IN THE POULTRY YARD. 173 
them? That would be waste. We passed them through our meat 
chopper and cut them up, bones, meat, hair and all. Since rats 
are the great trichina-carriers, it would shave been dangerous to 
feed this meat to dogs, cats or pigs, but to fowls it is perfectly 
harmless. But to make sure, we boiled it thoroughly in our large 
pot, exposing it in four lots to a boiling temperature for four hours. 
At the end of that time every trichina, if there were any present, 
must have been as dead as the rats themselves, so we just made 
the soup into mush with a little corn meal and fed it to the chick- 
ens. The rats had eaten our chickens, and now the chickens ate 
the rats—a just retribution. 
As we have already stated, from that day to this we have never 
been troubled with rats, and the “rat-house,” as we call it, serves 
very well occasionally for an extra coop; of late, however, we have 
been told that one or two rats have been seen about the place. If 
they get troublesome we will set “ Rat Castle” in operation again. 
When it is necessary to use poison instead of other means, great 
care should be exercised in the selection of the kind of poison, and in 
the methods of using it. Arsenic, whether in the ordinary form of 
“white arsenic,” or in the various patent mixtures that are sold, such 
as “ Rough on Rats,” should never be used. ‘The reason is very sim- 
ple and obvious: Arsenic, no matter into what combination or form 
it may pass, is always poisonous. <A rat or a mouse poisoned with 
arsenic will, if eaten by a cat, dog or chicken, still act as virulently as 
ever, and cause sickness or death. There is another poison, how- 
ever—phosphorus—which loses its poisonous qualities when it be- 
comes oxidized, and hence is far safer. Phosphorus is poisonous only 
in the pure state; when in combination it is generally harmless, and 
frequently very wholesome. There is as much phosphorus in a 
pound of bones as would poison a whole flock of chickens, but 
when fed in the form of bone or phosphate of lime, it is quite the 
reverse of hurtful. Indeed, when bones are properly dissolvecl 
they form one of the most pleasant and wholesome drinks for 
human beings, as is seen in Horsford’s Acid Phosphates, so gener 
ally used. 
Now, when phosphorus is eaten by an animal it soon becomes 
