PREDATORY AND OTHER WILD ANIMAL CONTROL JANUARY 27, 1931.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed Mr. HAUGEN, from the Committee on Agriculture, submitted the following REPORT [To accompany H. R. 9599] The Committee on Agriculture, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 9599) to authorize the Secretary of Agriculture to carry out his 10-year cooperative program for the eradication, suppression, or bringing under control of predatory and other wild animals injurious to agriculture, horticulture, forestry, animal husbandry, wild game, and other interests, and for the suppression of rabies and tularemia in predatory or other wild animals, and for other purposes, having considered the same, report thereon with a recommendation that it do pass with the following amendments: Page 2, line 2, after the word "State", add a comma and the word "Territory". Page 2, line 17, strike out "1931, the sum of $1,378,700" and insert "1932, a sum not to exceed $1,000,000". Page 2, line 20, strike out "1932 to 1940" and insert "1933 to 1941". Page 2, line 20, strike out "$1,378,700" and insert "not to exceed $1,000,000". The object of the bill is set forth in the following letter from the Secretary of Agriculture: Hon. GILBERT N. HAUGEN, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, Chairman Committee on Agriculture, House of Representatives. DEAR MR. HAUGEN: I have your letter of February 10, inclosing for consideration and comment copy of the bill H. R. 9599, introduced by Mr. Leavitt on February 6 "to authorize the Secretary of Agriculture to carry out his 10-year cooperative program for the eradication, suppression, or bringing under control of predatory and other wild animals injurious to agriculture, horticulture, forestry, animal husbandry, wild game, and other interests, and for the suppression of rabies and tularemia in predatory or other wild animals, and for other purposes. The object of this bill is to authorize the necessary appropriations to carry out the 10-year program for the control of predatory animals, which the department PREDATORY AND OTHER WILD ANIMAL CONTROL JANUARY 27, 1931.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed Mr. HAUGEN, from the Committee on Agriculture, submitted the following REPORT [To accompany H. R. 9599] The Committee on Agriculture, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 9599) to authorize the Secretary of Agriculture to carry out his 10-year cooperative program for the eradication, suppression, or bringing under control of predatory and other wild animals injurious to agriculture, horticulture, forestry, animal husbandry, wild game, and other interests, and for the suppression of rabies and tularemia in predatory or other wild animals, and for other purposes, having considered the same, report thereon with a recommendation that it do pass with the following amendments: Page 2, line 2, after the word "State", add a comma and the word "Territory". Page 2, line 17, strike out "1931, the sum of $1,378,700" and insert "1932, a sum not to exceed $1,000,000". Page 2, line 20, strike out "1932 to 1940" and insert "1933 to 1941". Page 2, line 20, strike out "$1,378,700" and insert "not to exceed $1,000,000". The object of the bill is set forth in the following letter from the Secretary of Agriculture: Hon. GILBERT N. HAUGEN, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, Chairman Committee on Agriculture, House of Representatives. DEAR MR. HAUGEN: I have your letter of February 10, inclosing for consideration and comment copy of the bill H. R. 9599, introduced by Mr. Leavitt on February 6 "to authorize the Secretary of Agriculture to carry out his 10-year cooperative program for the eradication, suppression, or bringing under control of predatory and other wild animals injurious to agriculture, horticulture, forestry, animal husbandry, wild game, and other interests, and for the suppression of rabies and tularemia in predatory or other wild animals, and for other purposes.' The object of this bill is to authorize the necessary appropriations to carry out the 10-year program for the control of predatory animals, which the department submitted pursuant to the proviso in the act of May 16, 1928 (45 Stat. 559), making appropriations for this department for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1929, and which was published in detail in House Document No. 496, second session, Seventieth Congress. For more than 14 years the Bureau of Biological Survey of this department has been concerned with the control of predatory animals injurious to agriculture, horticulture, forestry, animal husbandry, and wild game, its operations being conducted under the general projects (1) for the control of the large carnivorous animals, which destroy livestock and game, and (2) for the control of the smaller herbivorous animals, including the rodents, which destroy growing and stored crops, forest and other nursery stock, and the range grasses that support the country's farming and livestock industries. The current appropriation act for this department carries an item "Food habits of birds and animals, and of the funds made available thereunder $568,123 is allotted for the control of these predatory animals and rodents. To carry out the 10-year program of control and thus broaden the scope of the operations and render them more effective and their results permanent, an annual increase of $810,577 would be required over the present appropriation, or a total yearly appropriation of $1,378,700 for all lines of predatory-animal and rodent control over a period of 10 years. This would be divided into annual allotments of $782,500 for the stock-killing animals and $596,200 for the rodents and other small injurious mammals. The toll taken by stock-killing animals in the United States, such as coyotes, wolves, mountain lions, and bobcats, has been estimated to run between $20,000,000 and $30,000,000 annually. The inroads made by these animals on sheep, cattle, pigs, and poultry, as well as on wild-game animals and game and insectivorous birds, have an important bearing not only on the livestock industry but also on the conservation of game. The coyote has also caused further concern because of its instrumentality in spreading rabies, or hydrophobia, serious outbreaks of which have occurred in all of the Western States during the past. The coyote is also susceptible to and can probably transmit tularemia, a disease of the wild rabbits on which it feeds. Tularemia, as well as rabies, has proved fatal to human beings. Of all the predatory animals in the western range country the coyote is the most persistent. The department has been particularly successful in suppressing the spread of rabies among wild animals, outbreaks of which are most numerous among coyotes, and in reducing the depredations of these and other predatory animals. It is reasonable for grazers using the national forests and contiguous areas to expect the Federal Government to take care of its own lands. The work thus far on these lands has been conducted to the fullest possible extent, but the funds available have been far from sufficient adequately to meet the situation in all its phases, notwithstanding the fact that Federal appropriations have been materially augmented by contributions from cooperators in the ratio of 2 to 1. It is probable that this ratio will be maintained under the 10-year program. The larger program that would be possible under the proposed extension of the work would result in a material form of agricultural relief over a wide area of the country. The smaller injurious wild animals, including the rodents, cause losses in farm crops and range forage in the United States that have been estimated to run into hundreds of millions of dollars annually. The adequate control of these animals is one of the most tangible means of preventing serious losses in agriculture, horticulture, stock raising, and forestry. Among the smaller destructive species with which the control measures are concerned are the ground squirrels, prairie dogs, jack rabbits, pocket gophers, woodchucks, porcupines, wood rats, kangaroo rats, brown or house rats, house and field mice, and moles. So numerous and so widely distributed are these pests that uncontrolled their damage to farm crops and forage would be appalling. A more comprehensive and drastic program of control than that now possible is greatly needed. Much relief has been afforded under present accomplishments, but the work remaining to be done is far greater than can be undertaken with the funds now appropriated. The department is looked to for leadership and guidance in this control work. The task of rodent control requires not only action by Federal and State officials, but the voluntary cooperation of hundreds of thousands of farmers and others whose active interest in the campaign must be enlisted. The State, county, municipal, and private funds provided in the rodent-control operations are in the ratio of about 4 to 1, as compared with the Federal funds. It is confidently anticipated that an extension of Federal activities will be accompanied by a proportionate increase in the funds furnished by cooperating agencies. It is important that the department control the rodent infestation on the national forests and other Federal reservations, in order to increase the stockcarrying capacity of their grazing areas and to reduce the erosion that follows destruction of the range by rodents. Experiments have demonstrated that prairie dogs destroy from 25 to 80 per cent of the annual production of forage in infested areas. These Federal lands also are very often the source of infestation of privately owned grazing and crop areas. The available Federal funds have been in a large measure used in cooperative-control operations on private lands, with some work on national forests and other Federal reservations. A systematic program, however, for the control of rodents is called for on every national forest of western United States. It is the definite obligation of the Federal Government to adopt such a program. The proposed program has been developed through the experience of the department in its years of operations for the control of predatory animals and injurious rodents. It will facilitate the solution of problems of grave and far-reaching economic importance and effect a thoroughly practical form of agricultural relief. The department therefore approves the bill in its present form and recommends its adoption as promptly as the financial program will permit. Sincerely, ARTHUR M. HYDE, Secretary. The companion Senate bill to H. R. 9599, S. 3483, was referred to the Bureau of the Budget, as required by Circular No. 49 of that bureau, and under date of March 28, 1930, the Director of the Bureau of the Budget advised the Department of Agriculture that the program of expenditures contemplated by this proposed legislation would not be in conflict with the financial program of the President if the bills were amended so as to authorize annual appropriations of not to exceed the amount specified. The department therefore recommends that the bill be changed accordingly. Funds expended in predatory animal and rodent control from July 1, 1915, to June 30, 1929 COOPERATORS (STATES, COUNTIES, LIVESTOCK AND FARM ASSOCIATIONS, AND |