The sun., 1919-08-24

we seal every rat hole and bring to a
halt economic sacrifices that we can
i'll afford--losses that can be traced
directly to the predatory habits of a
creature whose deeds are FOR the most
part those of darkness.
In general, there are three varieties
of rats in American cities, excluding
mice: the brown rat, the black rat and
the roof rat. The brown rat, because
of its size and aggressiveness. has pos
session of most of the field, and the
smaller and less pugnacious species
are but rarely found here except in
seaports. 1t Is no source of satisfac-
ton to learn that none of these varie-
ties is native to this country and that
they came here from abroad. The fact
is that their appearance dates back to
about the time Of our Declaration of
Independence. and the rodents no
doubt sought our shores contempora
neously with the advent OF many of
our first families
While the early history of the brown
rat Is still cause for speculation, the
prevailing opinion among naturalists
is that 1t originated somewhere in Asia
and thence was inspired to move west
ward-appearing in Ergland about
1923 after having crossed 10 Russian
frontier from Asia little eur..,r The
rodent first appeared in Paris as re-
Gently as 1870, and landed upon Ameri-
can soil, probably from England, about
the beginning OF the Revolution. 1t Is
quite likely that they made the trip
across the Atlantic in troopships car
rylng British soldiers. Audubon has
declared that the brown rat was I'M
known on the Pacific coast of the
United States in 1851; and the fact
that they are plentiful there now
shows how they have migrated and
multiplied in the meanwhile.
The Federal authorities inform lis
| that ANY estimate OF the rodent popu-
lation OF the United States can be
nothing less than a conjecture, but a
guess OF one rat per person would
probably be conservative. Such an
estimate would be supported by the
/ intensive studies OF the United States
Public Health Service in it's sanitary
campaigns in several large cities, in
which tho rodent population was cal
culated on trapping percentages" But
| figures OF this nature are in no wise
conclusive, because they do not indI-
cate with any sort of certainty the
great horde of rats which were cum
ming enough to keep away from the
! traps set for them. The rat has lived
so long In contact with man that the
creature has developed to an astonish-
ing degree measure of self-protect-
ing sagacity. Therefore we are as
likely to have 300, 900, 900 of them as
l10,00o,o00 of them here within our
national limits.
S2OO.O0O,OOO Loss I'm a Year.
Again the governmental experts In
form us: "Guesswork likewise enters
into any computation of economic
losses due to damages done by the
rat. since many OF them subeist
throughout their lives on garbage or
other refuse; but, on the other hand
the losses Incurred by one rodents
depreciation in a single night has
amounted to many dollars" The
United States Department Of Agricul-
ture declared two years ago that rats
and mice yearly destroy crops and
other property in this country valued
at more than 5000, 900! And In
order to make the losses more under
standable to the layman the bureau OF
biological survey said: This destruc-
ton IL equivalent TO the gross earn
ings of an army of more than 000C
men,"
We are informed that the annual
upkeep per rodent. as computed by IN
vestigators abroad a few years ago
was $3.50 in Great Britain. $l.20 in
Denmark and 81 in France. And TIE
depredations OF rats in this country. 70
the powers that be in Washington tell
Us. VIII probably exceed the sStinstG