598 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts, and Letters. 
Forage Plants for Sandy Regions .—There is considerable 
land in the state which is too sandy for successful agriculture 
under present conditions. Some native forage plants are known, 
nutritious and much liked by cattle, which grow and thrive 
on just such soils. It is not improbable that judicious experi¬ 
ments might show these and others to be .adapted to our poor 
soils. 
Windbreaks .—Some of these sandy areas however are already 
known to be well adapted to certain crops, such as potatoes, 
but their cultivation is hazardous by reason of the drifting of 
the sands under the action of the winds. They are subject to 
this drifting not only in dry seasons but even within a few days 
after heavy rains. It is beyond question that this danger can 
be greatly reduced, and probable that it can be entirely obviated 
by the planting of proper windbreaks. What trees or shrubs 
are suited to such use, and how they can be arranged best, 
are questions of immediate importance for such areas—questions 
which can only be answered by observation and experiment. 
Food and Enemies of Fish .—The zoological portion of the 
proposed survey would concern itself chiefly with the life of the 
waters of the state. In no direction are we more ignorant than 
in regard to the life, food, and enemies of our fish. Yet from 
the standpoints both of profit and sport a knowledge of these 
things is necessary. Our state, bounded by two of the great 
lakes, and studded with numberless smaller bodies of water, 
will always find her fisheries a leading interest. We now ex¬ 
pend thousands of dollars annually to raise and plant fish in 
our waters. We know little of their food and enemies and the 
other conditions for their preservation, growth, and multiplica¬ 
tion. As an example, we may refer to the whitefish. No one 
knows anything of the life or fate of the millions of fry planted 
in the lakes by this and adjoining states. No one knows any¬ 
thing of the food, enemies or habits of the young whitefish. 
It is not to much too say that the cost of a study of the lower 
animal and plant life of the lakes, such as would give the con¬ 
ditions for intelligent action in planting whitefish, would be 
immediately repaid. 
Nor are the questions less important which are connected 
