142 THE BEGINNER IN POULTRY 



And, if the ground squirrels take (as affirmed) a 

 $10,000,000 annual toll from the farmers, who can 

 estimate farm losses from the ever-present rats ? 



As respects the poultry keeper, it is not going beyond 

 the limit to say that the presence or the absence of rats 

 may alone decide whether he make a profit, or suffer a 

 loss through his venture. Margins everywhere are 

 small, and losses from depredations of various sorts, 

 infinite in number, though each one may be a bagatelle. 

 I cannot be too insistent that the Beginner train him- 

 self, from the earliest minute, not to permit rat harbors, 

 and not to leave the feed so that these vermin can main- 

 tain themselves at his expense, later to steal and kill — 

 perhaps worse — also at his expense. Cornell Station 

 has a pattern of a rat-proof hopper for feeding small 

 grains or dry mash, and I think supply houses carry a 

 somewhat similar one for sale. 



A United States Bulletin can be had, covering all the 

 points on which information is usually desired. In locali- 

 ties where rats or squirrels have become a scourge, the 

 Biological Survey will, whenever possible, send a skilled 

 assistant to demonstrate the most reliable ways of rid- 

 ding the land of these pests. Poisoning with barley 

 and strychnine is one of the modern, most approved, 

 methods of destroying rodents. 



There are two points in connection with field mice 

 that may make it imperative for growers of birds to , 

 study and to fight these also, insignificant although 

 most people may regard them as being. Plagues of 

 lice, grasshoppers, ants, and mice have abundantly es- 

 tablished the fact that nothing is too small to become a 

 menace to man, if its aggregate numbers increase suffi- 



