Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1881-07-21
OYERRUN BY RATS.
How Some Province of India Were
Devasted by the vermin Two Years

How Some Provinces of India Were
Devasted by the vermin Two Years
Ago.
s. james Gazette
The recently issued Bombay Ad-
ministrattve Report" a few copies of
which have reached this country, give
some curious details respecting the ex-
traordinary plague of rats which de-
vastated eight collectOrates of the Bonn
bay presidency i'm the latter half of
1879. The particular kind of rats
which proved most obnoxious were the
ILdian JerbOa, the Indian mole-rat. or
kOk, and the mettade. The first-named
is fawn-cOlOred above and white below.
aud, including the tail, is often fifteen
inches long. 1t burrows underground,
is very prolific, but does not custom
arily hoard food; while the kok, on the
other band, accumulates large quanti-
ties 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 i'm
cultivated fields, within the deep fis-
sures found in the black soil during
the hot months. This rat climbs the
stalks of the crops and gnaws off the
heads generally few days before they
ripen. Great numbers of the rats in
habiting the black soil are said TO be
killed every year by the first heavy
rain of the monsoon. The black soil
swells when the drenchibg rain falls
on it, and the broad deep cracks found
in the hot season closing, suffocate the
rats caught within them. 1t was i'm
November 1873, in the district of
Sholapore, that the rats first began to
attract notice; but it was not until
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 des-
troyed, and the cultivating classes. de-
pressed by the drouths and scarcity of
previous years, were driven to a. state
little short of desperation. In July.
1879. the government adopted ener-
getic measures for the destruction of
the vermin. A reward of one rupee
was offered for every hundred killed
and district officers were reused to do
their utmost towards exterminating
the animals. 1t was required that the
rats killed should be produced at the
government treasures where the tails
were cut off and the bodies returned
TO the claimants, who usually carried
them home for food. AS long rs
the plague was at its height
this system of rewards remained
in force. Inall over sixteen million
rats wer killed; and by March 1880.
they were reduced to tolerable numbers.
AS regards the origin of the plague, no
altogether 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 owing to the death
or absence Of the occupants, served rs
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 exhaustion
OF the usual underground stores of
grain which no doubt ordinarily feed
much varmin, drove unusual numbers
to the surface.
The plague, however it arose, was
fostered by the religious prejudices and
apathy of tae peasants. The cultiva-
tors as body did little but some tribes
did take to rat-catching and rendered
good service. Various means were re-
sorted to. Phosphorus-pasteb balls, flu.
migation. asphyxiators, sulphur squibs
were all tried, but with only partial
success. Digging up the borrows,
though tedious, was found after all to
be the better method. A clumsy, char
acteristic attempt was made i'm one col
lectOrate to obtain rewards a second
time for the same rats 10y fastening the
amputated tails on with babul thOrns:
and in the same district it was discov.
cred that rats were being Imported at
twelve annas the hundred from the
territory of the Nizam, with the view
OF making four annas, or sixpence, on
every hundred by the transaction. En-.
ergetic as the government measures
were, it Is not supposed that the cessa.
ton of the plague was due to the mum.
Der 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 determination.