November 3, 1910J 



NATURE 



i3< 



. . The chute of a railway cattle-yard is a long, 

 irrow canon with wooden walls, sloping upward 

 ther steeply, and ending in the open door of a 

 ittle-car. ... A crate was placed in the middle of 

 L' chute; the sliding door at the outward end of the 

 r>ox was lifted high and carefully poised for a quick 

 drop. .\n animal specially fitting the crate was then 

 cut out from the bunch, driven into the chute, driven 

 on into the crate, and shut in with a bang. After 

 that the crate was hauled and shoved into the stock- 

 ear and settled in its place." 



In Nature of July 28 appeared a paragraph relat- 

 ing to the danger threatening the Alaskan fur-seals 

 owing to unrestricted pelagic sealing by the Japanese. 

 Since that paragraph was written the editor has re- 

 ceived a copv of an "open letter" addressed bv th'' 

 Camp-Fire Club of America to the people of the United 

 States, together with certain letters addressed by the 

 committee of the club to Mr. Secretary Nagel. and 

 the replies to the same. From a covering letter it 

 appears that the Camp-Fire Club comprises about 350 



95 per ceat. of the younger male seals are annually 

 killed the "surplus bulls" will fight with "the breed- 

 ing bulls" ov^r tne lemaies, and seriously retard 

 the breeding of the herd. To this the committee, 

 after indicatin<r their opinion of the experts concerned 

 by printing the word with inverted commas, make 

 tne toUovving reply : — " .As if a wild species does not 

 know how to breed and multiply successfully without 

 the help of man ! The excuse is most inadequate, 

 and in any event it is no excuse whatever for not 

 dealing squarelv with Congress, and in accordance 

 with a very plain understanding." 



From this it will be manifest that the controversy 

 has entered a somewhat acute and embittered stage, 

 th? details of which I have neither space nor inclina- 

 tion to discuss. If, however, pelagic sealing weighs 

 heavily, as I understand it does, on female seals, 

 there may be something in the contention that a 

 certain number -of young males should be annually 

 killed off, although 95 per cent, certainly seems a 

 heavv toll. On the other hand, there is no doubt 



The Best Bull Bison in the Montana Herd. (From the Third Annual Report of the American Bison Society.) 



members, all interested in the preservation of 

 American big game, and the opinions of whom ought 

 therefore to carry considerable weight. According to 

 the "open letter," the Pribilov Islands, when pur- 

 chased from Russia about the year 1867, were the 

 resort of at least 4,500,000 fur-seals, or sea-bears ; at 

 the present day the number is only from 30,000 to 

 50,000. Formerly the islands yielded a large revenue 

 to Government ; now they involve a heavy expendi- 

 ture. The Camp-Fire Club is of opinion that all 

 slaughter of seals on the islands should be prohibited 

 for ten years, in order to permit of the recuperation 

 of the herds to a point when they will yield an annual 

 revenue of 2oo,oooi., and at the same time to make 

 treaties with the British, Canadian, Japanese, and 

 Mexican Governments for the suppression of pelagic 

 sealing, the latter being an even more urgent matter 

 than the former. 



The secretary to Government, on the other hand, 

 acting apparentlv on expert advice, demands a re- 

 newal of a killing licence on the ground that unless 



NO. 2140, VOL. 85] 



whatever that unrestricted pelagic sealing should be 

 stopped, this being a matter, not of .American, but 

 likewise of world-wide interest. R. L. 



THE FUTURE OF AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH 

 IN GREAT BRITAIN.' 



'T^HE announcement recently made to the effect 

 ^ that the Board of .Agriculture has applied for a 

 large sum of money from the development grant for 

 the purpose of aiding agricultural research lends a 

 peculiar interest to two publications just issued, the 

 report of the Board of .Agriculture on the grants made 

 for the last two years for agriculture education and 

 research, and the statement of the British Science 

 Guild recently submitted to the Prime Minister in an 

 influentially signed memorial. The report may 



1 Report on the Distribution of Grants for Agricultural Education and 

 Research in the Years igo^-q and 1909-10. Board of Agriculture and 

 Fi=herie«. Cd. 5388. Price yid. 



The British Science Guild. '1 he Present Position of Agricultural Research 

 in the United Kingdom. 



