HOUSE RATS AND MICE. 



21 



COMMUNITY EFFORTS. 



Cooperative efforts to destroy rats have taken various forms in 

 different localities. In cities, municipal employees have occasionally 

 been set at work hunting rats from their retreats, with at least tem- 

 porary benefit to the community. Thus, in 1904, at Folkestone, Eng- 

 land, a town of about 25,000 inhabitants, the corporation employees, 

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



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 some years ago in 

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

 serving a banquet to the winners. 



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 

 friendly rivalry which stimulates the contestants to do their utmost 

 to win. 



In England and some of its colonies contests for prizes have been 

 organized to promote the destruction of the English, or house, spar- 

 row, but many of the so-called sparrow clubs are really sparrow and 

 rat clubs, for the destruction of both pests is the avowed object of 

 the organizations. A sparrow club in Kent, England, accomplished 

 the destruction of 28,000 sparrow^s and 16,000 rats in three seasons 

 by the annual expenditure of but £6 ($29.20) in prize money. Had 

 ordinary bounties been paid for this destruction, the tax on the com- 

 munity w^ould have been about £250 (over $1,200). 



Many organizations already formed should be interested in de- 

 stroying rats. Boards of trade, civic societies, and citizens' asso- 

 ciations in towns and farmers' and women's clubs in rural communi- 

 ties will find the subject of great importance. Women's municipal 

 leagues in several large cities already have taken up the matter. 

 The league in Baltimore recently secured appropriations of funds 

 for expenditure in fighting mosquitoes, flies, and rats. The league 

 in Boston during the past year, supported by voluntary contribu- 

 tions for the purpose, made a highly creditable educational cam- 

 paign against rats. Boys' corn clubs, the troops of Boy Scouts, and 

 similar organizations could do excellent work in rat campaigns. 



STATE AND NATIONAL AID, 



To secure permanent results any general campaign for the elimina- 

 tion of rats must aim at huilding the animals out of shelter and food. 

 Building reforms depend on municipal ordinances and legislative 



