88 



FERRET FACTS AND FANCIES. 



a small army of rats, is commonly left in waste baskets or 

 other open receptacles. Strictly enforced rules requiring all 

 remnants of food to be deposited in covered metal vessels 

 would make trapping far more effective. 



If buildings are infested with rats, wire-screened com- 

 partments should be used for storing food. Many merchants 

 now keep flour, seeds, meats, and the like in wire cages, and 

 the practice should be general. Ice boxes and cold-storage 

 rooms may be made proof against rats by an outer covering 

 of heavy wire netting of half-inch mesh. Steamboat com- 

 panies engaged in carrying high-priced southern produce to 

 northern markets can, at small expense, protect the vegetables 

 or fruits in screened compartments on both docks and vessels. 

 Rats do not gnaw the plane surfaces of hard materials, 

 such as wood. They attack doors, furniture, and boxes at 

 the angles only. This fact suggests the feasibility of pro- 

 tecting chests containing food by light coverings of metal 

 along the salient angles. This plan has for years been in 

 use to protect naval stores on ships and in warehouses. 



NATURAL Enemies 

 OF Rats. — Among the 

 natural enemies of 

 rats are the larger 

 hawks and owls, 

 skunks, foxes, coy- 

 otes, weasels, minks, 

 dogs, cats and ferrets. 

 Probably the great- 

 est factor in the in- 

 crease of rats, mice, 

 and other destructive rodents in the United States has been 

 the persistent killing off of the birds and mammals that prey 

 upon them. Animals that on the whole are decidedly bene- 

 ficial, since they subsist upon harmful insects and rodents, 



SUMh (_A)<.)1) KAl 1 tK^. 



