284 ANNUAL, KEPOETS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGEICULTUEE. 



Two graded Saanen goats have been furnished by the Bureau of 

 Animal Industry for use at the farm to provide milk for feeding the 

 fur animals and to keep down "weeds in the animal yards. Domestic 

 rabbits are also being grown at the farm in order to supply the fur 

 bearers, especially the breeding females. Avith fresh meat. The keep- 

 ing of a few domestic animals at the fur farm has necessitated a 

 limited amount of farming there to produce feed in the form of haj, 

 oats, buckwheat, corn, carrots, and turnips. A building to shelter 

 the rabbits and goats and to store feed for them has been completed 

 during the year, and ground has been cleared and material assembled 

 to build yards to accommodate four pairs of cross foxes. 



An inquiry concerning the supply of furs from Avild fur-bearing 

 animals has been addressed to a large number of raw-fur dealers 

 throughout the United States, including Alaska. This has developed 

 the fact that there has been an alarming reduction in the number of 

 skins coming to the market during the last decade, and that there is 

 a general demand for short open seasons on fur-bearing animals, and 

 particularly for better enforcement of State laws against trapping 

 fur-bearing animals when their fur is not prime. 



Most States now have hiAvs protecting fur bearers during at least 

 a part of the year. Up to within a recent time most of the fur 

 bearers, including such species as the skunk and the mink, have been 

 considered pests, because they at times raid chicken coops. The 

 apparently infrecjuent damage done by these animals is negligible 

 as against their great value. The skunk feeds largely on field mice 

 and insects and has become one of our most valuable fur bearers. 

 The Commissioner of Conservation of New York reports that during 

 191S skunk skins taken inthat State brought more than $1,000,000 in 

 the fur market. There is no State in the country which can not 

 greatly increase the natural resources represented by its fur-bearing 

 animals by proper protective laws and their enforcement. 



ECONOMIC ORNITHOLOGY. 



Article VII of the migratory-bird treaty between Great Britain 



and the United States reads as folloAvs: 



Permits to kill any of the above-named birds wliich, imder extraordinary 

 conditions, jnay become seriously injurious to tlie agricultural or otlaer in- 

 terests in any particular community, may be issued by the proper autliorities 

 of tbe High Contracting Powers under suitable regulations prescribed therefor 

 by them, respectively, but such permits shall lapse, or may be canceled at any 

 time when, in the opinion of said authorities, the particular exigency has 

 liassed, and no birds killed under this article shall be shipped, sold, or offered 

 for sale. 



The administration of the act of enforcing the treaty as a conse- 

 quence of this article has caused a notable increase in the demand for 

 economic ornithological Avork. Numerous reports of bird depreda- 

 tions have been made, and in some of the cases investigated recom- 

 mendations for tlie control of the species have been made, while in 

 others the com])laints proved to be Avithout basis to Avarrant action. 

 The incentive for large crop production incident to the Avar has been 

 an added cause for the receipt of more than the ordinary number 

 of com])laiuts concerning bird depredations. A policy of bird con- 

 servation that AA^ill best serve the interests of the farmer involves not 

 only a thorough ajipreciation of the value of beneficial species, but 

 adeqiuite attention to the control of troublesome ones. Consequently, 



t^ 



