2 I o THE NA TU RE-STUD Y RE VIE IV [ 3 : 7 ~oct., I9 o 7 



plant materials, and by interesting the State University, Park Board and 

 many citizens, they have succeeded in having suitable land set aside. 

 The Park Board provides for the labor, etc., while the teachers control 

 the management. Artificiality is tabooed, the attempt being to retain 

 all the indigenous species and to add other plants needed. Sixteen 

 species of trees, twenty-five of shrubs and numerous herbaceous plants are 

 found within the confines of the garden, among the latter, pitcher-plants, 

 sundews, cypripediums, trilliums and others usually rather hard to find. 

 The idea is one that may well be copied in other cities. 



Dogfish. A recent bulletin of the Bureau of Fisheries contains the 

 results of four years' study of the problem of the destruction wrought by 

 dogfish and the available remedies. Two common species of dogfish 

 destroy lobsters by the hundred thousand, and mackerel, herring, etc., by 

 the millions, besides inflicting vast damage to fishing gear along the whole 

 Atlantic Coast. The author points out that dogfish are valuable not only 

 for their hide and liver but also as food, notwithstanding the prejudice 

 against them. The solution of the problem then is an expansion of dogfish 

 fishing which will result in a depletion of the numbers of this animal 

 similar to that of other economic fishes. 



Russian Mulberry. A recent circular of the Forest Service calls at- 

 tention to the value of the Russian Mulberry as a commercial species in 

 this country. This tree was first introduced into the United States in 1875 

 and is now widely planted throughout Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma 

 and Indian Territory. It will endure almost any amount of drought and 

 neglect, and is quite free from parasitic fungi. In the states named this 

 tree is quite valuable for fence posts, producing good ones in ten to fifteen 

 years. The wood has a high fuel value, and the habit of the tree makes 

 it an ideal windbreak. 



Protection of Game. The U.S. Biological Survey of the Department of 

 Agriculture has isued a useful circular under the title "Directory of 

 Officials and Organizations Concerned with the Protection of Birds and 

 Game, 1907." 



Hawks and Owls. In a bulletin published by the Biological Survey, it 

 is pointed out that there is a great deal of ignorant prejudice against 

 hawks and owls. Most species of these birds do more good than harm, 

 destroying mice, squirrels, insects and other harmful animals in great 

 numbers. Many of them are locall\ r injurious on account of the scarcity 

 of the sorts of animals just mentioned and they must, perforce, attack 

 the farmer's poultry. The species that are always injurious are gyrfalcons, 

 duck hawk, sharp-shinned hawk. Cooper hawk, and goshawk. Xearly 

 two-thirds of the birds of prey in this country are more beneficial than 

 harmful. 



Periodical Cicada. A bulletin issued b\ r the government during the 

 summer contains an exhaustive treatment of the habits, characteristics, 

 distribution etc., of the various broods of cicadas. The account is written 

 in a most interesting manner. As to the origin of the various broods, it is 

 inferred that at a very remote period the insect was represented by a 



