Valff. In 1921, a scam saved the harvest from rodent invasions.

A few months after the end of the Great War, the visit to Valff of a swindler who came to barter food to farmers in exchange for the purchase of boxes of rat poison finally enabled them to fight the mouse invasion a few months later.

Rodent infestations were commonplace. Here, on January 10, 1937, in front of the town hall, residents mobilize to address the problem. Photo: Antoine Muller Collection

December 1920. Dressed in a sailor's suit and claiming to work for a Dutch company, a young peddler offered to exchange sacks of potatoes or chickens for sugar, fabrics or linen to the farmers of Valff.

Sugar, linen, and fabrics would be delivered from the Netherlands in large wagons, which would carry potatoes and chickens on the return journey. There was one condition, however: before the exchange could take place, the farmers had to buy a box of rat poison from him...

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