78 



by a joint committee, appointed for the 

 purpose. 



Secretary McAdoo has recently modi- 

 fied the work of destroying- the paper 

 money so as to meet present conditions 

 better. Now each member of the com- 

 mittee will check the money and securi- 

 ties delivered as well as witness their 

 destruction. In the past, one member of 

 the committee has usually verified the 

 amount and the whole committee merely 

 witnessed the destruction. The new regu- 

 lations are designed to simplify the work 

 and throw greater safeguards around the 

 destruction of money and securities. The 

 record shows that the paper money de- 

 stroyed in 1915 had a total weight of 

 five hundred and ninetv tons. 



Popular Science Monthly 



food dead fish, garbage, and offal of vari- 

 ous sorts, and their services in cleaning 

 up such material are not to be regarded 

 lightly. It will, however, surprise many 

 to learn that some of the gull family ren- 

 der important inland 

 service, especially to 

 agriculture. At least 

 one species, the Cali- 

 fornia gull, is ex- 

 tremely fond of field 

 mice, and during an 

 outbreak of that 

 pest in Nevada in 

 1907-8 hundreds 

 of gulls assembled 

 in and near the 

 devastated alfalfa 



One reason why half a paper bill is worthless. The treasury department cuts the 

 returned bills into two pieces lengthwise as a preliminary to its total destruction 



How Gulls Help the Farmer 



TPIE term "gull'' is usually associated 

 in the popular mind only with long- 

 winged swimmers seen along the salt 

 water shores and in coast harbors. There 

 are represented in the United States, 

 however, twenty-two species or sub- 

 species of gulls, including the gull-like 

 birds known as skuas and jaegers. Of 

 these some are true inland birds, fre- 

 quenting prairies, marshes, and inland 

 lakes. Flocks of gulls on the waters of 

 our harbors or following the wake of 

 vessels are a familiar sight, but not every 

 observer of the graceful motions of the 

 bird is aware of the fact, that gulls are 

 the original "white wings." 



As sea scavengers they welcome as 



fields and fed entirely on mice, thus 

 lending the farmers material aid in 

 their warfare against the pestiferous 

 little rodents. 



In Salt Lake City, is a monument 

 sumiounted by two bronze gulls, erected 

 by the people of that city "in grateful 

 remembrance" of the signal service ren- 

 dered by these birds at a critical time 

 in the history of the community. For 

 three consecutive years — 1848, 1849. and 

 1850 — black crickets by millions threat- 

 ened to ruin the crops upon which de- 

 pended the very lives of the settlers. 

 Large flocks of gulls came to the rescue 

 and devoured vast numbers of the de- 

 structive insects, until the fields were 

 entirely freed from them. 



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