The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-04-15
IMPORTS CATS
~ TO DESTROY PEST
Montana Ranchman in Twin
Cities On a Strange :
Mission. &c 5as. o4f

The latest field Of -endeaYor dis
covered for the cat bids fair to deplete
the feline population of the Twin
p Cities. Soon the wall of the midnight
grilnalkin will be, relegated to the af-
fairs Of the dim past, with tailor bills
and other scraps of ancient history.
Kitty'S march Of empire is now west
ward to the foothills, of y. the South
Boulder mountains, and to this feline
happy hunting ground st: Paul and
Minneapolis cats are journeyingz> by
hundreds. There is work for all,
where the festive prairie dog spoT1eth
in the sunshine s---.e, "a So
About a month agoa7a stranger ap-
peared in the Twin Cities and oeleetri-
fed othe small boy by declaring his
mission to be that OFF, securing all
the cats possible for deportation
h WhitheFiJno one knew
The price he paid foraordinary. ev-
+ eryuay house cats was 20 cents. and
for. extraordinarily large. ferocious
animals he would ornuch better than
that. The larger, the fiercer. the Wild
err and uglter the cats were the BET
ter he likedg them. After securing
about $50 of Vthe choicest things OBJ
.tainable iinIa feline way, he was about
to leave when seen by 7 G b e,
to whom he explained his mission.
my name ds Rice, of the firm OF
men, of Butte, Mont. and you bet there
is. an object in this cat business. I'm
not here buying cats for fun, or my
health, or to crafty a Whim. We
want .thesef catS-in fact we need 'em
and thei sooner We can, get EN- to
our ranchrin Montana the better
+ For several years the prairie dog
problem has been confronting US. much
the same as the rabbit pest of the
Australian plains almost bankrupted
the sheep herders of that country.
Talk about the plague of locusts that
descended upon the ancient Egyptians.
why they weren't in it for a minute
with the, prairie dogs of Montana.
The latter multiply so rapidly that
there is no human means of checking
them. Shooting them is but use
less waste of money. poisoning them
cannot be done for fear of our own
dogs and other animals. and it is i'm
possible to- trap enough of them to
make even the slightest impression
on their increase. So we got our heads
together and hit upon the plan Of get
ting a quantity of cats. and turning
them loose among the pests. I've al
ready taken one cargo of them home
secured In North and South Dakota,
and although only about half of them
remained among the enemy, 1 call it
a success.
Il calculate that one full grown,
healthy, large cat will kill on an aver
age from two to three dogs per day;
and as we have about fifty at work
now you can see that they are getting
away with the pests in royal shape.
- about half of the crew l took over
to put to work left the job magine
the dogs scared them away and they
lit out for the mountains, where they
will very likely develop into first
class wildcats in the course of a few
years The others went to work like
Trojans and ithe fur flies there every
hour in TIE night and day
And haEea you thought, Mr.. Rice,
what you will do with all the cats
you will have on hand when the dogs
are externffnated?"
why, I know dozens of other
ranchers who are troubled as badly
as we arel fNho. would give almost
anything tofsget good dog-cats, and
if such a blessing ever descends upon
us as being free. from the dogs I'll
gladly pute up with the problem of
getting rid of the cats
DO yo1 think you will be back
after another cargo of cats, Mr..
Riee?" 81 %
No, hardy think so. Cats multiply
very rapidly and it is just probable
that SoonIiwH will have distinct
strain of ts9en, trained to distinct
chase, just as special breeding and
training developed the greyhound, the
bulldog and the st. Bernard. How
ever, I'll be glad enough to get rid
Of the dogs without thinking of the
rats