182 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



in a single night. Rats destroy pinks (carnations) and roses, 

 of which they seem to be particularly fond; also hyacinths 

 and chrysanthemums. Many growers have had their choicest 

 flowers ruined by them. 



Rats are fond of meats of all kinds and devour them wherever 

 they can be found. The injury begins at the slaughtering es- 

 tablishment. Most slaughterhouses are infested with hordes of 

 rats, which live on blood and offal and attack the meat when- 

 ever an opportunity offers. No meat of any kind is safe unless 

 kept in rat-proof refrigerators. Rats get access to the meat in 

 some of the lower class markets and sometimes destroy a con- 

 siderable quantity in a single night. Pantries, larders and 

 cellars, wherever meat or game is kept, are raided by rats at 

 every opportunity, and the loss from this source is very great. 



Rats gnaw into butter tubs, excavate and honeycomb fine 

 cheeses, and consume and ruin more or less milk and cream. 

 They drink and contaminate human beverages of many kinds 

 if left uncovered, sometimes even gnawing into casks of wine 

 or cider. 



The complaints regarding the ravages of rats among poultry 

 are pathetic. In some years 50 per cent, of all the chicks and 

 ducklings hatched in certain neighborhoods are killed by rats, 

 and occasionally a single poultryman loses hundreds of chicks 

 by them. Rats often rob hens' nests as soon as the eggs are 

 laid, carrying the eggs away without breaking them, so that a 

 great part of the loss is never even suspected. Pigeons' eggs 

 and young are just as readily taken as those of the larger 

 fowls, as rats are very skillful in climbing for them. When it 

 is considered that the annual product of eggs and poultry from 

 the farms of the United States considerably exceeds $500,000,000 

 in value, it will be seen how serious a loss rats may cause to 

 this industry, and to the middlemen and retailers as well. 



Professor Lantz tells of a commission merchant in Washing- 

 ton, District of Columbia, who lost 71^ dozen eggs by rats from 

 a tub in which 100 dozen had been nailed up. 



The loss of young chicks and eggs is not the only poultry 

 loss suffered by poultrymen and dealers. According to Dr. 

 Bos, rats have been known to bite flesh from living fowls, ^ and 



I Bos, J. R., Agricultural Zoology, 1894, p. 39. 



