The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1919-07-10
A Rats Rations

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association with him in the trenches.
It is safe to say millions of persons
have seen and watched,srats during
-Four years past who never saw one
before except when it was dead in a
trap. And, what is more, among these
observers are some whose observa-
tions are of value to science. The
Eats fondness for mans food has re-
Gently been remarked upon in an
Article quoted in these columns. 1t
is. that fondness that brings him to
cdr houses, and it was that which
caused him to overrun the trenches.
LAM, a writer quoted in recent is
she of Good Health, ascribes this
fSndness to the fact that the lat does
not lay up stores of food like his
colsin the squirrel. Even when he
carries off more than he can eat at a
naeal, he is apt to befoul it so that
he cannot use what is left. We quote
from Good Health:
"An adult brown rat eats two
ounces of food a day, and will eat
forty-fve to fifty pounds of grain in
a year.
stIt also devours poultry, and eggs,
game, vegetables, fruit, coffee, dates,
oranges, cocoa; it gnaws vines, cloth
iEg, textiles, leather covered books;
it is fond of glue and attacks har-
ness, especially when worn, and cur
tafns, whether of silk cotton, or tap
estry. The rat attacks anything its
teeth can take hold on; it is intact,
a terrible spoiler, gnawing incessant-
" and indiscriminated any object its
teeth can make an impression on.
i"The marked identity of menu in
the food of men and of rats is curl
dis enough between two species
whose dental type is SO different
Hut the rat differs from man in the
absolute necessity it is subject to Of
eating often and enormously.
:" It is tkis need of abundant nour-
ishment which makes cannibals OF
rats. Some soldiers experimental
with rats, putting eight in cage
together. Eight days later only one
was there and it was seriously
wounded.
However, a precise statement OF
the alimentary regiment of rats is
more difficult than it would appear,
since individuals vary in their tastes.
Experiments made by myself, in col
laboration with DR.. Laurens, prove
that, contrary to accepted opinion,
the brown rat has very restricted
diet, being comparatively fastidious.
Thus it eats the crumb but not the
crus. of bread, unless urged by ex-
treme hunger. Some rats have act
Eally died with crusts still in their
larder. Both black and brown rats
Ike cooked rice, potatoes, carrots,
and fish, as well as cheese and GER
tain uncooked fruits and salads. They
will devour the flesh of melon but
leave the rind. They like lard, pas
try, sugar, and chocolate, as we'll as
meat principally cooked), though
the latter seems scarcely consonant
with their dentition. They sometimes
eat raw meat, but this is by neces
sity and not by choice.
"They neglect turnips, radishes,
and dandelion; they will eat oats,
but will perish if confined to this
food. When tainted meat is given
Ehem, they eat only the sound por-
tions. They will not touch barley.
"a rat fed only on fruit will die of
starvation in a few days. If fed only
on those stuffs which it eargerly
gnaws, cloth, leather, wood, ETC., it
dies as soon as if entirely deprived
of food. Experiment proved, rather
to our astonishment, that the rat is
not graminivorous; it eats wheat
only in default of other food. The
trenches abound with tales of the
rats greed for soap and candles, but
when these were placed in their
cages, they were eaten only in de-
fault of other food. The rat is known
to- attack cadavers, but this is by
necessity rather than choice.
zone cause of the rats addiction
to mans diet is that it neither hiber-
mates nor lays up stores for winter,
as do other rodents, the marmot and
the squirrel, respectively.
"Rats are not only voracious but
they defile food. If they devour near
" three times their weight of food,
then they destroy two or three times