THE GBAY RAT. 303 



everywhere and anywhere that food-stuffs or filth 

 exist gray rats are to be found in numbers decided 

 only by the shelter obtainable for them and the 

 food-supply at hand. 



' In a knackery in the north of England,' writes 

 S. L. Bensusan, 'food was placed in a room to 

 entice the entrance of rats, and at midnight the 

 door of the room was closed. Next day men and 

 terriers entered to destroy the spoilers, and over a 

 quarter of a ton of rats were killed ! ' 



' Kylratt ' estimates that in six months a hundred 

 rats will consume two thousand quartern loaves 

 and twenty -seven bushels of sharps. Another 

 authority estimates that each rat costs the country 

 7s. 6d.* annually. 



A farmer in the west of England who, in 1919, 

 was prosecuted for allowing two of his stacks to 

 crumble to bits owing to the activities of rats, 

 admitted that the damage done to one stack alone 

 approximated to a hundred pounds. To quote again 

 from Bensusan : ' In 1917 two large wheat-stacks 

 were not thrashed owing to the difficulty of obtain- 

 ing a thrasher ; and when eventually a machine was 

 procured, one stack yielded only four sacks of wheat 

 and many hundreds of rats, while the other was 

 considered unworth the expense of thrashing. The 

 stacks had been estimated to be of considerable 

 value when made, the wheat on neighbouring fields 

 being well up to four quarters to the acre.' 



NUMBERS. 



In the first three months of 1919 Leicestershire 

 made a return of sixty-five thousand rats killed, yet 

 there was no appreciable lessening of their numbers 

 in that county. Dr A. E. Shipley estimates the 



* Pre-war estimate. 



