68 ANIMAL COMPETITORS 
when the grain is nearly. mature, as stalks are 
then cut down; and after harvest the animals 
attack the shocked grain. In shocks and stacks 
the mice are perfectly at home, and multiply 
with such rapidity that within a few weeks a 
pair and their progeny may totally ruin an 
entire shock of wheat, oats or corn. In view 
of this situation it is a question whether the 
farmer who hastens to market his crop is not, 
on the whole, a gainer over his neighbor who 
waits for more favorable prices. 
In these and other ways the annual de- 
struction of grain and forage throughout the 
country is enormous; nor is the injury all 
done by the short-tailed meadow-mice. Deer- 
mice (Peromyscus), pocket-mice (Perogna- 
thus), harvest-mice (Reithrodontomys), and 
ordinary house-mice are also concerned in the 
damage. Throughout the country the brown 
rat and in the Southwest the cotton-rat (Sig- 
modon) are serious field-pests. 
General preventive measures. The forego- 
ing testimony sufficiently shows the noxious 
character of these small rodents; and suggests 
the query: ‘‘How shall it be stopped?’’ 
