The Oskaloosa herald., 1917-11-22
THE COST OF RATS

Tx SOOl oE RhAO
AT a time when every grain of
wheat and every pound of meat is
expected to play as important role
in the winning of Americas war as
a grain of gunpowder, or pound OF
steel when converted into cannot or
shot, DR.. Edward w. Nelson, the noted
biologist, points out, in communica-
ton to the National Geographic soci-
ETY., that rats are destroying more
than $200,O00,O00 worth of foodstuffs
and other property in the United
States every twelve months, and that
it requires. the constant labor OF
10000 men to supply the food which
these loathsome pests eat. A part of
DR.. Nelson's communication is issued
by the society as the following war
geography bulletin:
"Rats have been pests so long that
they have been taken for granted by
the public, much as is the weather or
the forces of nature. While people
are often painfully aware of individual
losses, they are unaware OF the vast
total which these individual sums ag-
gregate and the consequent need of
community action against the authors
of such far-reaching economic drains.
Denmark, one-half the size OF
South Carolina, estimated her losses
in 1907 at about 100000. The same
year the losses in the rural districts
of Great Britain and Ireland, not
counting those in towns and on ships,
were estimated at $73,000,000, and a
capital of about $10,000,000 was prof
itably employed in the industry of
supplying means for their destruction.
In 1904 the losses in France were
computed at $40,0O0,000.
"The United States has nine times
the combined area of the three coun-
tries mentioned, and Investigations
indicate that the direct annual losses
here undoubtedly equal, if they do not
exceed, $200,0O0,000, with great ad-
ditional sum in indirect losses, includ-
ing the effect on the public health and
commerce from the diseases carried
by rats, and the necessary expendi-
ture in combating them. The fore
going figures are based on pre-war
prices and are vastly greater under
present valuations.
"In Europe, about 1907, after care
full investigation, the estimated aver
age annual loss caused by each rat
was computed to equal $1.80 in Great
Britain, $1.20 in Denmark, and 81 in
France. In the United States the
average is undoubtedly much larger
than in any of the countries named,
especially at present high prices of
food and other merchandise.
"There is no doubt that very large
number of rats subsist WIDELY on
garbage and waste which is of no
value, but the damage caused by rats
in numerous places amounts to many
dollars each year; probably SIS year
would not be an overestimate for the
average loss caused by each rat liv-
ng in a dwelling, hotel, restaurant, or
other place having ready access to
food supplies.
Assuming, roughly speaking, that
as estimated the rat population in the
United States is 100000 for the
cities and 15OO00,0O0 for the rural
districts, it will require the destruc-
ton of property by each rat of only
little more than one-fourth of cent
a day to make the aggregate of the
great sum estimated as destroyed by
these pests yearly in this country.
Taking the average yearly returns
on a mans labor in agriculture, as
shown by the census of 1910, it re-
quires the continuous work of about
100000 men with farms, agricultural
implements, and other equipment, to
supply the foodstuffs destroyed an
nually by rats in the United States.
In addition, rats destroy other prop
erty, mainly of agricultural origin,
the production of which requires the
work of about $4,000 men,"