rihapor usr BeOwN® BULGE: TIN Ms 
big spraying program. A third bill, H.R. 4159, would establish a new system 
of predator control based on modern wildlife and would make over archaic 
programs using mass poisoning. PLEASE WRITE! 
The Illinois Pesticide Control Committee is trying to get a sponsor 
for state legislation that would appropriate funds for research on non- 
chemical pest control. (The federal Department of Agriculture got $25,500,- 
000 for the development of controls other than highly toxic, residual 
chemicals). The Illinois Natural History Survey asked for $80,000 in its 
budget for pesticide-wildlife studies. 
An editorial in the Journal of the American Medical Association of 
November 2, 1964, stated, “Generalized Community spraying should only 
be done when designed to eliminate a definite health hazard .. .” 
The subcommittee on Agriculture of the federal House Appropriations 
Committee recently caused a big stir by attacking Rachel Carson’s “Silent 
Springs,” which continues to wield power. This has pleased the $385 million 
pesticide industry. Over-all sales were up 15% last year, but the pesticides 
Rachel Carson specifically attacked went down in sales. Secretary Udall 
last fall issued an order to avoid the use of persistent pesticides which 
remain in the soil for years (aldrin, dieldrin, D.D.T., endrin, heptachlor, 
chlordane and lindane, for example) on lands controlled by the Department 
of Interior. The subcommittee’s report said that the book unduly alarmed 
the public and created panic. The report has caused a rash of editorials and 
letters to the editor, and so the pesticide controversy continues to rage. 
Many people have been asking about bidrin, a systemic organophosphate 
for Dutch elm disease. It is highly toxic, and there have not been studies 
of effects on wildlife. The Illinois Natural History Survey is not recommend- 
ing it for elm protection at this time, feeling that more research and wider 
evaluation is necessary. The report that Audubon Societies are recommend- 
ing it is not true. We are simply watching it, along with other new ideas. 
We continue to recommend excellent SANITATION (elimination of all 
dead and dying trees, and of all other dead elm wood), feeding and water- 
ing. 
DON’T FORGET OUR MOVIE “THE SILENT SPRING OF RACHEL 
CARSON” FOR ONE OF YOUR PROGRAMS. 
22W210 Stanton Road, Glen Ellyn, Ill. 
fi i fi ff 
SLIM FLIGHT OF DUCKS FORECAST FOR 1965 
When the Waterfowl Advisory Committee met in Washington Aug. 10, 
Director John S. Gottschalk of the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife 
revealed that a larger-than-expected hunter kill last winter reduced the 
continental duck breeding population to the lowest level since reliable 
surveys were started in 1947. 
As a result, no increase in fall flights over 1964 is forecast this year, 
despite better nesting conditions after several years of drought in the 
Canadian “duck factory.” Aerial and ground surveys conducted by Bureau 
biologists in the nesting areas showed the breeding population of all ducks 
down 23 per cent compared to 1964. Mallards and pintails, the two most 
popular gun birds, were down 21 per cent and 20 per cent, respectively. 
