No. 4.] REPORT OF STATE ORNITHOLOGIST. 215 



In Farmeri? Bulletin 54, published by the United States 

 Dej)artment of Agriculture, we find the statement that the 

 annual loss to rice growers has been estimated at $2,000,000.^ 

 In the report of the Commissioner of Agriculture for 1886 

 the statement again appears that the aggregate annual loss 

 that birds occasion in the rice fields is about $2,000,000.^ 



Inquiry was made of Dr. T. S. Palmer, assistant chief of 

 the Bureau of Biological Survey, United States Department 

 of Agriculture, as to the facts. In a letter dated I^ov. 3, 

 1910, he writes as follows: — 



I think you will find that the statement regarding the damage done 

 by ricebirds is fairly accurate. The difficulty is that those who 

 have quoted it have failed to realize that it was based on data col- 

 lected twenty-five years ago, and that conditions have since changed 

 materially. You will find the matter fully explained in the report 

 of the Department of Agriculture for 1886, page 247. The facts 

 are briefly these: the data collected during the year 1885 showed 

 considerable losses sustained by nee gi'owers, variously estimated to 

 be from 30 to 50 per. cent of the value of the crop. The best 

 statistics available at that time were those of the tenth census for 

 the year 1879-80. These figures showed that South Carolina pro- 

 duced in 1879-80, 52,077,515 pounds of rice, out of a total produc- 

 tion of 110,131,373 pounds. At 6 cents a pound, apparently not 

 too high a value for that period, the value of the crop was $6,607,- 

 882.38. In 1909 South Carolina produced 476,000 bushels of rice 

 valued at $433,000 out of a total crop of 24,368,000 bushels valued 

 at $19,341,000. Most of this crop was produced in the States of 

 Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas. The fact is that the great rice- 

 producing area has moved west in the last twenty years from the 

 Atlantic coast to Louisiana and Texas, and figures applicable to 

 conditions in 1885 should not be quoted for the coast States to-day 

 without explanation. 



On page 248 of the report of the Commissioner of Agri- 

 culture for 1880, is a letter from Col. John Screven of 

 Savannah, Ga., president of the Georgia Rice Growers Asso- 

 ciation, w^hich reads in part as follows : — 



The ricebird is strictly migratory. It appears on the Savannah 

 Eiver commonly about the 10th or 15th of April, and remains, per- 



1 Farmers Bulletin 54. "Some Common Birds in their Relation to Agriculture," by 

 F. E. L. Real, May, 1897, p. 18. 



* Report of the ornithologist and mammalogi.st. Report of the Commissioner of Agricul- 

 ture, 1886, p. 247. 



