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Show H THE RODENT PEST H ' Health authorities trace to the rat the great plagues which swept H over Europe in the past, H Dr. D. E. Lantz says tho "black plague" of the fourteenth cen- H tury was spread by rats. The plague raged for fifty years, and H destroyed one-fourth of the people. The great plague of London H killed more than half the inhabitants that did not escape from the fl city. These diseases are conveyed by rats and transmitted by the H fleas that infest the rodents. It is said that the entire role of the rate in spreading disease is not fully determined, but even epidemic jaundice and septic pneumonia are traced to the little pest and it is H known to perpeturate trickinae in the pig. The first rat in the United States came just before the revolution 1 and was the Norway rat. The black rat arrived soon after. But the Norway er sewer rat is the greatest of all rodent pests. Its pecundity H is beyond that of any other animal, large or small. It breeds six to H ten times a year, with an average of ten young to the litter. The H females breed when three months bid. Get your pencil and estimate H a year's production. H Rats regularly move in the spring from cities to river banks and H country places and return each falL H This reference to rats is for the purpose of calling attention to H the fact that the garbage heaps of Ogden, where the city has its H dumping grounds, are infested with not only Norway rats, but tame rats allowed to escape and become wild, H Plans for the widespread slaughter of the pests should be worked H out without further delay. Tho government will supply the poison H and send an expert to supervise tho work, if the city makes the 1 request to the proper authorities. H Before the rats work into every part of the city, they should be 1 fought back |