PLAGUES IN EUROPE

Temuka Leader, Issue 2118, 30 October 1890, Page 3

PLAGUES IN EUROPE

They want the Pied Piper of Hamelin in Italy just now very badly. North of Rome, in the Ferrara district, there is such a plauge of rats as happily has never been remembered before, she incursion was at first comic, or at least curious, swarms of the creatures covering the fields, and crowding the country roads. But it soon passed from being very curious to be serious. Unfortunately, the harvest is ripe, but has not yet ben gathered in, and the rats are eating everything before them. The farmers and laborers have gone out and given battle, but have not been able to check the inroad. In one district, the valley of Gallaro, the damage done amounts to 800,000, lire. In reprisal, the peasantry have in some quarters takeu to the rata, i here is certainly a prejudice against them as food ; but, as they have lived entirely on grain, the report that they are excellent eating is probably true. But notwithstanding the killing and the eating the numbers increase, At Gallaro it has been decided to abandon all farming operations till the spring in hope that starvation and the Michaelmas floods combined may exterminate th« vermin.

An extraordinary plague, suggesting the troubles of old Egypt, is devastating portions of Germany. The cause of the mischief is a moth known as the “ nun.” Forests attacked by hosts of these insects are ertipped of their leaves and reduced to rotten stumps and branches. Unlike the subjects of Fharoah, the Germans do not passively endure the pest. The resources of science are being brought to bear upon the problem. In the Ebersberger Forest huge electric light reflectors have been erected to attract the “ nuns,” with the object of killing them en masse. In the town of Munich, which is invested by great armies of “ nuns,” hydrants are set to work to wash them away. The plan once adopted to rid our lands of wolves is being successfully applied in the forests of the Bavarian prince, and old men, women, and children, are awarded payment at the rate of a half-penny for every “ nun” they catch, Some of these amatenr huntsmen are receiving so much as six shillings in our money a day for their services.