x PEEFATOEY NOTE 



the rats, field-mice, rabbits, gophers, ground- 

 squirrels, muskrats, etc.; the fox, the wolves 

 and the fur-bearers; the deer and their kin 

 have been appreciated by very few; yet the 

 harm done annually by one unchecked class of 

 them entails a vast waste, while the benefit 

 which might be obtained from another class is 

 lost because their lives are little cared for and 

 their capabilities for profitable exploitation al- 

 most wholly neglected. 



It is hoped that this book will lead to a re- 

 versal of this wasteful and negligent state of 

 affairs; and that by its help the farmer's 

 friends among the wild animals about him may 

 be encouraged and his foes subdued. Thus the 

 account of the agriculturist with his four- 

 footed competitors may be changed from a need- 

 lessly heavy balance on the loss side, to one of 

 profit, reckoned partly in savings and partly in 

 "new business." 



My sources of statistical information, espe- 

 cially for the West, have been largely reports 

 of investigations conducted by the Biological 

 Survey. These reports, it is true, have been 

 widely distributed during the past ten years, 



