1908.] Notes on the Weather and Crops. 



295 



For some years past a campaign against rats has been 

 conducted in Denmark. A committee was formed for this 



purpose in 1898, and in 1899 an attempt 

 Destruction of Rats in was made to encourage the destruction 

 Denmark. of rats in Copenhagen by the payment 



of a premium of about i\d. per head. 

 A sum of £550 was raised, and the permission of the Muni- 

 cipality was obtained to use the fire stations as receiving 

 depots. A sum of about 2s. a day was paid to a fireman at 

 each station for acting as receiver. The experiment lasted 

 from the 3rd August to the 9th December, 1899, during which 

 time 104,000 rats were killed at a total cost of less than £750. 

 Consequent on this example, similar attempts were made in 

 several provincial towns and on several estates. In the latter 

 cases the premium was reduced by about one-half on the 

 ground that in country places the interest of everyone in the 

 destruction of rats is so great that a much smaller sum is 

 necessary to stimulate active efforts in that direction. In 

 towns it was found that large numbers were brought in by 

 children and by men who were out-of-work, many of whom 

 took to this occupation as a means of livelihood. 



The success obtained by these voluntary efforts led to a 

 demand for legislation, and in March, 1907, a law was passed 

 enabling rural and urban communes to undertake measures 

 for the destruction of rats in their districts, and to provide 

 for the payment out of the rates of a premium of from \&. 

 to i\d. per rat. A sum of £1,650 is to be paid out of the public 

 funds annually for three years, of which one-third will be 

 devoted to scientific experiments and the remainder to the 

 purchase of poisons and destructive agents for use on the 

 State properties or otherwise. 



The weather during the first week of June underwent great and sudden changes 

 from very fine to thundery. Thunderstorms occurred in almost all parts of the 

 Kingdom, and were frequent and severe in the eastern 

 Notes On the nalf of England and in the north-west Midlands. The 

 Wpnflniv anH iUa temperature was much above the normal over England 



wedinei ana me ^ nearly the end of , the week? then it fell very 



Crops in June. suddenly. Rainfall was "heavy" in England S.E. and 

 N.W. and the Midlands, chiefly owing to storms of rain 

 and hail. On the 4th June measurements of over an inch were recorded at Tunbridge 

 Wells, Eastbourne and Epsom, while at Dover as much as 1*14 in. fell between 

 5.30 and 6.0 a.m. Bright sunshine was above the average in the east and below it in 



