108 



THE GAME BREEDER 



all the people, or about 25,000,000 per- 

 sons. Since 1896 plague has carried 

 away nearly 9,000,000 of the population 

 of India alone. The disease is still in- 

 trenched in Asia, Africa, Australia and 

 South America, and cases of it have oc- 

 curred in Europe and North America. 



Through the fleas that infest them, rats 

 are almost wholly responsible for the 

 perpetuation and transmission of bubonic 

 plague, and it has been proved also that 

 rats are active, although not exclusive, 

 agents in spreading pneumonic plague. 

 Only the prompt measures taken by the 

 United States Public Health Service 

 against these animals prevented disas- 

 trous epidemics of plague in San Fran- 

 cisco, Seattle and Hawaii in 1909, in 

 Porto Rico in 1912 and in New Orleans 

 in 1914. 



The entire role of the rat in transmit- 

 ting diseases to man is not fully under- 

 stood. Septic pneumonia and epidemic 

 jaundice in man have been traced to the 

 rodent, and it is known to perpetuate 

 trichinae in the pig. It is suspected of 

 being a carrier of infantile paralysis, and 

 it undoubtedly carries many kinds of 

 infectious germs from its haunts of filth, 

 leaving them upon human food. 



The economic loss due to rats is as- 

 tounding. No extensive or exact statis- 

 tics on the subject are available,* but 

 surveys of conditions existing in a few 

 of the older cities of the United States 

 show that losses due to rats are almost in 

 exact ratio to the populations. In rural 

 districts the losses are much greater in 

 proportion to inhabitants than in cities. 

 Assuming that there are in the United 

 States only as many rats as people, and 

 that each rat in a year destroys prop- 

 erty valued at $2, the total yearly damage 

 is about $200,000,000. To this must be 

 added the expense of fighting rats, in- 

 cluding the large sums paid for traps and 

 poisons, the keep of dogs and cats, and 

 the labor involved. In addition, the loss 

 of human efficiency due to diseases dis- 



seminated by the rat should be consid- 

 ered. It is hardly thinkable that a civil- 

 ized people should rest supinely under 

 such conditions and let this evil continue, 

 particularly when it is known that num- 

 berless human lives are in jeopardy. 

 Think of the waste involve in a loss of 

 $200,000,000 a year ! The constant labor 

 of an army of more than 200,000 men is 

 required to produce the materials eaten 

 and destroyed by rats. If half this loss 

 were represented by grain destroyed, it 

 would take about 5,000,000 acres to pro- 

 duce it. 



Man has been fighting the rat for cen- 

 turies and has made little progress. The 

 rodents are intrenched in fortresses of 

 man's own building. If they are driven 

 out or overcome for a time, others soon 

 swarm from neighboring premises, and 

 the battle has to begin anew. Defeats 

 have been due not so much to lack of 

 proper methods as to neglect of precau- 

 tions and an absence of concerted action. 

 The work has been made abortive by 

 providing continued subsistence for the 

 rodents and by failing to destroy their 

 intrenchments. When once they are de- 

 prived of these advantages and the cam- 

 paign against them is organized on lines 

 of intelligent co-operation a large meas- 

 ure of success will be achieved. 



Civilization and science have by no 

 means spoken their last word about the 

 means of combating this greatest plague 

 of the human race. A building can be 

 made rat-proof ; why not a farmstead, 

 a street, a village, a city, or a. seaport? 

 If rats cannot be exterminated, they at 

 least can be repressed in this country, 

 and at the same time effective barriers 

 can be erected against the landing of 

 fresh hordes. Up to the -present time, 

 however, few efforts have been made to 

 find out the way or even to apply pro- 

 perly the means already at command. 

 It is high time to begin. 



[Game keepers are effective in destroying- 

 rats on the farms. — Editor.] 



^Estimates of annual rat damage in foreign 

 countries made previous to the present war 

 were: United Kingdom, $73,000,000; France, 

 $38,500,000; Germany, $47,640,000;' Denmark, 

 $3,000,000. 



Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, 

 Where Kaisers rule and "culture" starts 

 with "K." 



