March 19, 1920] 



SCIENCE 



283 



suffice. "What seems most needed are con- 

 structive and progressive contributions toward 

 the solution of definite problems that are 

 ready for experimental attack, and the central 

 office of such an organization as is here con- 

 sidered would plan to undertake these. Pre- 

 liminary presentations might be prepared and 

 submitted to all cooperators. Out of the 

 correspondence thus developed would eventu- 

 ally come a presentation that might meas- 

 urably approach a truthful one, whereas single 

 individuals could not hope to do more than 

 make incomplete and more or less one-sided 

 contributions in the desired direction, their 

 papers being similar to most of those that 

 now appear in the scientific publications. 



From the last paragraph it will be appre- 

 ciated that the writer's idea of cooperation in 

 research involves the union of a nvanber of 

 minds in planning the attack on a problem, 

 in working out the different parts, and in 

 bringing the several component results to- 

 gether into a well-considered presentation 

 that might really mark a tangible advance in 

 scientific knowledge. Cooperations of this 

 sort would bring it about that many of the 

 experimental mistakes that cause so much 

 discussion in scientific literature might be 

 avoided at the start (through cooperative 

 planning) and that most of the adverse criti- 

 cisnl that leads to such wasteful polemics in 

 many scientific fields might be already past 

 before the main publication occurred, for each 

 cooperator — and perhaps others also — would 

 act as critic regarding the general presenta- 

 tion while it was still in manuscript form. 

 Burton E. Livingston 



The Johns Hopkins TJniversitt 



SUGGESTIONS FOR ECOLOGIC IN- 

 VESTIGATIONS IN VERTEBRATE 

 ZOOLOGYi 



In a recent message transmitted to local ad- 

 ministrators throughout the country praising 

 them for their efforts during the war Food 

 Administrator Hoover declared that the Amer- 



1 Read iDef ore the Ecological Society of America, 

 Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, December 28, 

 1918. 



ican people now " are summoned to a still 

 larger task — to provision the Allies and the 

 liberated nations of Europe, which face not 

 their civilization together unless a steady 

 stream of food supplies can be kept flowing to 

 hunger alone, but the collapse of all that holds 

 them to repair their gravest deficiencies, and 

 in far greater volume than by utmost stress 

 was sent last year." 



As is well known to everyone, under the con- 

 tinuous and effective stimulus of the United 

 States Department of Agriculture there has 

 taken place a speeding-up process on the 

 farms throughout the nation, a process which 

 must apparently be continued and even aug- 

 mented if we are to succeed in our wrestlings 

 with the problem of world food shortage. 



It is obvious that one very practical way in 

 which to increase food production is to cut 

 down the losses djie to plant or animal pests. 

 The department has addressed itself with ex- 

 traordinary vigor to this problem and a com- 

 prehensive program in pest control is being 

 administered by the different bureaus. That 

 portion of the program concerned with re- 

 duction of losses due to rodents and other 

 mammalian or bird pests devolves upon the 

 Bureau of Biological Survey. 



Current estimates place damage done to the 

 carrying capacity of the open range and to 

 cultivated crops generally by rodents in the 

 western states at $300,000,000 annually. Add 

 to this the destruction of live stock by pre- 

 datory mammals, estimated at some $20,000,000 

 every year, and the damage done to goods in 

 warehouses and stores throughout the United 

 States by rats and mice, an additional $200,- 

 000,000, and we have an impressive total. 

 Particular interest attaches to these figures at 

 this time in view of the comprehensive plans 

 for the reclamation of arid and other lands in 

 behalf of returned soldiers recommended by 

 the Secretary of the Interior and given favor- 

 able mention by the President of the United 

 States in his latest address to Congress. 

 Potential or actual rodent pests exist on nearly 

 every acre of the arid land which it is pro- 

 posed to reclaim. In some sections effective 



