Word: kerning
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...Kern County at last got out their plows and strewed deep furrows with poisoned grain. Then they got wheelbarrows, stacked the mouse corpses in pyres and the funeral smoke of myriad mice plumed the lowlands. They died, it was estimated, at the rate of 1,000 for every 75 feet of trench, per day. Gunfire and chlorine gas helped stem the tide but not for four days were the mice officially declared beaten...
...which, seldom carnivorous (except for fish), must presumably have mistaken the undulating carpet of rodents for a grey lake. Running amuck in the tumbling, whispering, squeaking herds went coyotes and wildcats; even a wolf was seen. But mankind had warred too well upon the natural enemies of mousedom* in Kern County. The mouse millions marched...
...human inhabitants of Kern County declared a mouse war. It was with joy indescribable that the newsgatherers learned the name of the mouse catcher the U. S. Biological Survey was sending?one S. E. Piper. They played up this coincidence for all it was worth, longing to call Houseman Piper "pied" but realizing that the slang connotationf would be slanderous...
...pounds ?and an army of ravenous felines was released upon Mousedom. To no avail. Krazy Kat himself (or herself)** could have been no more ineffectual. Dick Whittington's cat, who rid an African kingdom of rats at one fell swoop, might have prevailed, but not the cats of Kern County. Rocking with glee, the newsgatherers told stories about cowardly cats fleeing to cover, proud cats ignoring such easy prey, big-hearted cats adopting families of mice. The ever-colorful New York World carried a report of one cat who added 16 mice to her litter of kittens. The World...
...Kern Countyites the mice were, however, no laughing matter. The invasion, which began a month ago, had devastated 100 square miles. Three big oil companies had dug 26 miles of trenches. Horticulture Commissioner Whit C. Barber of California estimated the total property damage...