New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1907-05-30

Government Biologists Giue Official
4drice and WQrning.
IFrom The Tribune Bureau

tF'rcn The Tribune Bureau
Washington. May 29.-The rat which is said
10 cause damage greater than that of fire. foods
or other destructive agencies. the total running
into the hundreds OF millions OF dollars annually
Is 10 be made the object OF vigorous crusade
by the government biologists. who to-day issued
a bulletin of warning TO the American public on
the need OF fighting this rodent for. il IN
checked. the descendants or a single pair exceed
hundred millions In four years and the total
damage TO the country will soon become meal
cuIable An infallible method OF DISCRIMINATING
these rodents. it is declared would be worth
more to the people of the United States IN a sin
gle decade than the Department of AgricuIturs
has cost since It's establishment.
One rat is much like another. so far as de-
structiveness goes. but it Is OF interest not,
that three kinds have appeared in this country.
all immigrants from the Old World, The black
rat the first TO reach our shores. which IL
did nearly three hundred years ago. The COM
mon species. known the brown or Norway
rat. arrived about the year 1T75 and at once
proceeded 10 drive out its weaker rival until
almost everywhere il has supplanted II. Tbs
third species. known the roof. or Alexandrine.
rats OF Egypt. is a great mariner. and infests
every ship: hence. naturally, ii is common along
our coast. especially in the South
All rats are dangerous foes. but the brown rat
the United States destroys more property than
all other noxious animals combined. No statis-
ties OF the actual damage annually done by these
rodents have been gathered in America. IN
Denmark the loss is put st 100000 a year. and
IN France the damage by both rats and mice has
been estimated at $4OOOOOOo annually. sin
gle rat will consume about two ounces OF wheat
or corn a day. and II destroys far moro OF the
latter than 1t eats. as indeed 1t does OF most
other food The average cost to the country OF
feeding rat on grain is about 10 cents year.
II for each COW. horse. sheep and hog on the
farms Of the United States the farmers support
one rat on grain the toll levied on the cereals by
these rodents would reach the enormous total
OF S1OOOOOOOO year. Even granting that half
their food is waste material. the tax OF feeding
rats is stu an enormous drain on the profits OF
agriculture.
But much Of their food is less expensive than
grain, and the actual losses due 70 these AMI
mails are by no means confined TO food They
enter stores and warehouses and destroy Dry
goods-Iace curtains carpets, woollens. silks
as we'll kid gloves and other leather goods
They gnaw through lead pipes. flooding build
ings or filing them with gas. They injure furni-
ture and the foundations and doors OF buildings
They eat the insulation from electric wires. thus
causing disastrous fires. The average fire loss
I'm the United States due 10 defective insulation -
placed at S15OOOOO0 annually, considerable
part of which is said to be caused by rats
Rats destroy eggs and young poultry pigeons
game birds and Wild sOngbirds. They have oseh
known TO XIII young rabbits pigs and lambs ana
even TO attack children. Carl HaSenbeck once
lost three young elephants because rats gnaNeu
their feet infiicting incurable wounds.
In addition TO the direct damage they do' ra''
are known 70 be active agents in carrying as
ease germs from house TO house and from city y
city BubouIc plague is usually dissenina'e'
from port to port in this way.
Their prolificness is the chief obstacle 10 'Ae
determination They produce young from 'nes
TO six times a year and females breed Wn'
about three months old The average liter
about ten. but often it numbers fourteen D,
more If three ntters OF ten each are proau's
every year. single pair. breeding without ehs'N
and without losses by death. in three ysA
would be represented by ten generations az
would number 2o155. 392 individuals lH
eleventh generation. due at the beginning o' -
fourth year. would number over a hundred mn-
ions.
The world has been fighting rats for sever"
centuries. but the warfare has been neither
tematic nor persistent The number OF IL
fallible' devices and formulas for kiihns
rodents that have been put forth would h'i W.
umes. and still the pestiferous rat survives 60
grows more and more cunning as the ue'
its destruction gain in ingenuity bsva
The biological survey does not pretend 10 80 -.
worked out an infallible device for klIii .+uc
by wholesale. but the methods Tor their Es'e
ton given In the bulletin are ,hose ,hs hes, and
the formulas for poisoning ana trappi'e
most approved ones