828 AGRICULTURAL APPROPRIATION BILL, 1924. 



We have experts at work investigatinoj various phases and fur- 

 nishing the information which is needed to help the peoph> handle - 

 this business in the most effective way. It is an entirely new type of | 

 business and the people going into it naturally have no accumulated 

 knowledge to fall hack on, and we are tryinc; to assist them. Judging 

 from the appreciation that they are showmg. we are proving very 

 helpful in building up the business along the best lines. 



Mr. Anderson. Are voir getting any action out of this knowledge 

 obtained at the experimental farm i 



Doctor Nelson. Yes; we are getting a great lot of information on 

 the handling of the parasites and diseases and methods of taking 

 care of tiiem. and one of the interesting things we have discovered 

 there is the breeding season of the marten, the American sable. 

 Heretofore, for years they have been trying to breed martens with- 

 out success. They had the idea that martens bred in January and if 

 put together at any time except the breeding season, one of the pair 

 would kill the other, and so they held them apart. So they would 

 keep them apart all the year until January and then put them to- 

 gether. They got no results. 



Our man tried putting them together in the summer, and they 

 mated, and two different years we have got voung. They appear to 

 mate in August and carry their young for about ei^ht months, that 

 is, so far as the present indications go. A neighbormg fur farmer in 

 New York tried the same experiment and got the same results. 



We thus appear to have solved w^hat was thought to be an impos- 

 sible matter; that is, the successful breeding of the marten in cap- 

 tivity. We have had three successful breeding seasons, and there 

 seenis to be no doubt but that they can be successfully bred in cap- 

 tivity. So the marten is one of our valuable fur animals. This is 

 quite an important piece of information. 



INVESTIGATIONS OF FOOD HABITS OF BIRDS. 



Another item under this same appropriation is the investigation of 

 the food habits of birds, and the experiments and study to control 

 losses to agriculture by bird pests, such as blackbirds, crows, and 

 others. In some places they become tremendously destructive. The 

 work that the Bit)lou;ical Survey has been carrying on ever since its 

 origin, of studying the contents of birds stomachs in order to deter- 

 mine exactly what the birds eat at different times of the vear, has 

 formed a basis for a large part of the protective legislation for useful _ 

 birds tliroudiout the United States. All the States base their appre- | 

 ciation of the value of birds on these researches, which are still going 

 on. 



There is a curious thing, and yet a thing not unexpected, and that 

 is that birds with the changing conditions and changes in agriculture, 

 cliange their habits frequently, and birds that are usually harmless 

 may become quite harmful at certain seasons, particuhu'ly in con- 

 nection with (he (Icstruclion of fruit. 



There are other protected birds, such as herons, that destroy fish 

 on a large scale. 



I'tider the law, as regards migratory birds, the Secretary of Agri- 

 culture has the authority to issue peiiiiils to destroy j^rotected birds 

 where they aic destructive to ii<:riculture or other interests. We 



