12 ANIMAL COMPETITORS 



cost of feeding them on grain would be upward of 

 $100,000,000 a year. To some such enormous total 

 every farmer, and indeed every householder who has 

 rats upon his premises, contributes a share. 



"But the actual depredations of rats are by no 

 means confined to what they eat. They destroy fully 

 as much grain as they consume, and they pollute and 

 render unfit for human consumption a much larger 

 proportion of all other food materials that they at- 

 tack. In addition, the damage they do to property 

 of other kinds is often as great as that done to food 

 supplies. ' ' 



Destructiveness of rats in the fields. The 

 rat in America is usually thought of as vermin 

 in the house and barn, so that little notice is 

 taken of its destructiveness in the fields which 

 Europeans understand very well. Cultivated 

 grains may be regarded as the favorite food. 

 The animals dig the seed from the ground as 

 soon as sown, eat the tender sprouts when they 

 appear, and later feast upon the maturing crop. 

 After harvest they attack grain in shock, stack, 

 and mow, and when thrashing is over, in crib, 

 granary, elevator, mill, and warehouse. In- 

 dian corn seems especially to suffer from their 

 depredations. They climb the stalks and strip 

 the cobs of the milky kernels; and if cut corn 



