7 



the straw and brush are thrown out over the top while dogs and men 

 kill the trapped rodents. Large numbers are killed in this way, and 

 the plan with modifications may be utilized in America with satis- 

 factory results. A wire netting of fine mesh may be used for the 

 inclosure. The scheme is applicable at the removal of grain, straw, 

 or hay stacks, as well as brush piles. 



FUMIGATION. 



Eats may be destroyed in their burrows in the fields, and, still more 

 important, in levees and rice-field dikes, by the use of carbon bisul- 

 phid. A wad of cotton or other absorbent material is saturated with 

 the liquid and pushed into the burrow, the opening being packed with 

 soil to prevent escape of the gas. All animals in the burrow are 

 asphyxiated. Fumigation about buildings is not so effective, as the 

 gas can not readily be confined. 



RAT-PROOF CONSTRUCTION. 



The best way of excluding rats from buildings, whether in the 

 city ^or country, is by the use of cement in construction. As the 

 advantages of this material are coming to be generally understood, 

 its use is rapidly extending to all kinds of building. Dwellings, 

 dai^s^ barns, stables, chicken houses, ice houses, bridges, dams, 

 silos, tanks, cisterns, root-cellars, hotbeds, sidewalks, and curbs are 

 noAv often made "wholly of concrete. In constructing dwelling houses 

 the additional cost of making the foundations rat-proof is slight as 

 compared with the advantages. The cellar Avails should have con- 

 crete footings and the walls themselves be laid in cement mortar. 

 The cellar floor should be of " medium " rather than " lean " concrete, 

 and all water and drain pipes should be surrounded with concrete. 

 Even an old cellar may be made rat-proof at comparatively small 

 expense. Rat holes may be permanently closed by a mixture of 

 cement, sand, and broken glass or sharp bits of stone. 



Rat-proof granaries, corncribs, and poultry houses may be con- 

 structed by a liberal use of concrete in the foundations and floors. 



Rats, mice, and sparrows may be excluded from corncribs by the 

 use of either an inner or an outer covering of fine-mesh wire netting 

 sufficiently heavy to resist the teeth of rats. 



The common custom of setting corncribs upon posts with inverted 

 pans at the top often fails because the posts are not long enough to 

 insure that the lower cracks of the structure are beyond jumping 

 reach of rats. The posts should project at least 3 feet above the 

 surface of the ground. 



297 



