20 THE BROWN EAT IN THE UNITED STATES. 



milk stage. They climb the upright stalks and often strip the cobs 

 clean of grain. The writer has seen whole fields of corn so destroyed, 

 and in many cases has observed parts of fields amounting to several 

 acres practically ruined. A writer in the American Agriculturist 

 reported an instance in which rats destroyed three-fourths of the 

 corn on 13 acres of land.® In 1905 a large portion of the crop 

 grown on the Potomac flats, near Washington, was destroyed by 

 rats (Plate II). The crops for 1906 and 1907 were saved by the use 

 of traps and poisons. 



Corn in the field, if left standing long in the shock, is liable to 

 injury from rats. A pair of the animals will soon ruin an entire 

 shock, destroying both grain and fodder. Such damage is sure to 

 take place if the corn is near hedgerows, embankments, drains, or 

 other harbors where rats are abundant; but sometimes the shocks 

 themselves furnish shelter for the animals. 



Rats often damage corn in cribs. Too frequently these receptacles 

 for grain are built close to the ground, and rats live under the floor. 

 They often perforate the wooden barrier and thereafter have free 

 access to the grain. They shell the corn, eating the softer part 

 of" the kernel and wasting much more than they consume. They 

 carry the grain to subterranean burrows and bring up into the crib 

 moist soil, which induces mold in the corn and leaves much unfit 

 for market or for feeding stock. A correspondent in Arkansas once 

 wrote to the secretary of the American Institute, stating that fully 

 half his corn was destroyed by rats after it was placed in the crib. 6 



A farmer living near Grand River, Iowa, relates the following 

 experience : 



"We had about 2,000 bushels of corn in 3 cribs to which rats 

 ran, and they ate and destroyed about one-fourth of the corn. Much 

 of it was too dirty to put through the grinder until it had been cleaned 

 an ear at a time. All the time we were poisoning and trapping 

 the rats. We killed as high as 300 rats in two days and could hardly 

 miss them. They destroyed more than enough corn to pay taxes 

 on 400 acres of land." c 



The foregoing are extreme cases, but too often farmers lose a 

 considerable portion of the crop by rat depredations. A little fore- 

 thought and care in constructing or protecting the cribs would 

 prevent such losses. 



Small grains. — The rat in America has usually been considered a 

 house and barn pest, and little notice has been taken of its destruc- 

 tiveness in fields. As a matter of fact, in some localities brown rats, 

 and also common house mice, swarm in the fields, especially in summer. 



a Am. Agr., vol. 33, p. 300, 1874. 

 b Trans. Am. Inst., 1866-67, p. 347. 

 c Mo. Valley Farmer, April, 1907. 



