6 



HOW TO DESTROY RATS. 



breeds three, four, or even more, times a year, and produces from 6 

 to IT young in a litter. Females breed when only 4 or 5 months old. 

 The species is practically omnivorous, feeding upon all kinds of ani- 

 mal and vegetable matter. It makes its home in the open field, the 

 hedge roAv, and the river bank, as well as in stone walls, piers, and 

 all kinds of buildings. It destroys grains when newly planted, while 

 growing, and in the shock, stack, mow, crib, granary, mill, elevator, 

 or ship's hold, and also in the bin and feed trough. It invades store 

 and warehouse, and destroys furs, laces, silks, carpets, leather goods, 

 and groceries. It attacks fruits, vegetables, and meats in the mar- 

 kets, and destroys by pollution ten times as much as it actually eats. 

 It carries disease germs from house to house and bubonic plague 

 from city to city. It causes disastrous conflagraticuis ; floods houses 

 by gnawing lead water pipes; ruins artificial ponds and embank- 

 ments b}' burrowing; destroys eggs and young poultry; eats the eggs 

 and young of song birds and game birds ; and damages foundations, 

 floors, doors, and furnishings of dwellings. 



MEANS OF REPRESSING RATS. 



Rats have developed so much intelligence and such extraordinary 

 caution that attempts to exterminate thenj have rarely succeeded. 

 Tlie failures have been due not so much to lack of effective methods 

 as to the neglect of certain precautions and the absence of concerted 

 action. AYe have rendered our work abortive by continuing to pro- 

 vide subsistence and hiding places for the rats. When these ad- 

 vantages are denied, persistent and concerted use of the methods here 

 recommended will prove far more effective. 



RAT-PROOF BUILDING. 



First in importance, as a measure of rat repression, is the exclu- 

 sion of the animals from places where they find food and safe retreats 

 for rearing their young. 



The best way to keep rats from buildings, whether in city or in 

 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 buildings. Dwellings, dairies, 

 barns, stables, chicken houses, ice houses, bridges, dams, silos, tanks, 

 cisterns, root cellars, hotbeds, sidewalks, and curbs are now often 

 made wholly of cement. The processes of mixing and laying this 

 material require little skill or special knowledge, and Avorkmen of 

 ordinary intelligence can successfully follow the plain directions 

 contained in handbooks of cement construction. Illustrated hand- 

 books are often furnished free by cement manufacturers. 



Many modern public buildings are so constructed that rats can find 

 no lodgment in the walls or foundations, and yet in a few years, 



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