The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1909-07-07
The Worlds Tribute to Pests
By M. Hamilton Talbot.

made most exhaustive experiments for
the determination of these rodents, and
he says that trapping: if vigilantly pur.
getting rid of them. The improved mod
ern traps with wire fall released by a
halted trigger and driven by a coiled
spring are better than any of the old
forms of traps, especially when made of
absorb and retain odors or germs. As
bait to be used he finds bacon, sausage,
oatmeal, roasted cheese, and sunflower OF
pumpkin seeds to be the best. and as
these pests are very suspicious it is adj
visable to handle both bats and traps as
little as possible.
No one method is adequate. however,
and only by concerted, systematic, and
persistent effort is it possible to reduce
and keep down their numbers. The con-
solution for the future and as the use of
cement increases the rat problem de-
creases, for they cannot penetrate this
material when used in floors, walls,
drains, barns, etc
Sir James Critchon- Browne states that
the expenditure for rat poison in the
United Kingdom amounts to a million
and half dollars annually, but as pois
onlng is a method nearly always Insatis
factory, and at times unpleasant and un-
hygienic, this WAY of destroying them is
not recommended by Uncle SANS ex-
perts. A German bacteriologist, Prof A.
Neuman in his effort to discover a meth
cd for their determination, is experiment.
ing with the unique scheme of nnoculat-
ing rats with highly contagious dis
ease. Cultures of microbes are mixed
with bread and grain, which when eaten
by the rodents causes a disease similar
to typhus fever, in very malignant
form They die in three days after con-
among them very rapidly. This disease
seems only to affect rodents, for live
stock, and even human beings. We're not
effected when innoculated with it. Such
an impression has Prof. Neuman made
among scientists in Europe that some of
them have had a bill passed in Denmark
appropriating $6,75O year for further
experimenting along this line.
n ONSUL Snodgrass Of Kobe reports tina.
- since DR.. Koch advised the keeping Of
cats as the best means of destroying rats
and preventing the plague the Japanese
authorities have been active in investigat-
ing the number of cats maintained and
their relative vaue The results of in
vestigations by the police shows that
there are $3.50 cats in Osaka. city of
100000 people, the families in which
eats are kept numbering 1872 In ad-
dition there are 1906 homeless cats.
Not only is the rat being fought but
an active campaign is being carried on
against mice, and especially field mice,
which are such menace to the farmer.
In Nevada the agricultural sections are
being overrun by them and every year
thev destroy sa0D OOl worth of alfalfa.
SecIetary Wilson told the writer that in
Humbolt county last wear the mice de-
stroyed IL. 0OO acres out of n total of 30.
oOo acres of the forage crop so that the
fields had TO he replowed and replantcd
In This same section only one-third ot
the potato CROP was gathered and this
norton was badly damaged Orchards
and shade trees we're much injured by
the mice girdlins the bark from the roots
and base of the trunks. The Department
of Agriculture sent experts ou, to Ne
yada for the purpose of showing tilt
ronchmen how to destroy the mice They
usrd sulnhate of strychnine on ,hoppef
green alfalfa or alfalfa hay. Even OF