HOUSE AND GARDEN 
January, 1913 
Yale Padlocks Yale Door Checks Yale Hardware 
To get through a door guarded by a Yale They shut the door silently but with a New designs, constantly added, permit 
Padlock, take your choice of these two firm pressure that can’t fail. Made in furnishing a house in perfect harmony with 
ways: break down the door or use the sizes to fit every requirement. the architectural treatment, 
key. 
There are several grades of Yale Cylinder Night Latches, each the best for its price 
and purpose. Get one from any hardware dealer. 
The Yale & Towne Mfg. Co. 
Makers of YALE Products 
CHICACO ^ 4 Ca F°f C R S jus. . General Offices: 9 Murray Street, New York 
CHICAGO: 74 East rvandolph Street 7—• 1 ,» ,, 7—\ o r 1 1—■ • r 1 a \t \/ 1 
SAN FRANCISCO. 134 Rialto Building Exhibit Rooms: z5 I r 11 th Avenue, New York 
Canadian Yale & Towne Limited, St. Catharines, Ont. 
Have You a Doubtful Lock on Any Outside Door? 
If so don’t trust it. Back it up with a Yale Night Latch—the latch of security 
and convenience. From the outside it’s a Yale Cylinder Lock operated only 
by its own key. From the inside it’s a latch, operated by simply turning a knob. 
Look for the Name Yale on Locks and Hardware 
PrizeMedal Water-Lilies 
Tricker’s Water-lilies were awarded the 
Columbian Medal at the World’s Fair, Chi¬ 
cago, 1893 . Four Silver Medals, a Silver 
Cup and numerous certificates and cash 
prizes have recently been awarded me for 
water-lilies. 
If you contemplate making or planting a 
water garden or lily pond consult William 
Tricker, Water-lily Specialist, and author 
of The Water Garden. Many years’ 
experience. 
Address ARLINGTON, N. J. 
A house built N ATCO Hollow Tile Building Block® 
throughout of 1 ; s thoroughly fire-proof, and is 
cooler in Summer and warmer in Winter than one of any other 
construction. It is cheaper than brick, stone or cement. 
Send for literature 
NATIONAL FIRE PROOFING CO. Dept.Y, Pittsburg, Pa. 
Made to ordei—to exactly match 
the color scheme of any room 
“You select the color—we’ll make 
the rug." Any width—seamless up 
to 16 feet. Any length. Any color 
tone—soft and subdued, or bright 
and striking. Original, individual, 
artistic, dignified. Pure wool or 
camel's hair, expertly woven at 
short notice. Write for color card. 
Order through your furnisher. 
Thread & Thrum Workshop 
Auburn, New York 
ing the business from becoming general, 
and confining the industry in the hands of 
a very few. 
Comparatively few attempts to raise 
mink have been made in the United 
States, and but little is known on the sub¬ 
ject. But at from $3 to $8 for first-class 
pelts, the present prices, which are not 
likely to diminish, the raising of these 
animals should be remunerative, especial¬ 
ly in connection with some other estab¬ 
lished business, such as poultry raising, 
orcharding, or truck growing; therefore, 
in co-operation with the National Zoolog¬ 
ical Park, steps have been taken to ex¬ 
periment with these animals with a view 
to determining the most successful 
methods of rearing them. 
Muskrat farming is already a prosper¬ 
ous business, and has probably reached its 
highest point of development on the East¬ 
ern Shore of Maryland, although followed 
in other sections of the country. Muskrat 
marshes are worth more, measured by the 
actual income from them, than cultivated 
farms of like acreage in the same vicinity. 
The marshes need only to be protected 
from poaching, as the muskrats feed on 
the roots of the reeds and marsh grass, 
and the rental to the trappers is usually 
for half the fur, leaving the meat as an 
additional source of gain to them. Only 
one other animal in the world, the Euro¬ 
pean rabbit, exceeds the muskrat in the 
number of skins marketed. 
RODENTS IN RELATION TO AGRICULTURE 
Prairie dogs, ground squirrels, and' 
gophers are very destructive rodents, in¬ 
flicting large damage and levying a heavy 
tax upon the tillers of the soil; therefore 
the Biological Survey conducts experi¬ 
ments with poison baits, traps, and other 
methods of extermination. 
The daily forage consumed by 32 adult 
prairie dogs equals the amount required 
by a sheep, and 250 eat approximately as 
much as a cow. The ground squirrel, 
though smaller, is a voracious feeder, and 
the gophers, comparatively small, are not 
abstemious. As the region infested by 
these pests includes a number of Rocky 
Mountain States, California, and other 
Western States, and as some of the col¬ 
onies occupy many thousand acres and' 
aggregate millions of rodents, the extent 
of the damage they do to forage and other 
farm crops can be readily comprehended. 
Besides, it has been definitely ascer¬ 
tained by the investigations of the past 
two years that the spotted-fever ticks, in 
the two younger stages, live almost wholly 
on small native rodents, and that the Cal¬ 
ifornia ground squirrel has been infected 
with bubonic plague by fleas from rats, 
hence that these dread diseases are likely 
to become epidemic. Therefore there are 
two important reasons for attempting the 
extermination of the animals. The chief 
reliance for this is placed on the use of 
poisoned grain and other poisoned baits, 
but the use of traps, and, in some cases, 
the use of carbon bisulphid or pintsch oil 
in the burrows, supplements the poison. 
In these experiments oats have been found 
In writing to advertisers please mention House and Garden, 
