SEVEN TONS OF MICE!

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3113, 18 June 1917, Page 4

SEVEN TONS OF MICE!

CLEARING THE WHEAT STACKS.

Melbourne, May -'<■ When the Wheat Board inaugurated its special campaign of destruction of mice in tho areas in -which stacks of the cereal wero being literally eaten down, by the pestiferous rodents, an orgamsa-* tion of azriculttirists at Charlton entered ii protest against the expenditure or the moneys of tho "pool" in such an enterprise. In order to aftord these doubters an optical illustration of the good that enn bo accomplished by ths double fence trap system -which has been adopted bi tho board, a. cans of men, under an expert, -was told off to treat, tho stacks in and adiacent to the centre in which the organisation mentioned has its headquarters.' Reports which were received yesterw day from this field of operations lndu cated results which are regarded by tha officials of-the board as very satisfactory., At Sheep Hills station, for instance, the catch reported for two nislits was given, as 1 tens of mice, the haul having en* dentin been put over the. station weighbridge. At Donald the numerical system' of recording tho haul lias been followed, the figure for four nights' work'beinc given as 56.000 mice; whilst in another centre in the vicinity 50.000 have been captured' and killed by tho use of the double fenco traps. It is understood that the plague is proving increasingly . troublesome m ipmith Australia, nnd it is stated that an. official of the Harvest Board in that State has been detailed to visit the cciw . tres in Victoria where the pest is bein? dealt with.