18 



FARMERS^ BULLETIN 896. 



wo'oden boxes should be used, one considerably larger than the other 

 and each having one or more holes in the sides large enough to 

 admit rats. The poisoned bait should be placed on the bottom and 

 near the middle of the smaller box, and the larger box should then 

 be inverted over it. Rats thus have free access to the bait, but fowls 

 are excluded. 



DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 



Among domestic animals employed to kill- ra,ts are the dog, the 

 cat, and the ferret. . 



Dogs. — The value of dogs r.s ratters can not be appreciated by per- 

 sons wli.o have had no experience with a trained animal. The ordi- 

 nary cur and the larger breeds of dogs seldom develop the necessary 

 qualities for ratters. Small Irish, Scotch, and fox terriers, when 

 properly trained, are superior to other breeds and under favorable 

 circumstances may be relied upon to keep the farm premises reason- 

 ably free from rats. 



Cats. — However ^'aluable cats may be as mousers, few learn to catch 

 rats. The ordinary house cat is too well fed and consequently too 

 lazy to undertake the capture of an animal as formidable as the 

 brown rat. Birds and mice are much more to its liking. Cats that 

 are fearless of rats, however, and have learned to hunt and destroy 

 them are often very useful about stables and warehouses. They 

 should be lightly fed, chiefly on milk. A little sulphur in the milk at 

 intervals is a corrective against the bad effects of a constant rat or 

 mouse diet. Cats often die from eating these rodents. 



Feixets. — Tame ferrets, like weasels, are inveterate foes of rats, and 

 can follow the rodents into their retreats. Under favorable circum- 

 stances they are useful aids to the rat catcher, but their value is 

 greatly overestimated. For effective work they require experienced 

 handling and the additional services of a dog or two. Dogs and 

 ferrets must be thoroughly accustomed to each other, and the former 

 must be quiet and steady instead of noisy and excitable. The ferret 

 is used only to bolt the rats-, which are killed by the dogs. If un- 

 muzzled ferrets are sent into rat retreats, they are apt to make a kill 

 and then lie up after sucking the blood of their victim. Sometimes 

 they remain for hours in the burrows or escape by other exits and 

 are lost. There is danger that these lost ferrets may adapt them- 

 selves to wild conditions and become a pest by preying upon poul- 

 try and birds. 



FUMIGATION. 



Rats may be destroyed in their burrows in the fields and along 

 river banks, levees, and dikes by carbon bisulphid:^ A wad of cot- 



1 Caution.— Carbon disulphid is very inflammable and can be ignited by a match, lan- 

 tern, cigar, or pipe. 



