Payette enterprise. (Payette, Canyon Co., Idaho) 1909-1935, 1918-01-17
SOME BAD BARGAINS MAN HAS
MADE WITH NATURE.

MADE WITH NATURE.
: Forty years ago the planters
Trinidad were in despair. Rat
were ravaging the great sugar--can
plantations. Traps, cats and ferret
had all pr1yed useless. Ruin star
ed the planters in the face.
!, Then soIo genius suggested thu
importation CT the mongoose. The
,mongoose Is native of India, 6
charming furry beast that looks like
a big and amiable ferret 1t makes q
delightful pet, but its reputation rests
mainly on tho fact that it is the dead
ly enemy of the poisonous cobra and
also the finest ratter in the world
I A score of these animals were sent
for. Soon there We're no more rats.
Then the mongoose turned his atten-
ton to the chicken yard. Shortly
poultry were almost extinct, and eggs
at premium. Next the mongoose
cleared out the native birds, and q
plague of caterpillars ensued. How
are the mighty fallen. Today there is.
a premium Of three shilliHgs on the
head of each mongoose, yet the pest
is said to be getting worse.
Now the islanders talk of introduce
ing the Indian starting, in the hope
of keeping down the grasshoppers
which are ravishing the crops, or else!
of utilizing the Barbados blackbird
for a similar purpose.
But it Will be as well to think
twice. Rather less than century aeoI
some homesick Britisher living in
Boston sent to England for couple
of pairs of sparrows.
Within less than fifty years the
sparrow had established itself in
States and five territor-
les. 1t had given up eating insects,
and was running riot among the
crops. 1t was said to have been |
over the country at the
late of $4,000 square miles a year.
The Department of Agriculture was
'orced to take the strongest measures
iiu III icOo LilN idno piCeSSelhS WIN
birds were repealed so far as the
lparrows were concerned, and every
nducement given to slaughter the
little pests. Yet today, after thirty
'ears" battle, the sparrow is still
IN top. The damage they do to
,rops is estimated at something like
;15,000,0 900 yearly.
The muskrat, which is an animal
many times the size of a rat, has
,een trapped for generations in Brit
sh North America for the sale Of its
ur.
Some twenty years ago a HuRgar-
AN land owner imported several pairs
# muskrats, and turned them loose
n lake, on his own property. They
multiplied in surprising fashion, for
hey had none of the enemies which,
n the native country, kept them un--
er control, and for time the i'm
orter reaped quite a considerable
income by the sale of the skins.
But the animals soon began to
pread, and then came stories of
urst dams and broken canal banks.
'hS creatures burrowed everywhere,
nd each year the tale of damage
lcreased. Just before the great war I
roke out the Hungarian Government b
ffered prize of $25, 900 to any per- t
on who could invent some method Il
discriminating than. v
st. Helena, famous as the island Il
risen of Napoleon was at one time n
overed with thick forest. Cattle did S
OF thrive there, and goats were i'm n
orted to give meat and milk for v
ic settlers. They soon ran wild, t.
nd betook themselves to the hills, j
here they multiplied by thousands, n
nd browsed on 1.-THE young trees and :"
lrubs. Today the island is little bet
II than desert
Sable Island, is a great crescent of I
md in the Atlantic off Nova Scotia, a
I'd for centuries had no inhabitants n
1T gulls and rabbits. Rats We're &C.
IDENTIFY imported in goods consign-
to the lighthouse and they became
lch a pest that in 1880 cats were,
Fought in to cope with them.
That finished tho rats. And then
Ic cats turned on the rabbits and
iped them out The cats became
} savage that they We're actually q
anger, and some bright settler inn
'rted . pair of big northern foxes t.
'pe with the cats. The foxes killed
&c cats and then, having nothing t.
IT to eat, they died out Today 81