The value of carnivorous mammals and the larger birds of prey in destroying rats and mice should be more fully recognized, especially by the farmer and the game preserver. Rats actually destroy more poultry and game, both eggs and young chicks, than all the birds and wild mammals combined; yet some of their enemies among our most useful birds of prey and carnivorous mammals are persecuted almost to the point of extinction. An enlightened public sentiment should cause the repeal of all bounties on these animals and afford protection to the majority of them. ORGANIZED EFFORTS TO DESTROY RATS. The necessity of cooperation and organization in the work of rat destruction is of the utmost importance. To destroy all the animals on the premises of a single farmer in a community has little permanent value, since they are soon replaced from near-by farms. If, however, the farmers of an entire township or county unite in efforts to get rid of rats, much more lasting results may be attained. If continued from year to year, such organized efforts are very effective. COMMUNITY EFFORTS. Cooperative efforts to destroy rats have taken various forms in different localities. In cities, municipal employees have occasionally been set at work hunting rats from their retreats, with at least temporary benefit to the community. Thus, in 1904, at Folkestone, England, a town of about 25,000 inhabitants, the corporation employees, helped by dogs, in three days killed 1,645 rats. Side hunts in which rats are the only animals that count in the contest have sometimes been organized and successfully carried out. At New Burlington, Ohio, a rat hunt took place some years ago in which each of the two sides killed over 8,000 rats, the beaten party serving a banquet to the winners. There is danger that organized rat hunts will be followed by long intervals of indifference and inaction. This may be prevented by offering prizes covering a definite period of effort. Such prizes accomplish more than municipal bounties, because they secure a friendly rivalry which stimulates the contestants to do their utmost to win. In England and some of its colonies contests for prizes have been organized to promote the destruction of the English, or house, sparrow, but many of the so-called sparrow clubs are really sparrow and rat clubs, for the destruction of both pests is the avowed object of the organizations. A sparrow club in Kent, England, accomplished the destruction of 28,000 sparrows and 16,000 rats in three seasons by the annual expenditure of but £6 ($29.20) in prize money. Had ordinary bounties been paid for this destruction, the tax on the community would have been about £250 (over $1,200).