The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1881-07-29

Guiding the tad, is often fifteen inches
long. FL burrows underground, is very
prolific, sbut does not castomarily hoard
food while the kOk, on the other hand,
accumulates large quantities of grain.
The mettade is really a species of
mouse but It is = very large mouse;
sometimes nine, Or ten inches long. 1t
is said to live exclusively In cultivated
fields, within the deep assures foapd in
the black soil during the hot months.
This rat climbs. the stalks 81. the crops
and gnaws off the heads generally few
days beforesthey ripen. Great numbers
of the rats inhabiting the black soil are
said 20 be killed every year by the first
heavyrain Of 1.-THE monsoon. 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 No
vember, 1873, in the district of Shola-
pore, 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 cultivat-
ing classes, depressed by the dr0uths
and scarcity of previous years, were
driven to state little short of despera-
ton. In July, 1879, the Government
adopted energetic measures for the de-
struction of the vermin. A reward Of
one rupee was offered for every hundred
killed, and district officers were reused
to do, their utmost toward exterminat-
ing the animals. 1t was required
that the rats killed should be
produced at the Government treasu.
ries, where the tails we're cut, of and
the bodies returned to the claimants,
who usually carried them home for food.
As long as the plague was at its height
this system of rewards remained in
force. In all over sixteen million rats
were killed; and by March, 1880, they
were reduced to tolerable numbers. As
regards the origin of the. plague. no al
together satisfactory explanation has
been afforded. From the fact of their
appearing in greatest numbers in the
famine stricken districts, it has been
conjectured that the large amount OF
land lying untitled lowing to the death OF
absence Of the occupants, served as fav-
orable 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 exhaustion Of the usual un.
derground stores of grain which no
doubt ordinarily feed much vermin,
drove unusual numbers to the surface.
The plague, however it arose, was
fostered by the religious prejudices and
apathy of the peasants. The cultivators
as body did little; but some tribes die
take to rat-catching and rendered good
service. Various means we're resorte6
to. Phosphorus-paste balls, fumigation
asphyxiators, sulphur squibs were al
tried, but with only partial success. Dig
ging up the burrows, though tedious
was found after all to be the better
method. As clumsy, characteristic at
tempt was made in one collectorate tx
| obtain rewards q second time for the
same rats by fastening the amputatet
tails on with babul thorns; and in tn,
same district it was discovered that rat
were being imported at twelve annas tn
hundred from the territory of the Nizam
with the view of making four annas, o.
sixpence, on every hundred by the trans
action. Energetic as the Government
measures were, it is not supposed tina
the cessation of the plague was due t
the number of rats killed for the sake o
reward. The heavy rain that fell late
in the season and the frosts and col
which set in before the close of the yea
are believed to have done much more i
the way of extermination.-St. Jane
(L0ndo,al 4nzeHe ..f.