Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1909-07-06
aaaiseellaneous Rsadins.
THE BROWN RAT.
He Is One of the Country's Greatest
Pests.

The rat is the worst mdlIIlldiidii poo
known to man. Its depredation'
throughout the world result In losses
amounting to hundreds Of millions O
dollars annually. But these losses
great as they are, are OF les'
Importance than the fact that rat'
! carry from house to house and from
seaport to seaport the germs OF th'
dreaded plague.
Once occupying only comparative
ly small part Of the Old World, through
the spread of commerce the brown RAJ
has been furnished free transportatlof
TO the uttermost parts Of the eartn
while its fecundity, cunning, and adap'
liability to almost every kind OF enVl.
ronment have enabled it to flourish ano
multiply wherever it has secured
foothold.
Mans antipathy to the rat is MOI
new. For centuries the animal mas
been banned and human ingenuity has
been taxed to the utmost to suppress
it. Innumerable devices in the way ol
traps, poisons, gases, and more recent
ly cultures supposed to spread fata
diseases have been resorted to. New
ertheless the pest continues to prosper
and its numbers and destructiVeness
keen pace with the advance or CIVIL
ization. Everywhere the history OF the
contest Is the same. Though thou-
sands are killed, the relief Is only tenn
porary, and other thousands soon re-
place the slain. Therefore If conduct
ed along the old lines the war promises
to be never ending.
The futility of past efforts and the
lack of permanent results Indicate
that the real cure for the rat evil III
cities, especially seaports, lies In pre-
ventiye rather than curative methods
The extraordinary success that has at
tended the rats struggle for existence
is to be explained largely by the
abundance of food and shelter fur
nished by man. Preventive measures
should be directed to Withholding these
advantages. The most important
steps therefore toward the suppression
of the rat are:
First. The enactment and strict en-
forcement Of municipal ordinances
providing for the disposal Of garbage
and the protection Of food supplies.
Second. The ratproof construction
of dwellings and public buildings.
At the head of the rat family for de-
structiveness stands the brown rat
called also the gray rat, house rat
barn rat, wharf rat and Norway rat
Like all members of the genus Mus
found in America, the animal Is not q
native but is an immigrant from the
Old World. In spite Of constant war
fare waged against it the brown raj
has steadily increased in numbers and
has spread to almost all parts OF the
country reached by railways or by
steamship lines. Accidentally brought
to our shores after the middle OF the
eighteenth century, in most places II
has driven out or exterminated It's less
robust relative, the black rat. fhe
dominance Of the brown rat is proba-
bly, due to it's superior strength and
ferocity, its greater fecundity, Its Pc
culiar adaptability to various environ
ments and its more pronounced bur-
rowing habit.
In most parts Of the United States
the rat common about houses and
barns is the brown rat. 1t Is larger
and more robust than either the black
rat or the roof rat, and differs from
them considerably in habits. Unlike
them, it almost always burrows In the
ground under buildings and In loose
soil along hedges and river banks
This habit affords better protection
from enemies, and combined with the
animals greater ferocity, has enabled
it to supplant the other species In tenn
perate latitudes, but in the warmer
parts of America it has not always
been able to do this, and the roof rat
appears to be most numerous in many
localities. The house mouse escapes
lue uIOWH Idt Ny Idhii5 iOiooS - Wv
vices and other retreats too small for
it's foe to enter.
The early history Of the brown rat
is practically unknown. The species
is generally supposed to be Of Asiatic
origin; but We have no positive knowl-
edge as to it's native country. Various
modern writers have asserted that II
came originally from Persia or India
But Mr.. w. T. Blanford states that the
species is at present unknown in Per-
sia, and that, as concerns India, the
black rat Is the generally distributed
species, while the brown rat is found
only along the coast and the navisable
rivers This statement seems to i'm
ply that the latter is a comparatively
recent immigrant into India Early
Greek and Roman writers make nc
mention of the rat, but it is possible
that they knew the animal and includ-
ed it in their references to mice.
AS regards the time of the brown
rats introduction into Europe We have
two known facts. The species reach
ed England from some eastern port
about 1928 or 1929, and a little earlier
it crossed the Russian frontier from
Asia. Pallas, the naturalist and trav-
eler states that it first reached Europe
from the east by way Of the Volga
which river it crossed in 1927, and
soon afterward spread over the great
er part Of Russia. In view of the
statement of Blanford, already refer
red to, it is highly probable that pre-
vious to this migration the Asiatic
home of the species was northwarG
rather than southwark of the noun
tain barriers Of northern India. This
view has been advanced by severa
naturalists and is further strengthened
by the fact that the animal appears tC
flourish better in temperate than ir
a tropical climate,
The brown rat is said to have frs
appeared in Paris in 1850. 1t wa:
brought to the United States, probably
from England about the beginning O