242 RURAL DENMARK 



attention. Nor are any of them held to be too small 

 to occupy the time of Parliament. 



The Danish Rat Act 



Let me take a single, and perhaps rather a humble, 

 instance of this statement. For years farmers and 

 others have complained of the depredations caused by 

 vermin in this country, especially by rats, which result 

 in a loss estimated by experts to amount to many 

 millions of pounds a year. While our Governments 

 have considered such a matter to be beneath their 

 notice, that of Denmark has dealt with it effectively, 

 with the result that rats there grow comparatively 

 scarce. 1 



In England, on the contrary, these, like the 

 sparrows, have increased till they are becoming a 

 national menace. Indeed, during the autumn and 

 winter of 1910 East Anglian farmers and traders have 

 suffered, and are still suffering, great loss owing to 

 the discovery of the existence of plague among these 

 rodents, which has communicated itself to various 

 other animals and caused the death of several human 

 beings. As a consequence, at the time of writing, 

 certain sorts of produce from the affected districts have 

 become practically unsaleable. 



In the presence of what may become a terrible 

 public danger, the Local Government Board has 

 issued sundry orders, and the district authorities have 

 been urged to action. The war against this enemy 



1 From a letter which I have just received from him it seems that to 

 Mr. E, Zuschlag, the President of the Association Internationale pour la 

 Destruction Rafio?inale des Rats y Is due the credit of this Danish law. He 

 says, "It is my result of many years ef unceasing labour." H. R. H., 

 March 1911. 



