Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1892-09-24

Your inquiry as to preventing dam
age by rats in the silO" il before me,
and l win tell what | know. / have
noticed considerable complaint in the
dairy papers of damage done by these
! pests in the silo, anG rs TO the total
! damage done not one case i'm one hun
| dred gets into print Tic rats enter in
one Of three ways; from the bottom by
burrowing under the wall, from the
sides by gnawing through, usually Just
above the stills, or from the top when
| either the siluge is left uncovered or,
/ being covered the boards are not prop
/ erly weighted at the ends, ana So, warp
| ing from the heat and steam. give ac-
cess to the rats.
one of your correspondents recon-
mends eats. Another says, iill the wall
of the silo for Is inches above the wall
with mortar or lime or ashes. Another
let the foundation wall on which the
silo wall is built project as ledge or
S inches, forming a shelf SO that the
rat digging down. strikes IT, he win
either give it up as bad job or tun-
neling along in the angle. 50 entirely
round the building, bringing UP just
where he started
Some two years ago / discussed this
question in the Dairyman, being, /
think, the first to cali attention TO the
fact that rats were q very important
factor and not to be ignored in the
plans for the preservation Of silage. In
our own vicinity there seemed TO De
an unusual increase, one neighbOr trap
ping and shooting over 90 in one month,
and another counting p at one time on
his manure pile eating the undigeSted
kernels Of corn. Fortunately we were
ready for them and suffered bat little,
though the years before we lost good
deal. Is or 20 tons / think i'm all, princl-
pally through following the teachings
of those who with little or no practical
experience themselves undertook to in
strucr others
I wonder if these men know or care
low many curses were poured out on
their heads by thcir vlctlmzcd follow
ers. or how much loss they have caused
these followers 10y their false teachings
Look ut tho silos IN Wisconsin with
sills placed on the ground or a little
mortar, now rotting down; at the tons
Of silage los through improper pacldng
and from earth floors letting the rats
in ut the bottom 1t Is my nrm belief
that counting the deterioration Of silos,
the loss OF silage on the pits and Of en-
:.iage corn by frosts in the field, the
deterioration Of land on which silage
has been grown and Of the expensive
machinery used to make IT, the inCreas-
ed cost OF protein foods largely induced
by the necessity Of providing them to
balance the Silage in feeding, the in
creased labor invested, and interest on
the whole investment. the silo owners Of
Wisconsin are, as a whole, today poorer
for the introduction Of the silo Does
this imply that the silo in Wisconsin is
a financial failure? BY no means, but
it does imply that the plainest teachings
Of philosophy and science have been
thrown aside by these blind leaders Of
the blind, with no regard for conse-
quences, in order to follow some fad
Of their own
think hear some one, probably one
Of these teachers, say. % Rats Well
my subject is rats and how to keep
them out Of these same teachers sllos
which by the way is practically impos
sible, but perhaps ! can help little
Cats are good. We keep four TO six NJ
the barns and think that they pay for
the quart of milk per day that they
never fail to get, always being on hand