The Russellville Democrat., 1881-07-28
ovERRUN BY RATS.
How se...e Provinces of India Were Devnstated. A Gf Iavna<s Go 1aft


 How se.-ze Provinces of India Were
 Devastated.
 Ats ,. St James Gazeft. < A
 The recently issued Bombay Admin istratiye Repo t., a few copies of which
 ave reached this country. gives some curious details respecting the extraordi- nary plague of rats which devastated eight collectorates of the Bombay presi- dency in the latter half of 1879. The particular kind of rats which proved most obnoious were the Indian jerboa, | the Indian mole-rat or kok, and the mettade. The first named IS fawn .co- lored above and white below, and, i'm cluding the tail, is often fifteen inches long. It burrows under ground and is very prolific, but does not ordinarily hoard food, while the kok, on the other hand, accumulates large quantities of grain. The mattade is really species of mouse, but it is large mousse some times nine or ten inches long. It is said to live exclusively in cultivated fields, within the deep Assures found in the black soil during the hot months. The rat climbs the stalks of the crops and gnaws off the heads, generally few days before they ripen.
 q Great numbers of the rats inhabiting the black soil are said to be killed every year by the first heavy rain of the moon- soon. The black soil swells when the drenching rain falls on it, and the broad, deep cracks found in the hot season, closing, suffocate the rats caught within them 1t was in November, 1878, in the district of Sholapoe, that the rats first began to attract notice; but it was not till June and July of the following year that they became an actual plague. Grain was scratched up and eaten as soon as sown, cotton plants were destroyed, and the cultivating classes, depressed by the drouths and scarcity of previous years, were driven to. state little short of des- peration. In July, 1879, the government adopted energetic measures for the de- struction of the yermin. A reward of one rupee was offered for every hundred killed, and district officers were reused to do their utmost towards the exter- imitation of the animals.
 It was required that the rats killed should be produced at the government treasuries, when the tails were cut oil and the bodies returned to the claim ants, who usually carried them home for food. As long as the plague was at it's height this system of rewards remained ill force. In all over 16,000,000 rats were killed, and by Marck, 1880, they were reduced to tolerable numbers. As re- gards the origin of the plague, no alto gether satisfactory explanation has been afforded. From the fact of their appear ing in greatest numbers in the famine stricken district, it has been conjectured that the large amount of land lying un- titled, owing to the death or absence of the occupants, served as favorable and unmolested breeding grounds for the vermin, that by the absence of heavy rain, the suffocation of numbers by the monsoon rains did not take place; and that the exaustion of usual underground stores of grain, which no doubt ordi- narily ted much vermin, drove unusual numbers to the surface.
 The plague, however it arose, was fos- tered by the religious prejudice and apathy of the peasants The cultivators, as body, did little; but some tribes did take to rat-catching and rendered good service. Various means were resorted to. Phosphorous past balls, fumigation, asphyxiators, sulphur squibs were all tried, but with only partial success. Dig ging up the burrows, though tedious, was found after all to be the better 1 method. A clumsy, characteristic at- tempt was made in one collectorate to obtain rewards a second time for the same rats by fastening the amputated tails on with babul thorns; and in the same district it was discovered that the rats were being imported at I2 annas the l 100 from the territory of the Nizam with the view of making 4 annas, or Sd, on every 100 by the transaction. Energetic as the government measures were, it is not supposed that the cessation of the plague was due to the number of rats killed for the sake of reward The heavy rain that fell later in the season and the frosts and cold which set in before the close of the year are believed to have done much more in the way of exter- imitation.