124 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLVI. No. 1180 



The Biological Survey has on more than 

 one occasion called attention to the vast 

 possibilities in wild game mammals as a 

 source of food. Of interest in connection 

 with the present critical shortage in the 

 food supply of the world are the following 

 words of Lantz^ written in 1910 : 



It is believed that with proper encouragement 

 much of the otherwise waste land in the United 

 States may be made to yield profitable returns 

 from the production of venison, and that this ex- 

 cellent and nutritious meat, instead of being de- 

 nied to 99 per cent, of the population of the coun- 

 try, may become a common food product. 



The Honorable Franklin K. Lane, Secre- 

 tary of the Interior, as reported by the 

 daily press, recently called attention to the 

 reindeer as a possible source of increased 

 food supply. It has been lately suggested 

 by J. B. Harkin, commissioner of parks for 

 the Dominion of Canada,- that the barren- 

 ground caribou, 20,000,000 strong, consti- 

 tute a valuable potential meat supply. 

 Some years ago Mr. Charles Goodnight, of 

 Goodnight, Texas, conducted some most 

 promising breeding experiments with the 

 buffalo, crossing the animals principally 

 with Polled Angus cattle, and securing fer- 

 tile hybrids which ate less, put on more 

 flesh with the same amount of food, cut 

 more meat, and were subject to fewer dis- 

 eases than the steer. Similar experiments 

 have been carried forward by C. J. Jones, 

 of Topeka, Kansas, and Mossom Boyd, of 

 Bobcaygeon, Ontario, Canada, and are now 

 being prosecuted by the Canadian Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture. It is hoped that there 

 may be produced an improved range ani- 

 mal, having 100 pounds more meat than 

 the steer, and in addition possessing the 

 valuable robe and rustling ability of the 

 buffalo. The American Breeder's Associa- 

 tion has gone on record as appreciative of 



1 Biol. Surv. Bull. 36, p. 59. 



2 Bull. Amer. Game Prot. Assn., May 1, 1917, 

 p. 8. 



the possibilities of increasing our national 

 food supply through fuller utilization by 

 domestication of wild birds and mammals. 

 A recent writer in Science (Needham, 

 April 20, 1917) wisely argues that the 

 possibilities of undeveloped economic 

 values in the wild species constitute an im- 

 portant argument for their preservation. 



Second, since life is an active process, 

 and new adaptations and adjustments are 

 continually appearing in the complex of 

 living things about us, man must be alert 

 and on guard against new parasites and 

 disease germs of one sort or another, which 

 may be borne and distributed by animal 

 hosts, either to valuable live stock or to 

 man himself. 



While the role of flies and mosquitoes as 

 bearers of disease is well understood, that 

 of certain mammals is not fully appreci- 

 ated. In the Old "World the rat is chiefly 

 responsible for the spread of bubonic 

 plague through its acting as host to the 

 flea, which is the direct agent of transmis- 

 sion of the disease to the human being. 

 The introduction of plague into the United 

 States has been threatened at least once, in 

 Seattle in 1915, and has actually occurred 

 twice, in San Francisco in 1907-08 and in 

 New Orleans in 1914. The most serious of 

 these introductions took place in San Fran- 

 cisco and vicinity, where a part of the 

 ground squirrel {Citelliis beecheyi) popu- 

 lation became infected from the rats, and 

 threatened to disseminate the plague widely 

 through the state. Attention has already 

 been called to the fact that probably all 

 kinds of rat fleas transmit plague.' The 

 susceptibility to the disease of the fleas of 

 ground squirrels suggests the possibility 

 that the fleas of other rodents also may be 

 potential transmitters of plague. 



In addition to their plague-bearing pro- 

 clivities, rats disseminate trichinosis among 



3 Biol. Surv. Bull. 33, 1909, p. 32. 



