The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1908-06-17
$IO30OO,0OO A YEAR FOR RATS AND MICE
Government Experts Estimate the Annual Food Bill of
These Pests at That Figure. Some Other Bills


What does it cost to feed all the
rats and mice in the United States?
100000.
What does it cost to feed the
wolves and coyotes?
$13,O00,0OO year.
How much does it cost to feed the
gophers, ground squirrels and rab-
bits?
They eat s22,SOO,OOO worth of
food every year.
What is the size in dollars of the
appetite of one wolf?
$1,000.
These are questions. asked by con-
gress, and the department of agri-
culture experts answered them with
the alacrity of the small boy in school
who knows his lessons we'll.
Nine animals, the smallest a
mouse and the largest a wolf, eat
100000 worth of the farmers
wealth every year, according to these
experts.
Their answers are the result of
careful Investigations and scientific
computations, and to show that the
government is trying to stop such de-
struction of property by pests, the
Department of Agriculture points to
its inspectors at all ports who inspect
oil animals coming to this country.
During the past year they inspected
100000 birds and mammals, refus-
ing admission to such pests as the
English sparrow, the Madagascar
weaver bird, the Java sparrow and
the mongoose, which would cause the
loss of hundreds of thousands every
year to the farmers.
Figures Too Conservative.
c. Hart Merriam, chief of the bu-
reau of biological survey, thinks the
estimates of the animal appetites are
too conservative. They are arrived
at, he says, by getting reports from
farmers and county officers of the
damage an acre by each animal. Then
the total area in the country infested
by each animal is calculated, and
the value of the crops injured is com
puted
The rats and mice have the prize
appetites, but to prove the figures
are conservative Mr.. Merriam points
to France, where the rats do $40,-
100000 damage a year, and Great
Britain. where they do $4,000, 900.
OF the total, $1O3, 100000, charg-
ed to the account of all kinds of rats
and mice Mr.. Merriam says $780,
100000 belongs to the ordinary
house rats and mice, $6,OOO,O 900 to
field mice, and 100000 to cotton
rats.
Special study Of the rat popula-
ton of Washington has shown that
they cost the hotels, restaurants and
markets 100000, and the private
families 100000 a year.
In the Humboldt valley in Nevada
the government experts went so far
as to attempt a census of field mice,
and they found 10000 to the acre
They cost one ranchman alone a $780,
600 loss of alfalfa
This population was soon, howev-
err, reduced to 1900 to the acre by
the attacks of hawks and gulls.
Wolves Very Wasteful.
Mr.. Merriam said his declaration
that a wolf destroys $1,000 of prop
erty every year for food is based on
the statement of western cattlemen
who have to combat the wolves. They
are very wasteful, he says, killing
a fresh sheep for each meal, and new
er eating later what is left over from
a meal. He gave statistics showing
that about 1900 wolves had been
killed in the past year in Wyoming,
and he estimates the saving as a
result to the cattlemen was about
$1,5OO,0OO.
The gophers alone in the west,
according to Mr.. Merriam, do $12,-
100000 damage every year. The
ground squirrels cost the farmers
100000 year, and the rabbits
100000 a year
One feature Of the gopher's depre-
dation is their burrowing in the
banks of irrigation bitches and levees
in the west. 1t costs from 5000 to
$500 to repair each break in bank
made by gophers, according to Mr..
Merriam.
Mr.. Merriam describes the work of
his experts who investigate animal (
pests as economic studies" OF the
animals.
ImpecuniOsity.