CHAPTER LXXI 



ANIMAL FOES FORMS INJURIOUS TO HUMAN 

 INDUSTRIES 



A large volume would be required to give anything like an 

 adequate account of the innumerable animal pests which more or 

 less diminish the success of many human operations. Keepers 

 of stock or poultry, crop-growers, gardeners, foresters, and the 

 like, all have constant and painful experience of some such forms. 

 Other animals damage buildings, food, clothes, and various manu- 

 factured articles. To cope successfully with many of these foes 

 requires much knowledge of their habits and life-histories, and 

 such knowledge can only be acquired by patient and long- 

 continued scientific research, carried out by trained experts. 

 Although an increasing amount of this kind of work is done in 

 the United Kingdom, we are at present very far behind such 

 countries as Germany and the United States, where the value of 

 research is fully appreciated by the authorities. Our own govern- 

 ment is comparatively apathetic in the matter, and our univer- 

 sities are too much occupied in turning out graduates by the score 

 to undertake more than a small fraction of the original investiga- 

 tions upon which the prosperity of many of our industries ulti- 

 mately depends. 



It is only possible here to briefly review the animal kingdom 

 with a view to pointing out some of the more injurious forms. 



INJURIOUS MAMMALS (MAMMALIA). It goes without saying 

 that the carnivores which attack man (see p. 331) are still more 

 mischievous by way of raiding flocks and herds. Besides which, 

 members of the same group which are not powerful enough to 

 be considered our own personal enemies, may nevertheless be 

 very destructive to domesticated animals. Foxes, Weasels, and 

 Stoats may be mentioned in illustration. But at the same time 

 it ought to be remembered that the damage inflicted is not 



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