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Show ECONOMIC VALUE OF ' ! RAT EXTERMINATION i ! Indiana Counties Wage Intensive Inten-sive War Against Pests. People Not Yet? Easily Aroused to Fearful Menace of Rodents and Importance of Ridding Country Coun-try of Little Animals. (Prepared by Hie .United States Department Depart-ment of Agriculture.) Twenty-eight Indiana counties have waged Intensive war ngalnst rnts, In co-operatlou with the United States department of agriculture, through tho bureau of biological survey. A special day was set apart for this purpose, at which time, according to the oftlcinl , casualty list, 57,100 rnts "went west." ' Complete figures nre not nvnllable, but ! estimates nro to the- effect tbnt several ' hundred thousand ruts ended their earthly careers on "rat ilrlvc dny." J Tho economic vnluo of rnt cxtcrml-! cxtcrml-! nation Is considerable, especially to I the farmer, as n single rat will easily destroy one bushel of corn n year and at tho same ttme officiate ns n special Getting Rid of Rats. I messenger for the spreading of disease. dis-ease. Hats are very prolific, producs lng from six to ten young In n litter nnd more than six litters u year, a fact which makes the rnt a most for-J for-J mldable enemy. Notwithstanding the ' enormous loss directly traceable to them, peoplo are not yet easily a wakened wak-ened to the fearful menace of thcMi ' pests and the Importance of ridding the country of them. Reeomnieiidn-tlon Reeomnieiidn-tlon has been made by the agricultural agricultur-al authorities that the goernor of Indiana In-diana appoint a special "rat day" each year, In order that this campaign may be unuuully' continued. 'During the recent campaign Knox county led In the total number of rnts killed, the Inhabitants of this territory slaughter-i slaughter-i lng 10,000 of'the marauders. |