Omaha daily bee., 1917-04-22

would regard the alligator as friend
Of man after casual glance at him,
but there is a law in Louisiana which
authorizes the different parishes Of
the state to enact such measures as
they deem best TO protect the alliga-
tor. The reason for this law is the
fact that the alligator is regarded
as an enemy of the muskrat, and the
muskrat is an enemy Of the rice
planter, because of his habit of bur-
rowing in the banks and bikes OF the
rice field and flooding the crop at the
wrong time. Thus man and the ALI
gator, who may be regarded as ma
tural enemies between whom there
exists little spontaneous cordially,
ally themselves against the muskrat.
This alligator protection is an in
stance of one angle of great ma
tional agricultural problenl--the wild
animal problem. By taking possession
of the continent, man has disturbed
and destroyed the delicate balance
of nature, and it is now his task to
work out and set up new balance
that shall be favorable to the greatest
possible food production. Many ami
mails that seem at first to be the
enemies of man are really his best
friends, and when they are trapped
out and killed as result OF hasty
and short-sighted policy, new and
far more destructive species multi
plies out of all bounds, because the
first species, its natural enemies, have
been destroyed.
1t is necessary that every bird and
animal species in the United States
should be carefully investigated, tried
in court of equity as it were, to de-
termine whether it is on the whole
injurious or beneficial to agriculture,
before the human inhabitants OF the
country decide how that species shall
be treated. This trial is technically
called determining its economic
status, and the court which tries each
species to decide whether it shall live
or die is the biological survey OF the
Department Of Agriculture.
In the natural balance of animal
life, each species of bird and insect
and mammal has its natural enemies,
not sufficiently numerous to kill it
out completely, but strong enough to
keep it in bounds. When man steps
in and exterminates species, he often
let's loose upon himself and his crops
the unchecked multitudes of another
one that work ten times as much
harm. There is certain southern
state where bounty has been placed
upon hawks and owls, because of the
damage they were supposed to do to
poultry. In consequence of the bounty,
the hawks and owls have been killed
out, and as a result of the killing the
orchard industry of the state, which
might be worth millions of dollars,
has been practically ruined. The or
chards are ruined by the field mice
that girdle the trees, and field mice
have increased enormously since the
hawks and owls. their natural enc
mics, have been killed by man.
This sort of delicate balance runs
all through nature and it is part of
the work of the biological survey to
study each bird and animal exhaust
lively, weigh the harm it does against
the good, and pronounce a verdict for
or against, which shall be reflected in
local or national protective legislation.
This sort of work has already been
carried out very extensively. Even
such relatively unimportant creatures
as. the hummingbirds have had to
stand investigation, and scores of
their tiny stomachs were examined to
determine what they fed on. In this
case, it is welcome to learn, the YER
dict was mot guilty"
When species OF animal is plainly
destructive and injurious to man, the
survey takes up the work of exter-
minating it, or, at least, of bringing it
within limits. The biggest job of this
kind on hand is the campaign on pred
atory wild animals that is being
waged in twelve, of the big western
sock raising states. These animals
include such species as the. gray
wolves the coyotes, the mountain
lions, the bobcats and the bears; the
annual damage they do to stock is es-
timated at $12,000,000. Even here, the
question of the balance of nature en-
tcrs to some extent and the interests
of farmers and cattlemen are not
identical. The coyotes are the natural
enemies of the jackrabbits, for in
stance, and where the survey has car
ried out an intensive campaign of coy
cite determination to control the out
break Of rabies, the jackrabbits have
increased to point where they do
serious damage to crops and it is nee
essary to start new war on the jack
rabbits by means of poison. There is
no question, however, that the preda-
,ory wild animals do vastly more
harm than good; they form, in fact,