The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1911-03-13
TO ExTERM|NATE
WHOLE RAT TRIBE
English Parliament Takes Up
the Question Seriously
Have Good Reasons.

London, Marcn l3--Attnougn the re-
cent plague scare here didn't amount
10 much, beyond the headlines. it
drew attention to the rat, which caus-
ed that plague scare, and has resulted
in some astonishing discoveries
about him. affecting grain producing
countries in particular. So many vii
lainies are now laid at the door of Mr..
Rat that parliment is to be asked to
turn its attention from abolishing
lords to abolishing rats.
The chief enemy of the rat in Eng
land and probably in the world is that
famous doctor, Sir James Chricton-
Browne. vice president of the Royal
institution. and incidently fellow of
the Academy of Medicine of New
York. For many years he has devoted
Himself to investigating and lecturing
on subjects affecting the public health
and as president of the Society for the
determination of Vermin he has come
to the conclusion that of them all the
rat is the most Objectionable. He is
using all his power and influence to
bring about what he calls a national
st. Bartholomew day for rats.
Criminal Of Animal World.
THE rat is the criminal of the ami
NAL world" said Sir James. He has
MT the slightest redeeming feature.
Almost every other beast or bird or in
sect. no matter how Objectionable 1t
may be has some place in the scheme
of nature. but as far as we can find
out the rat fulhlls no useful function
at all. He is parely parasite, and
a most expensive and dangerous one.
And if England only realized what
the rat is costing it there can be no
doubt that the rats ST Bartholomew s
day would come with the least posi-
Gle delay" Sir James made a most
interesting calculation shoing what he
costs the British grain grower alone.
BY careful experiments in feeding
Gagged rats. he learned that, in order
that he may not turn cannibal and eat
his fellows, the rat must have at least
/ cents worth of grain day. To be
on the safe side he takes it that each
wild rat in England eats about half
that quantity of grain. Competent
authorities have estimated that there
is at present at least one rat for each
individual acre in the kingdom. There
are forty million cultivated acres, sc
that the calculation furnishes us with
the astonishing total OF about $4,000,
900 a year which England pays for the
privilege OF feeding rats on grain.
Destroy Variety Of Property.
No account is taken in this calcula
ton of the other damage which they
do. For instance, one wholesale dry
goods man wrote short time ago to
| the Society for the determination Of
Vermin that rats had got into his
warehouse and destroyed silk worth
$500 in one night. They enter brick
drains and eat through their sides into
buildings, putting householder to un
told expense for repairs. They de
stroy eggs and young chickens, and, ir
the course of the year, they foul thous
ands of tons of food which they do no.
cat. 1t would probably be no exagger
alton to put their cost to England a
three times Sir James figure.
f1ost Cunning Animal Alive.
| When parliment meets again Sill
James is hopeful that some nationa
action may be taken to deal with thi:
plague 1t is obvious that a small
fraction of one years rat bill would be
sufficient to reduce the plague to {
minimum, for even Sir James is con
WINGED that we can't exterminate the
rat. So long as ships come to England
fresh immigrants arrive and even the
most stringent precautions will no
prevent some of them landing.
"The rat is the most cunning ANNA
alive" he said. THE usual method o
preventing him from coming ashore i.
to fix on all the hawsers connecting =;
ship with the land traps in the shape
of inverted cones.
Then you must remember that I'm
der favorable conditions one pair o
rats will produce eight hundred de
scendents in one year. They have
four to six filters, each numbering
from eight to a dozen in the year, ant
the young rats begin to breed at 81,
months old"