68 ANIMAL COMPETITORS 



when the grain is nearly mature, as stalks are 

 then cut down; and after harvest the animals 

 attack the shocked grain. In shocks and stacks 

 the mice are perfectly at home, and multiply 

 with such rapidity that within a few weeks a 

 pair and their progeny may totally ruin 'an 

 entire shock of wheat, oats or corn. In view 

 of this situation it is a question whether the 

 farmer who hastens to market his crop is not, 

 on the whole, a gainer over his neighbor who 

 waits for more favorable prices. 



In these and other ways the annual de- 

 struction of grain and forage throughout the 

 country is enormous; nor is the injury all 

 done by the short-tailed meadow-mice. Deer- 

 mice (Peromyscus), pocket-mice (Perogna- 

 thus), harvest-mice (Reithrodontomys), and 

 ordinary house-mice are also concerned in the 

 damage. Throughout the country the brown 

 rat and in the Southwest the cotton-rat (Sig- 

 modon) are serious field-pests. 



General preventive measures. The forego- 

 ing testimony sufficiently shows the noxious 

 character of these small rodents ; and suggests 

 the query : * ' How shall it be stopped ? ' ' 



