140 THE BEGINNER IN POULTRY 



popular of late, works in the direction of helping the 

 rat, unless the rat-proof hoppers are provided. Sheet 

 metals, or papers made poisonous or repellent may be 

 used. In feed alone, the rat causes world losses of mil- 

 lions of dollars in value. In old-world cities it has 

 caused the loss of many thousands of lives. And in 

 our own western borders, many thousands of dollars 

 were spent to free us from the plague which had found 

 an entrance, and was being distributed by these vermin 

 throughout all the burrows and cellars and refuse piles 

 in the great coast city. When it had come to a choice 

 between the wholesale destruction of either the people 

 or the rats, the most expert plague authorities in the 

 country took the matter in hand. 



Perhaps the keenest interest, just now, lies in the 

 bacterial preparations being widely advertised. In 

 1909 the government put itself on record as having 

 found these not sufficiently effective. That is, "when 

 fresh and virulent," they will kill most of the rats which 

 really eat the baits ; but the infection passed on to 

 others is on too small a scale to be considered a reliable 

 means of rat extinction. 



The two chief points made by the government 

 authorities, with reference to keeping down the plague 

 of rats, are the necessity of denying them harborage 

 and the equal necessity of destroying their food. In 

 the cities, garbage, and especially kitchen refuse, is 

 said to be the chief source of food supply. In the 

 country, particularly on poultry farms, it is the feed 

 bags and barrels and hoppers left ready to their taking 

 of the contents. Even without these, there would 

 remain the unhoused grain and the insecure chickens. 



