§ MR. EVERSHEDI beg to ask the President of the Board of Agriculture whether he is aware that the United States Department of Agriculture has recently issued a book by Dr. Hart Merriam on birds of prey in their relation to agriculture, demonstrating the evils which arise from their indiscriminate destruction; and whether he will consider the desirability of promoting similar knowledge among the agriculturists of the United Kingdom?
§ MR. H. GARDNERYes; I am aware of the issue of the book to which my hon. Friend refers, and I should be glad to do anything in my power to promote the knowledge of ornithology in its relation to agriculture. The Departmental Committee on the Vole Plague in the South of Scotland collected much useful information on one branch of the subject, and I have in the press a leaflet summarising some of the conclusions at which the Committee arrived, which will, I hope, be of some service in the direction proposed by my hon. Friend.