BUREAU OF THE BIOLOGICAL SURVEY 83 



In 1886, that is, one year after it was originally started, 

 the work was set up as the Division of Economic Ornithol- 

 ogy and Mammalogy in the Department of Agriculture. 5 

 What might be called a survey of wild life became the most 

 important feature of its work, although it was ten years 

 before its name was changed to " Division of the Biological 

 Survey." 6 The title was again changed in 1906 when the 

 Bureau of the Biological Survey was set up as an independ- 

 ent unit in the Department of Agriculture. 7 



There had been protests from the first that the Biological 

 Survey was spending too much of its time in the study of 

 geographic distribution of the species and not giving enough 

 attention to the practical questions relating to agriculture 

 and horticulture. The same problem had faced Dr. Mer- 

 riam and his associates in beginning their work that has 

 usually faced the directors of any new governmental 

 organization. 8 Should they use the limited funds granted 

 them to lay the basic foundations which might later produce 

 practical results or should they jump ahead and by hit-and- 

 miss methods get some sort of immediate results so as to 

 convince the members of Congress that their work was 

 of value? 



Dr. Merriam chose to use the first appropriations made 

 the Survey for what he considered basic scientific studies. 

 Perhaps it was because the Union was composed largely of 

 scientists and that Merriam himself was more interested in 

 the scientific aspects of the work than in any other. Un- 

 fortunately, the chief point urged before the House and 

 Senate appropriation committees had been the practical value 



5 24 Stat. L. 100. 

 29 Stat. L. 99. 



7 33 Stat. L. 861. 



8 See discussion of similar situation in The Geological Survey, Mono- 

 graph No. i, Institute for Government Research, p. u. 



