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Show DREW PEARSON Our No. 1 Enemv Rats IT MAY sound hard to believe, but the huge shortage of this year's corn crop could be largely offset if the American people were able to eliminate elimi-nate one factor in their economy rats. Most people don't realize it, but one healthy rat eats or spoils around 100 pounds of grain per year. While it's impossible to count the rat population, popu-lation, interior department experts estimate that rats are almost double the human population probably totaling 250 million in the U. S. Entirely aside from the disease which rats spread from privy to pantry and the havoc they wreak upon the waterfronts of American Amer-ican seaports, their effect upon the food supply of the United States is almost beyond realization. Between the time a farmer stores his corn in the fall and cleans out his corncrib in the summer, rats may have eaten the difference between profit and loss for the year. In addition, they spoil as much corn as they eat. If the food destroyed by rats could be shipped overseas, this alone would about save Europe from its current danger of starvation. At present one government agency, the fish and wildlife service ol the interior department, is working on rat eradication. Handicapped by lack of funds, government rat eradicators are able to do little beyond circulating anti-rat propaganda. |
