informed the writer THE PEST OF RATS y that as he was returning to his home by moon- light he heard a general rustling in the field near by, and soon a vast army of rats crossed the road in front of him, all going in one direc- tion. The mass stretched away as far as could be seen in the dim light. These animals re- mained on the farms and in the villages of the surrounding country, and during the winter and summer of 1904 were a veritable plague. A local newspaper stated that between March 20 and April 20, 1904, Mr. F. U. Montgomery of Preémption, Mercer county, killed 3,485 rats on his farm.”’ This enormous multiplication is due to the animal’s adaptability to climate, its omnivo- rousness, its habit of burrowing, its strength and cunning in withstanding and outwitting enemies, and, most of all, to its astonishing fecundity, especially where food is abundant. This rat breeds in the temperate parts of this country from three to five times a year, the female bringing forth each time from 6 to 20 young. Mr. Lantz concludes from such data as are available that in the vicinity of Wash- 10 ANIMAL COMPETITORS ington the average litter is 10. A pair and their progeny breeding three times a year would, thus, if all remained alive, produce a population of more than 20,000,000. ‘‘Of course, such results never occur in nature. Apparently not nearly half the rats born are females; at least, among mature rats the males greatly predominate. Then, too, the life of young rats, as well as that of the old, 1s a con- — tinuous struggle for existence. Disease, the elements, natural enemies, the devices and cun- ning of man, and even cannibalism are contin- ually at work to reduce their numbers.’’ The young are born, after a gestation period of 21 days, in a burrow dug in the ground under buildings, piles of lumber or wood, beneath strawstacks, ete., or simply bored into a stream- bank. They are naked and blind at birth, but develop with great rapidity. What it costs to board our rats. The dam- age done by rats over so great an area as the United States or Canada, is incalculable. David E. Lantz, in the document from which I am quoting freely, summarizes their destruc- tion thus: | THE PEST OF RATS 11 ‘“The brown rat is practically omnivorous. The statement applies as well to the black rat and the roof rat. Their bill of fare includes seeds and grains of all kinds, flour, meal, and food products made from them; fruits and garden vegetables; mush- rooms; bark of growing trees; bulbs, roots, stems, leaves, and flowers of herbaceous plants; eggs, chicks, ducklings, young pigeons, and young rabbits; milk, butter, and cheese; fresh meat and carrion; mice, rats, fish, frogs, and mussels. This great variety of food explains the ease with which rats adapt them- selves to almost every environment. “‘Experiments show that the average quantity of grain consumed by a full-grown rat is fully 2 ounces daily. A half-grown rat eats about as much as an adult. Fed on grain, a rat eats 45 to 50 pounds a year, worth about 60 cents if wheat, or $1.80 if oat- meal. Fed on beefsteaks worth 25 cents a pound, or on young chicks or squabs with a much higher prospective value, the cost of maintaining a rat is proportionately increased. Granted that more than half the food of our rats is waste, the average cost of keeping one rat is still upward of 25 cents a year. ‘Tf an accurate census of the rats of the United States were possible, a reasonably correct calculation of the minimum cost of feeding them could be made from the above data. If the number of rats sup- ported by the people throughout the United States were equal to the number of domestic animals on the farms—horses, cattle, sheep, and hogs—the minimum 12 ANIMAL COMPETITORS cost of feeding them on grain would be upward of $100,000,000 a year. To some such enormous total every farmer, and indeed every householder who has rats upon his premises, contributes a share. ‘‘But the actual depredations of rats are by no means confined to what they eat. They destroy fully as much grain as they consume, and they pollute and render unfit for human consumption a much larger proportion of all other food materials that they at- tack. In addition, the damage they do to property of other kinds is often as great as that done to food supplies. ”’ Destructiveness of rats im the fields. The rat in America is usually thought of as vermin in the house and barn, so that little notice is taken of its destructiveness in the fields which Europeans understand very well. Cultivated grains may be regarded as the favorite food. The animals dig the seed from the ground as soon as sown, eat the tender sprouts when they appear, and later feast upon the maturing crop. After harvest they attack grain in shock, stack, and mow, and when thrashing is over, in crib, granary, elevator, mill, and warehouse. In- dian corn seems especially to suffer from their depredations. They climb the stalks and strip the cobs of the milky kernels; and if cut corn THE PEST OF RATS 13 is left in shocks, especially near drains or other rat-harbors, it is likely to be ruined. Shortly after the settlement of the Bermudas by the British, the colony was infested with rats, which, in the space of two years, had increased so alarm- ingly that none of the islands were free from them, and even fish were taken with rats in their bellies. A writer in the Academy recalls some of the horrors of this plague of rats. The rats, we are told, had nests in almost every tree, and burrowed in most places in the ground lke rabbits. They devoured everything that came in the way—fruits, plants, and even trees. Where corn was sown they would come by troops in the night and scratch it out of the ground; ‘nay,’ writes a contemporary chronicler, ‘they so de- voured the fruits of the earth that the people were des- titute of bread for a year or two.’ Every expedient was tried to destroy them. Dogs were trained to hunt them, who would kill a score or more in an hour. Cats, both wild and tame, were employed in large numbers for the same purpose; poisons and traps— every man having to set twelve traps—were brought into requisition; and even woods were set on fire, to help to exterminate them. Every letter written at this period by the plague-stricken colonists contains some account of the dreadful scourge. ‘Our great enemies the rats threaten the subversion of the plan- tation,’ writes one colonist in July, 1616. ‘Rats are a ereat judgment of God upon us,’ wrote another a year later. ‘At last it pleased God, but by what 14 ANIMAL COMPETITORS means is not well known, to take them away, inso- much that the wild cats and many dogs that lived on them were famished.’ There was universal joy at the sudden removal of such destructive vermin; and the all but despairing planters were enabled once more to resume their neglected occupations with spirit and energy. Much more recently, rats became such a plague in the sugar-plantations of the West Indies, and especially in Jamaica, that the East Indian mungoos— a fierce, weasel-like civet—was introduced. This ani- mal cleared out the rats, but speedily became in other directions such a nuisance that its destruction had to be effected in order to save the poultry and birds of the Island. Rats often damage corn in cribs. Too fre- quently these receptacles for grain are built close to the ground, and rats live under the floor, and soon get access to the grain. They shell the corn, eating the softer part of the kernel and wasting much more than they con- sume. They carry the grain to subterranean burrows and bring up into the crib moist soil, which induces mold. Similarly they eat the small grains in the field and take toll of the granary and feed-box,—often 5 to 10 per cent, THE PEST OF RATS 15 of feedstuffs, malt and the like; while no pest of the sugar-cane is much more to be feared. The damage done by rats to fruits and vege- tables while stored in cellars and pits is well known. They attack ripe tomatoes, melons, eantaloupes, squashes, pumpkins, sweet corn, and many other vegetables in the field, and the depredations are often attributed to rabbits. Rats are fond of nearly all small fruits, even climbing grape-vines, blackberry-canes, and ecurrant-bushes to obtain the ripe fruit; and often feed upon ripe apples, pears, cherries, and so forth. Rats are recognized pests of the greenhouse and the plant-propagating pit, where they at- tack seeds, bulbs, leaves, stems and flowers. Of flowering bulbs the tulip suffers most and hyacinths also are eaten, while narcissus bulbs are apparently immune to attack. Carnations seem especially able to destruction. Destructiveness to poultry and game. Very serious is the loss due to rats entering badly constructed hen and pigeon houses,—probably greater, in Mr, Lantz’s opinion, than that in- 16 ANIMAL COMPETITORS flicted by foxes, minks, weasels, skunks, hawks and owls combined; but mostly one or all of these are made to take the blame. ‘‘Not long since, in a published account of depre- dations on poultry, the damage was attributed to a skunk. The statement was made that both eggs and young chicks were taken from under a sitting hen without disturbing her. This is a trick peculiar to the rat, and it is evident that a mistake was made as to the identity of the thief. ‘“Where rats are numerous in springtime, they often prey upon young chicks, capturing them in the nest and in and around the coops. I have known them to take nearly all the chicks on a large poultry ranch, and, in the same neighborhood and over a large territory, to destroy nearly 50 per cent. of the season’s hatching. Young ducks, turkeys, and pi- geons are equally liable to attack, and where rats are numerous are safe only in rat-proof coops. ‘‘A writer in a western agricultural paper states that in 1904 rats robbed him of an entire summer’s hatching of three or four hundred chicks. A cor- respondent of another journal says, ‘Rats destroyed enough grain and poultry on this place in one season to pay our taxes for three years.’ When it is re- membered that the poultry and eggs produced each year from the farms of the United States have a value of over $600,000,000, it will be seen that even a small percentage of loss aggregates a large sum.’’ THE PEST OF RATS Li In Europe the rat is the bane of gamekeepers who try to preserve broods of pheasants and other game. Our wild game-birds are less molested and perhaps better able to protect themselves; yet our grouse and quail must suffer, for rats eat the eggs of ground-nesting song-birds, but the real offender is seldom even suspected. Rats often gnaw the hoofs of horses until the feet bleed. Brushing the hoofs with dilute earbolic acid is a preventive. They have been known to kill young lambs and pigs, and to at- tack very fat hogs and eat holes in their bodies, causing death. Farrowing sows have been killed by rats gnawing their teats until blood - poisoning resulted. } Rats damage buildings and stored goods. Interest in the damage done to stored goods and merchandise belongs more to the city ware- houseman than to the countryman, but the latter is well aware that old harness and gear of all sorts with leather about it, any grain- bags and similar articles must be protected from rats. Damage to houses and barns 1s, 18 ANIMAL COMPETITORS however, a matter of grave interest to inhabit- ants of the village as well as of the city. Quot- ing Lantz again,— ‘“The damage to houses and furniture by rats con- stitutes a large item. They burrow under founda- tions or through the plaster in a stone wall and admit streams of water that eventually weaken or undermine the structure itself. They seem to be able to penetrate almost everything except stone, brick, cement, glass, and iron. They gnaw into a grain bin, or through a wainscoting, a floor, or a door ina single night In the same way they enter chests, wardrobes, bookeases, closets, barrels, and boxes for the stores within. Almost every old dwelling in the country bears abundant evidence of its former or present occupancy by rats. Rats gnaw through lead pipes or wooden tanks to obtain water, and sometimes before the leak is discovered, ceilings, wall decora-— tions, and floor coverings are flooded and practically ruined. All this is waste of a tangible kind and a constant drain on the prosperity of the people.’’ Then there is the ever-menacing devastation from fires due to rats carrying matches into their nests and there igniting them by chewing them, or simply by overheating; or due to their enawing the insulation from electric wires—a surprisingly frequent origin of fires of late years. THE PEST OF RATS 19 Rats as carriers of disease. Yinally, rats are. always a menace to health, and may become the agents of the dissemination of the most dreadful and virulent of diseases—the Asiatic plague, which has more than once decimated the civilized world. It has been calculated that 25,000,000 of persons perished in an epidemic of this character which swept over the world in the 14th century; and it did not require the literary genius of a De Foe to perpetuate the memory of the awful visitation which almost depopulated London and set all Europe in mourning toward the end of the 16th century. Even then, in the cloud of mystery, supersti- tion and horror of fear which made most men blind and helpless, the truth was dimly recog- nized by a few,—namely that it was not the wrath of God nor the malignancy of some evil spirit nor a miasm from earth or sea that struck men down, but the communication of disease from the sick to the well. This, it was observed, could be effected not only by contact with human victims, but that the contagion was caught and passed on by all the small animals about a house. Hence orders were issued that 20 ANIMAL COMPETITORS not only rats, mice, and small vermin of all sorts should be killed, but also dogs and eats. An ordinance by the authorities at Winchester, England, in 1583, is typical of many others issued in British towns, viz.: ‘‘That if any house within this cytie shall happen to be infected with the Plague, that thene every per- sone to keepe within his or her house every his or her dogg, and not to suffer them to goo at large. And if any dogge be then founde at large, it shall be lawful for the Beadle or any other person to kill ihe same dogg, and that any owner of such dogg going at large shall lose six shillings.’’ Among the records of King’s Lynn, under May, 1585, appears this: ‘‘Mor as muche as it hath pleased Allmightie God to begynn to send us his visitacion with sickness amongst us, and that dogges and cattes are thought verie unfitt to be suffered in this tyme. Therefore Mr. Maior, aldermen, and common councell have or- dered and decreed that every inhabitant within the same Towne shall forthwith take all their dogges and yappes and hange them or kill them and carrye them to some out-place and burye them for breadings of a great annoyance. And likewise for cattes, if there be any nigh unto any house or houses visited with sick- ness. . . . It is ordered that the cattes shall furth- with be killed in ail such places.’’ An exception was THE PEST OF RATS 21 made in favor of any ‘‘dogge of accompte.’’ Such a one was allowed to be kept if “‘kenelled or tied up or led in a lease.’’ As often happens, a fact was clearly per- ceived and acted upon beneficially long before the philosophy of it was comprehended. Rats responsible for the plague. It was not until the very end of the last century— scarcely a dozen years ago, that the suspected truth of the real nature of the plague was dis- covered through scientific studies of the disease which then appeared in a most threatening form in India. It was determined that of the several phases of plague the most common is that which produces swellings or ‘‘buboes’’ on the body of the victim, and hence is called bubonie plague. This is rarely communicated direct from man to man, but through the me- dium of insects which suck the patient’s blood and then, filled with the diseased blood in which are floating the deadly bacilli (Bacillus pestis) which produce the disturbance, pierce the skin of some other creature and leave more or less of these plague-germs in the puncture. Any blood-sucking bug, as, for example, the 22 ANIMAL COMPETITORS | bed-bug, may do this; but the most common agent is the flea. | Another fact is that the rat seems especially susceptible to the disease; arid, indeed, it is be- MOUTH-PARTS OF A RAT-FLEA, SHOWING WHERE BACILLI MAY CLING AND BE CARRIED INTO THE NEXT WOUND. From Doane’s ‘‘Insects and Disease.’? By Permission of Henry Holt & Co. heved that it was originally a disease of this rodent. Rats abound in fleas, and, as is the ease with most furry or feathered animals, have a species peculiar to their race. This Pi Pst OF hails 23 rat-flea will bite and communicate the disease from rat to rat, and an outbreak of plague among men is usually preceded by an epidemic among the rats. The rat-flea does not bite man; but those which live on human beings will thrive on rats and may return from an 1n- fected rat to a human host if opportunity offers. The fleas of dogs and cats will temporarily live on the skin of both rodents and human beings, and may thus take a part in the transmission of plague. The fleas usually leave a rat or other animal as soon as it dies, and, with their stomachs full of plague-bacilli, with others clinging to their proboscis and sucking lips, they seek new hosts. The new host, whether rat, or some other animal, or perchance a human being, is soon bitten with these infected mouths, and thus receives the germs of the malady. | Those who wish to pursue the study of this matter in further detail will find a very full exposition of it, and of the general relations of insects to common diseases, in R. W. Doane’s Insects and Disease (New York, Holt, 1910). 24 ANIMAL COMPETITORS It is now understood that the first thing to do when a case of plague is brought to some port in a ship sailing from the Orient is to exterminate the rats of the locality; and the best preventive against this and other afflictions getting a foothold anywhere, is to keep the rats down. The Japanese were quick to take ad- vantage of the new knowledge, and by the fierce crusade they waged against the wharf-rats in their ports prevented a spread of bubonic plague, always threatening them, in the armies they sent into Manchuria. In this way, too, by a vigorous crusade against the animal in Cali- fornia, in which many hundreds of thousands were trapped or poisoned, the plague was re- cently eradicated in San Francisco before it had reached alarming proportions. Rats and trichine. But rats disseminate diseases other than bubonic plague. Trich- inosis among swine is probably perpetuated entirely by rats, since trichine in the hog can result only from its eating the flesh of animals infested with the parasite. The only two an- imals of the farm known to be subject to this THE PEST OF RATS 29 parasite are the rat and the hog itself. Pork becomes trichinous, then, only when swine eat the flesh of infected rats or hogs. Country slaughter-houses, where rats are abundant and swine are fed on offal, are the chief sources of trichinous pork. That the danger from this source has not been confined to the rural slaughtering-places alone, is shown by the in- vestigation conducted by the Biological Survey in 1909 into the ‘‘rat-nuisanece,’’ said to exist about the great packing-houses in Chicago and St. Louis. The older establishments were found to be infested with rats, causing a se- rious aggregate loss, and endangering both the health of the workmen and the wholesomeness of the product; but this state of things has been greatly improved, and new buildings are designed to be rat-proof. Rats creep through drains and step about in all sorts of filth; and to their feet and fur clings slime which may be loaded with germs of typhoid, diptheria and any other of the malignant list of diseases due to bacilli that develop in darkness and filth. Consequently — 26 ANIMAL COMPETITORS no household is safe into which rats may wan- der and leave the seeds of disease brought from the gutter. In view of these facts it would seem impor- tant that every man should attempt to free his property of these undesirable tenants, which, so far as we can see, make no return whatever for the damage and depredation of which they are guilty. Methods of suppression. It is perhaps too late to get rid of the rat altogether, but it is not too late to subdue him and prevent a great part of the evils that follow his presence. How shall it be done? Wirst, try to destroy or drive away those rats you have. Seek out their holes, runways and lodging-places, clean them out and stop them up so far as you are able. The cunning of the rascals is great and they will shift their quarters or invent new means of access and ways of attack with discouraging ingenuity and persistence, which you must endeavor to match. Untiring watchfulness and work will win. | Trapping, if intelligently pursued, will cap- THE PEST OF RATS 27 ture a great many. The old-fashioned figure-4 trap, dropping a box, or better, a deadfall, is often highly effective. Several sorts of steel traps may be used to advantage; and in the last chapter of this book will be found deserip- tions of various forms and directions for bait- ing and setting them. Poisoning will clear out the creatures more rapidly and effectively but can hardly be used except about barns and out-buildings, and even there should be done intelligently and with cer- tain precautions. Therefore instructions as to the best means and methods of poisoning will also be found in the last chapter. While endeavoring to kill off the rats by these various methods, precautions should be taken against their return. Their runways and harboring places must be sought out and made untenable. The wisdom of stopping up all holes by which they enter houses, barns or cellars, need hardly be mentioned to common- sense readers. Freshly slaked lime placed in their dry burrows and runs is effective; or fresh thin whitewash to be poured into them. A strong solution of copperas is good, and gas- 28 ANIMAL COMPETITORS tar daubed about their holes, as also is caustic potash. Where burrows are discovered in banks or fields the inmates may be suffocated by pushing into the holes wads of rags satu- rated with bisulphide of carbon, as is practiced against gophers; but this is of little use in buildings, for it escapes too easily. Rat-proof construction. All new or recon- structed buildings should be made rat-proof. This is best done by the use of cement. Even then, when foundations and walls are made of tight concrete, care must be taken lest drains and other openings admit them. Outer doors, especially those that give upon alleys, should not be left open. Basement and cellar win- dows of barns, stables, chicken-houses, etc., should be screened with wire, so that they may be left ajar for ventilation without danger. Inner doors to vestibules are of great assist- ance. Even old cellars may be made rat-proof by the use of cement at small expense. When wooden walls are built upon proper foundations, the building may be made proof against these and other noxious visitors by PE iS OF hails 29 filling the space between the sheathing and the lath for about a foot with concrete. Rats frequently enter houses from sewers by way of soil-pipes leading into water-closets, but this can be guarded against by care in construc- tion and the use of water-traps. ‘* Almost everywhere, in country, village, and city, the wooden floors of sidewalks, areas, and porches are commonly laid upon timbers resting upon the eround. Under these floors rats are safe from most of their enemies. Only municipal action can com- pletely remedy these conditions, but all such rat-har- bors should be destroyed and replaced by cement floors. Considering durability, healthfulness, and other advantages, this material is the cheapest that ean be used. The floors of wooden porches should always be well above the ground. Rats often under- mine brick walks or areas. ‘*Granaries, corneribs, and poultry-houses may be made rat-proof by a liberal use of concrete in the foundations and floors; or the floors may be of wood resting upon concrete. Objection has been urged against the use of concrete floors for horses, cattle, and poultry, because the material is too good a con- ductor of heat, and the health of the animals suffers from contact with floors of this kind. In poultry- houses, dry soil or sand may be used as a covering for the cement floor; and in stables, a wooden floor 30 ANIMAL COMPETITORS resting on the concrete is just as satisfactory so far as the exclusion of rats is concerned.’’ Keeping food from rats. The general rat- proofing of buildings is the most important step in limiting the food supply of rats. The effect of an abundance of food on the breeding of rodents has already been mentioned. Well-fed rats mature quickly, breed often, and have large litters of young. Besides limiting reproduc- tion, scarcity of food will make the measures to destroy the animals by traps, poisons, or bacterial cultures far more effective. But since much of the animals’ food consists of garbage and other waste materials, offal of any kind must be so disposed of that rats can not obtain it. The best method is by burning it. The management of slaughter-houses in the country, in particular, needs reform. It is a common practice to leave offal of slaughtered animals to be eaten by both rats and swine. Such places are not only centers of rat-propaga- tion, but are the chief means of perpetuating trichine in pork. All this should be changed in fact and by law. The offal should be promptly cremated or otherwise disposed of. There is TE eS Ors RATS ol no reason why country slaughter-houses should not be as cleanly as are the abattoirs of a modern city. | Disposal of dead rats. Finally, the bodies of dead rats should never be handled with the bare fingers, or thrown out to be eaten by dogs or pigs or other animals; for they may con- tain, as has been shown, the germs of dreadful diseases. They should be burned, or else turned to account by being buried at the foot of grape-vines or young trees, for which they will make an excellent fertilizer. Four-footed enemies of the rat. A word as to the assistance animals may give in killing off and keeping down the rats. How greatly the increase of all rodents is due to the destruc- tion of the various wild mammals, birds and reptiles, that prey upon them, will be shown hereafter. Hawks, owls, weasels and skunks dispose of a great number of rats in rural dis- tricts, and might take many more if they were permitted. Skunks in particular are a most valuable help in this direction—both the large northern skunks and the small spotted species of the South and West—and will, if allowed, 32 ANIMAL COMPETITORS speedily clear a place of its rats and mice. Un- fortunately they are seldom allowed to tenant the premises without being molested by either dogs or men. When thus disturbed, the skunks emit the characteristic secretion, which is al- most their only defense against enemies. Un- disturbed, they are quite inoffensive and will stay about the farm-buildings until rats and mice are no longer to be had. Skunks usually hunt by night, and hence poultry properly housed is safe from them. It is the loose, un- cared-for hens that suffer. | The same may be said of weasels, which will follow a rat into its burrow, and seem to take such delight in slaughtering it that no rats ean be found shortly after a weasel or two have taken up their quarters in the place. The drawback to their good work is, that they are fond of poultry and clever in getting it. The same may be said of minks; but a rat-proof hen-house is also weasel-proof. Farm ferrets, like weasels (of which they are a larger cousin) are inveterate foes of rats, but their value under ordinary circumstances is - overestimated. THE PEST OF RATS 33 ‘“HWor effective work,’’ says one who knows, ‘they require experienced handling and the ad- ditional services of a dog or two. Dogs and ferrets must be thoroughly accustomed to each other, and the former must be quiet and steady instead of noisy and excitable. The ferret is used only to bolt the rats, which are killed by the dogs. If unmuzzled ferrets are sent into rat retreats, they are apt to make a kill and then lie up after sucking the blood of their vic- tim. Sometimes they remain for hours in the burrows or escape by other exits and are lost. There is danger that these lost ferrets may adapt themselves to wild conditions and become a pest by preying upon poultry and birds.”’ Cats, as a rule, are not of much use. Most of them are too well-fed, and will be afraid of, or not take the trouble to pursue rats, although they may be excellent mousers. A couple of good terriers, however, will work wonders in freeing one’s premises if trained to rat-catching. The ordinary farmer’s big cur is of no use for this purpose—and little for any other; but a Scotch, Irish or fox terrier, properly taught, will take pride in the work, o4 ANIMAL COMPETITORS and catch a surprising number of victims until all are frightened away. | Cooperation necessary to subdue the pest. Little that is really effective can be done, how- ever, without codperation in each district.' To destroy the animals on the premises of a single farmer in a community has little perma- nent value, since they are soon replaced from near-by farms. If, however, the farmers of an entire township or county unite in efforts to get rid of rats, much more lasting results may be attained. Such organized efforts repeated with reasonable frequency are very effective. Cooperative efforts to destroy rats have taken various forms in different localities. In cities municipal employés have occasionally been set at work hunting rats from their re- treats with at least temporary benefit to the community. Thus, in 1904, at Folkestone, Eng- land, a town of about 25,000 inhabitants, the corporation employés, helped by dogs, in three days killed 1,645 rats. A better example is re- ported from India, where cooperative work 1See Coéperation among Farmers, by Prof. John Lee Coul- ter. In this Library, 1911, 75 cents. THE PEST OF RATS 315) has prevailed over large districts. Thus in the Punjab more than 625 centers of popula- tion, including large towns, were systematically eleared of rats in 1908, the actual number known to have been destroyed reaching 4,116,- 334, while large numbers were poisoned and escaped to die. The result in diminution of the endemic plague and other diseases was most marked. Side-hunts in which rats are the only animals that count in the contest have sometimes been organized and successfully carried out. At New Burlington, Ohio, a rat-hunt took place November 26, 1866, in which each of the two sides killed over 8,000 rats, the beaten party serving a Thanksgiving banquet to the winners. At about the same period county agricultural societies sometimes offered prizes to the family presenting the largest number of rats’ tails as evidence that the animals had been destroyed. Even as late as May 2, 1907, in one of the coun- ties of Kentucky, by general consent, the day was set apart for killing rats, and, according to newspaper report, was quite generally observed. There is danger that organized rat-hunts will 36 ANIMAL COMPETITORS be followed by long intervals of indifference and inaction. This may be prevented by offer- ing prizes covering a definite period of effort. Such prizes accomplish more than municipal bounties, because they secure a friendly rivalry which stimulates the contestants to do their utmost to win. In England and some of its colonies contests for prizes have been organized to promote the destruction of the European house-sparrow, but many of the so-called ‘‘sparrow clubs’’ are really sparrow and rat clubs, for the destruc- tion of both pests are avowed objects of the or- ganization.