ITEMS OF INTEREST December 19, 1908 Issue

ITEMS OF INTEREST

The Massachusetts commission on fisheries and game has announced the purchase of six hundred acres of land on Martha's Vineyard, which it is proposed to devote to the propagation of the pinnated grouse, or heath hen. This bird, once so common from Cape Ann to Virginia that the articles of apprentices often specified that they should not be compelled to eat the meat of the grouse oftener than twice weekly, had, a few years ago, become practically extinct. It apparently made its last stand on the island of Martha's Vineyard, and in the winter of 1906–7 only seventy-seven individual birds could be accounted for. At present there are one hundred and fifty birds on the island.

There have been in session during the last fortnight at Washington the Southern Commercial Congress, the National Conservation Commission, and the National Rivers and Harbors Congress. Before the second of these bodies it was shown that in the year 1906 the railroads carried two hundred and seventeen billions ton-miles of freight at an average cost of seventy-seven cents. If one-fifth of the freight which is shipped each year were to be transported by water it would result in a saving to the producer and shipper of about $250,000,000.

The cost to the Government during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1908, by reason of the transmission free through the mails of departmental penalty and Congressional franked matter, was $42,544,047. This figure includes the matter carried by the Post Office Department for itself and the postal service. Added to this is $57,000,000 for uncompensated service in the handling and transportation of the second-class matter of publishers of newspapers and periodicals.

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