Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-04-18
SEEKING A DISEASE
Unusual Longing of Govern
ment Scientists.
WAR ON SMALL ANIMALS
Great Damage Caused by Field Mice,
Rats and Other "Varmints."
INCREASE IN THE WOLVES
WAR ON SMALL ANIMALS
INCREASE IN THE WOLVES
Live Off the Great Herds of the West
and Find Refuge in the
Forest Reserves.


sick rat, mouse or rabbit to the Depart
ment OF Agriculture may unwittingly con-
fer benefit of millions of dollars
nually on this country. What the de-
partment wants is a fatal and con-
tagious malady, and 1t is working hard to
get one now. But UP to date the work IL
merely promising. There has not been any
satisfactory result to record. So If any one
has hutch of rabbits swept off by a sud-
den and mysterious disease, or II he notices
any swift and sudden mortality among
the rats and mice in his locality, that may
be the very thing the department is looking
for
OF course, every knows that the
gopher problem is a serious one in many
parts of the west, and the rabbit pest has
at times threatened to devastate Australia.
Altogether the small animals do great
amount of damage but most people do not
realize how great the aggregate of this
damage really is. Yet in one county of the
state Of Washington last year field mice did
damage estimated at half million dollars.
In the same time wolves in Wyoming alone
mulcted the stockmen Of 81 100000 worth of
cattle, while the damage from field mice,
field rats, ground squirrels, pocket gophers
and similar little 'varmints" throughout the
United States especially in the west and
south, amounted to many millions.
Task of the Scientists.
To cope with these pests is one of the
most interesting tasks of the biological sur
vey Of the Department of Agriculture. 1t
has been at the problem in quiet way for
several years, and it has about come to the
conclusion that although it is possible to
trap poison and otherwise reduce the pests
in many instances, the thing that Is really
needed is a contagious disease that cansbe
bottled up In the laboratory and distributed
i ,fiyagt
fective scale than can traps and poisons.
That there Is some such disease. or that
one can be produced, the scientists of the
department do not doubt. The trouble UP
to date has been to find 1t. The biological
survey has been working in conjunction
switch the bureau. OF animal Industry. and
there have been some promising leads
struck, but none of them have turned out to
be Just what was wanted. For instance,
they working with one disease now that
is fatal to a certain breed of field mice.
But it will not touch Others and the rats
laugh at 1t in conscious immunity. Also
there are plenty of contagious animal dis
eases that could be turned loose on the rats,
ground squirrels and rabbits, but they would
Kill horse just as quickly as they would
rat, so they are not wanted.
Ernest Seton Thompson's Find.
1t was some years back that the survey
lost just the chance it has been-iook!ng for.
Ernest Seton Thompson was up In Canada.
WUeTc tHtIe WAS pest VI ldDDits. 1Dcit
he noticed that the rabbits were rapidly
dying out. There was some mysterious dis
ease carrying them off, and it was not long
before the country was almost cleared or
them. He realized that the disease might
prove valuable and managed to catch some
sick rabbits and shipped them to a labora-
tory in New York, but the problem was
not just in the biologists line. and he did
not realize the immense Importance of 1t,
SO the secret was not grasped. Now the
hi<1a ,nnIo 10 al
occurrences, and If the chance offers will
make the most of them.
There is field mouse disease that is
harmless to domestic animals. and the sur
vey is trying hard to make 1t virulent
enough to do business with some of the
larger pests. 1t promises well, but the sci
entists have had too many disappointments
to be Dragging in advance. But they are
actually trying to reinforce the disease and
make 1t worse than 1t has proved up to
date. This is getting pretty deep into the
network of germology and toxic science
1t means really breeding up disease germs
IN somewhat the same plan that plants
and animals are now bred by the depart
ment. But there is hope that they may
be able to do something with II. Anyhow
they are trying
There have been number of reports
from abroad of the wonderful things for
eign PSYCHOLOGISTS have succeeded in do
ing in the contagious diseases line fopA small
animal pests but though cultures have
been bought abroad and tried faithfully
here, no results nave ever peGu ODCaiHtu
Some of the germs have proved fatal to
the animals that ate them, but the same
is true of any sort of poison that can be
bought by the pound and spread on bread
The contagion quality has not developed
yet in any of the foreign cultures tried
The Rabbit Pest.
The biological survey has been able to do
a good deal in a practical way with the
rabbit pest. Some time ago the forest serv-
toa hon IF ind epa had
planted some hundred of thousands young
trees nursery stock, in of the Cali
fornia forest reserves. and the rabbits ate
them up In about a week. Then II seed
ed several hundred acres with white pine
seed to restore the land after a fire. and
the rabbits cheerfuly set to work, dug up
all the seeds and ate them. But the
biologists were loaded for rabbit, so to
speak and they furnished the forest peo-
pie with harmless wash to soak their
pine nuts in before planting, and with
cheap dip for the nursery stock which
self-respecting rabbit Will no more nibbie
than will an ordinary human being smell
bisulphide of carbon for perfume.
In this the biologists confessedly took
leaf out of the book of the Piute and other
desert-dweiling Indians The Pfutes have
been caching food supplies of pine and
pinion nuts in the desert for hundreds of
years and they found that the rabbits, the
ground squirrels and prairie dogs would
clean out their cache. But they found by
4 experience tndl tHeIS Was u little dtseil
weed that the ground animals disliked ex-
cessiveIy and that anything dipped In
tea STEPPED from the bark of the weed
was rabbit proof for long time thereafter.
So the rabbits were checl6mated on that
play and the forest officers have no more
trouble in the rabbit country.
Plague of the Wolves.
But it is the very presence OF the forest
reserves that has bred the present plague
NJ timber wolves In the west There is no
hunting allowed in the reserves and they
form nurseries for game of all sorts. But
it seems that they breed wolves aeite as
fast as they breed anything else aJid the
cattle raisers have been made painfully
aware of the fact.
In the days Of the buffalo on the plains