ipio.] 



The Destruction of Rats. 



at first sight a fair offer, and no doubt was all the foreign 

 manufacturer could afford to offer, as with his expenses of 

 shipping, commission, and sundries the roots cost him some 

 27s. 6d. per ton on his side. Then the farmers had the 

 rail charges to pay, averaging about 2s. 6d. to 35. per ton, 

 and all roots had to be lifted, topped, and carted to the 

 station at short notice at a very busy time, just when all 

 hands are wanted for cleaning the land and wheat sowing. 

 Being a bulky crop the carting was a slow job, about 2J tons 

 going to a wagon load, and unless the distance to the station 

 was very short, not many could make more than two journeys 

 per day. As sugar beet certainly does not yield at the most 

 more than half the weight of an average mangold crop, there 

 did not seem to be any financial gain at all, and many found 

 themselves out of pocket over the transaction. 



Should a factory be opened in this county, and farmers 

 are offered £1 per ton free on rail, this would enable the 

 factory to obtain its roots at a price which would compare 

 favourably with prices paid abroad. In addition, the farmer 

 would obtain the cheap by-products, such as beet slices and 

 saturation lime. At the price mentioned, therefore, it seems 

 not unlikely that a new industry might be started which would 

 yield a fair return to the farmer. 



THE DESTRUCTION OF RATS. 

 Two kinds of rats are found in Great Britain, the Black 

 Rat (Mus rattus), and the Brown Rat, sometimes called the 

 Hanoverian or the Sewer Rat (Mus decumanus). The 

 former, which has been longer established in this country, 

 is the smaller of the two. It is more lightly built, but its 

 ears are slightly larger and it has a thin tail eight or nine 

 inches long, or about an inch longer than the rest of its body. 

 The upper part of its fur is of a grey black colour, the under 

 parts being a dark grey. The brown rat is generally longer 

 in the body, but shorter in the tail, which is never as long 

 as the head and body combined. It has a blunter muzzle, 

 and its fur is grey-brown above and white below. The fur 

 of the brown rat, moreover, is rather coarser than that of the 

 black rat. 



The females of both species breed at a very early age, and 



