HE RAT is the worst animal pest in the world. 



From its home among filth it visits dwellings and 

 storerooms to pollute and destroy human food. 



It carries bubonic plague and many other diseases 

 fatal to man and has been responsible for more un- 

 timely deaths among human beings than all the wars 

 of history. 



In the United States rats and mice each year destroy 

 crops and other property valued at over $200,000,000. 



This destruction is equivalent to the gross earnings 

 of an army of over 200,000 men. 



On many a farm, if the grain eaten and wasted by 

 rats and mice could be sold, the proceeds would more 

 than pay all the farmer's taxes. 



The common brown rat breeds 6 to 10 times a 

 year and produces an average of 10 young at a litter. 

 Young females breed when only three or four months 



At this rate a pair of rats, breeding uninterruptedly 

 and without deaths, would at the end of three years 

 (18 generations) be increased to 359,709,482 indi- 

 viduals. 



For centuries the world has been fighting rats 

 without organization and at the same time has been 

 feeding them and building for them fortresses for 

 concealment. If we are to fight them on equal terms 

 we must deny them food and hiding places. We must 

 organize and unite to rid communities of these pests. 

 The time to begin is now. 



old. 



