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meat, Vienna sausage or toasted cheese, and these placed in 
the rat runs, or oatmeal may be wetted with a strychnine 
syrup, and small quantities laid out in the same way. 
Strychnine syrup is prepared as follows : Dissolve an half 
ounce of strychnia sulphate in a pint of boiling water ; add a 
pint of thick sugar syrup and stir thoroughly. A smaller quan- 
tity of the poison may be prepared with a proportional quan- 
tity of water. In preparing the bait it is necessary that all the 
oatmeal should be moistened with syrup. Wheat is the most 
convenient alternative bait. It should be soaked overnight in 
the strychnine syrup. 
Other Poisons. — The two poisons most commonly used for 
rats and mice are arsenic and phosphorus, nearly all commer- 
cial preparations containing one or the other as a basis. While 
experiments prove that rats have great powers of resistance 
to arsenic, it may sometimes be used advantageously as an 
alternative poison. Preparations of phosphorus sold by drug- 
gist are often too weak to be effective ; and home made mix- 
tures, when of sufficient strength, are dangerous, as rats may 
carry the baits into walls and crannies and thus cause fires. 
For these and other reasons we do not recommend prepara- 
tions containing phosphorous. 
Poison in the Poultry House. — For poisoning rats in build- 
ings and yards occupied by poultry, the following method is 
recommended : Two wooden boxes should be used, one con- 
siderably larger than the other, and each having two or more 
holes in the sides large enough to admit rats. The poisoned 
bait should be placed on the bottom near the middle of the 
larger box, and the smaller box should then be inverted over 
it. Rats thus have free access to the bait, but fowls are ex- 
cluded. 
CUSTOM'S REVENUE. 
Hawaii figures twelfth in a list of the twenty leading ports of 
the United States in the amount of customs revenue collected 
for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1907 The amount collected 
represents nearly a million and a half dollars. 
'HAWAIIAN BEE KEEPERS. 
At the annual meeting of the Hawaiian Bee Keepers' Asso- 
ciation the following officers for the current year were elected : 
President, A. F. Judd; vice-president, T. V. King; secretary, 
D. L. Van Dine; treasurer, J. O. Young. 
