186 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



gnawing them away in order to make passages into or through 

 the walls. They sometimes even gnaw off the corners of hard 

 bricks when such are in the way of their passage. They gnaw 

 almost any building material except the very hardest brick, 

 concrete, cement, glass and iron. They have been known to 

 gnaw through zinc drain pipes and lead water and beer pipes, 

 often causing flooding of buildings and great loss. They have 

 compelled the manufacture of iron gas pipes, which formerly 

 were made of softer material. There are indications that some- 

 times lead pipes are gnawed to secure water, but this cannot be 

 the case with gas pipes, which are more likely to be severed 

 when the rats attempt to enlarge the holes through which such 

 pipes pass. They drill through .flooring and plastering, un- 



Miscellaneous damage. 



dermine foundations and concrete floors, and ruin drains. They 

 injure the planks and timbers of wooden ships, and although 

 they are said never to gnaw through the planks so as to cause 

 a leak, they have no doubt greatly weakened the fabric of 

 many vessels, and perhaps have been responsible for the loss of 

 some by water as well as by fire. They injure furniture, destroy 

 mattresses, upholstery, matting and carpets; steal and hide in 

 their holes jewelry and other valuable articles; destroy cloth, 

 bagging, clothmg, books, silk hosiery, silk handkerchiefs, towels, 

 napkins and other dry goods, letters, skins of birds and mammals, 

 felting, wifls, deeds, drawings and other valuable papers; injure 

 stored goods; eat labels off shoe boxes and other cartons, and 

 injure packages of all kinds that are fastened with paste or 

 glue. In a store in Washington, District of Columbia, they 

 destroyed fifty dozen brooms worth $125. In another they broke 

 $500 worth of fine china in a night, knocking it from the shelves. 

 A restaurant lost $30 monthly in table linen, and a hotel $15 



