COOPERATION IN DESTROYING RATS. 51 



sidering the skill and care necessary in their preparation, it is doubt- 

 ful if the cost can be greatly reduced. 



However, the possibilities in the use of contagious diseases for 

 destroying rats have not been exhausted. It is not improbable that 

 a virulent bacterium, pathogenic for rats and similar rodents only, 

 exists, and that vigilant search will discover it. Bacteriological 

 science is in its infancy and may be expected to make further dis- 

 coveries of great economic importance. A rat disease, truly conta- 

 gious, harmless to other animals, and capable of being used at will 

 would be a boon worth many millions of dollars annually to the people 

 of the United States. 



ORGANIZED EFFORTS TO DESTROY RATS. 



The necessity of cooperation and organization in the work of rat 

 destruction should not be overlooked. To destroy all the animals 

 on the premises of a single farmer in a community has little perma- 

 nent value, since they are soon replaced from near-by farms. If, 

 however, the farmers of an entire township or county unite in 

 efforts to get rid of rats, much more lasting results may be attained. 

 Such organized efforts repeated with reasonable frequency are very 

 effective. 



Cooperative efforts to destroy rats have taken various forms in 

 different localities. In cities municipal employees have occasion- 

 ally been set at work hunting rats from their retreats with at least 

 temporary benefit to the community. Thus, in 1904, at Folkestone, 

 England, a town of about 25,000 inhabitants, the corporation em- 

 ployees, helped by dogs, in three days killed 1,645 rats. a 



Side hunts in which rats are the only animals that count in the 

 contest have sometimes been organized and successfully carried out. 

 At New Burlington, Ohio, a rat hunt took place November 26, 1866, 

 in which each of the two sides killed over 8,000 rats, the beaten 

 party serving a Thanksgiving banquet to the winners. 6 



At about the same period county agricultural societies sometimes 

 offered prizes to the family presenting the largest number of rat 

 tails as evidence that the animals had been destroyed. Even as late 

 as May 2, 1907, in one of the counties of Kentucky, by general con- 

 sent, the day was set apart for killing rats, and, according to news- 

 paper reports, was quite generally observed. 



There is danger that organized rat hunts will be followed by long 

 intervals of indifference and inaction. This may be prevented by 

 offering prizes covering a definite period of effort. Such prizes 

 accomplish more than municipal bounties, because they secure a 



« The Field (London), vol. 104, p. 98, July 16, 1904. 

 b American Naturalist, vol. 26, p. 8, January, 1867. 



