HEARINGS BEFORE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE. 291 
Mr. Merrtam. We will not, at all. We are not doing detailed 
work there, as we do in the United States. We are getting the gen- 
eral facts that are necessary to us in our work here, but we are not 
doing the detail work in those countries like we do in our country. 
Mr. Scorr. Will you ever finish the work in our own country? 
Mr. Merriam. Yes; we will finish it, but it will be a slow process 
with our present force. It is very difficult, indeed, to get men of 
sufficient training to carry on this kind of work, because they must be 
zoologists and botanists, and accomplished ones, and they must know 
practically every mammal and bird, tree and shrub, that we find from 
Alaska to Mexico. It is a big field and involves the knowledge of 
thousands of species—and not every man has that knowledge. We 
have all the men in the world who have it, and they are men we have 
trained ourselves. So the work can not be done with very great rapid- 
ity, but it will be economy to keep the good men in the field as long 
each year as the season will admit. 
Mr. Scorr. How many men do you keep in the field each year? 
Mr. Merriam. We have a varying number. We generally have 
four or five parties, and we are doing the economic work similarly. 
We have men in the field studying the food habits of birds and mam- 
mals of economic importance. For instance, our economic ornitholo- 
gist has spent a large ped of two years now in California in studying 
the food of birds of the fruit districts of California, where the fruit 
industries are of enormous importance, and where insect devastations 
are of great importance, and where it was believed a few years ago 
that a number of species of birds were doing great damage. 
We have shown that in nearly every instance—not in every instance, 
but in nearly every instance—that the bird was of great benefit to the 
orchardist, and we have demonstrated that to their satisfaction; that 
they recognize it as a fact and protect birds that a few years ago they 
were killing. We find some birds are destructive for a very brief 
period—for a few weeks or a month—while during the rest of the year 
they are very beneficial, and if we can suggest means of warding them 
off during this brief period when they are injurious; then their serv- 
ices are of enormous benefit to the fruit men; and that is what we 
are doing. 
We are also called upon to expend a great deal of money, which 
amounts to more than the increase in our appropriation has amounted 
to, in carrying on the work imposed upon us by the ‘‘ Lacey Act” 
and the bill proposing game laws for Alaska. This matter has taken 
Doctor Palmer; of the Biological Survey, who receives the highest 
salary—has taken his entire time and that of two assistants and a 
stenographer, and to that must be added traveling expenses and various 
incidental expenses. They have taken that out of the Biological Sur- 
vey appropriation without any special appropriation for it. 
Last year we had an item of $1,000 for fencing and transporting and 
caring for elk and other animals in forest reservations. 
The Cuarrman. They had an idea in the Senate, in the conference 
committee, that these elk were to be in captivity for a few months, 
and then would be turned loose. We were told that they were a gift 
to the Government, and the Government would take care of them a 
few months, and then they would be turned loose. 
Mr. Mxrriam. That latter statement is incorrect. As a matter of 
fact—— 
