282 ANNUAL TvErOETS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGEICULTURE. 



iuipossible. Losses of from 40 to GO per cent of the groAving cane 

 have been reported. The depredations arc bj^ the cotton rat, a small 

 ratlike rodent limited to the South Atlantic and Gulf States. In- 

 vestigation has determined effective methods of poisoning these 

 rodents, and it is believed that through demonstrations and advice 

 the growers will be able to control the rats and reduce the losses 

 to a negligible amount. 



Wood rats continue to be troublesome in limited areas, and where 

 they become especially injurious demonstrations and advice have 

 been given for their control. 



HOUSE RATS AND MICE. 



The extended educational campaign inaugurated last j^ear was 

 continued in order to acquaint the public with the serious drain 

 on the Nation's food resources through depredations of house rats. 

 Demonstrations were given of methods of poisoning and trapping 

 the animals, and plans for community organization against them 

 were presented and discussed. As a result many State officials, State 

 councils of defense, and public-spirited citizens took up the work 

 of organizing campaigns, and great numbers of the rodents Avere 

 destro3'ed. 



Eequests were made by military and naval officers in charge of 

 camps, arsenals, and storage warehouses in this country for advice 

 and assistance in controlling house rats in the buildings under 

 their control. Experienced rej^resentntives were detailed to investi- 

 gate conditions and recommend plans for limiting the losses. Grati- 

 fying results were obtained, perhaps the most important of which 

 was at the Bush Terininal warehouses in Brooklyn, N. Y. These 

 OTcat warehouses were taken over bv the Government for Army 

 quartermaster storehouses, and were so badly infested by rats as 

 seriously to endanger the stored food and other Army supplies. At 

 the request of the quartermaster officer in charge, a representative 

 of the bureau made a survey of the warehouses in January, 191S, 

 and recommended a method of procedure for controlling the rats. 

 At the end of the year the quartermaster officer in charge advised 

 that the recommendations of the bureau had been followed with 

 complete success. He reported that at first practically a barrelful 

 of rats were killed each day, and that more than 35,000 rats were 

 killed daring the year. The work of destruction was so thorough 

 that he reports the losses of military supplies during the entire 

 year to have been negligible. 



Large numbers of the Farmers' Bulletin (No. 896) giving infor- 

 mation concerning the destruction of rats were used in this country 

 by the Quartermaster Department of the Army and also in France 

 in an effort to control losses from these animals. 



In this connection it may be stated that several experts in rodent 

 control Avho were commissioned in the Sanitary Corps of the Ameri- 

 can Expeditionary Forces in France for the purpose of controlling 

 the depredations of rats in connection with the Army operations, 

 were highly successful in preventing heavy losses of quartermaster 

 stores from these rodents. 



MOLES. 



Througliout the year demonstrations were continued in Washing- 

 ton and Oregon for the control of the large moles which are a serious 



