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[[underlined]] COPY [[/underlined]
San Francisco, Calif.,
August 13, 1918.

Honorable Clarence E. Lee, M. C.
Washington, D. C.

[[underlined]] Re Migratory Bird Depredations. [[/underlined]]

Dear Mr. Lee:

Supplementing my reply more fully to yours of July 18th relative to the regulations for protecting Sacremento rice growers from the depredation of migratory birds, may I say that the decision of Mr. Nelson to send Mr. Alexander Wetmore to the Sacramento Valley to investigate these conditions is receiving the hearty approval of the public generally.

As wired you today, the ducks of the Mallard variety are beginning to bunch over the rice fields in greater quantities than last year and much earlier in the season.

To me it is desirous that Mr. Wetmore get to the coast not later than September first. We will commence harvesting rice of an early variety on our own property probably about September 12th just thirty days ahead of last season's record, and I would be especially honored to have Mr. Wetmore call upon me personally and if I have advices in advance will see that he has the right reception from the men whom he will find it necessary to get the correct information from, i. e., the rice and grain growers of the Valley.

I have endeavored to get the rice growers individually to send letters to you and in some cases I believe I have been successful but the best efforts will result from the personal visit of Mr. Wetmore who will be able to interview these men right on the ground.

Concerning our own losses last year I may state conservatively that we lost 4000 sacks of rice with an equivalentmoney value of say $16,000. We had, as you personally saw, about twenty-five acres of rice matured and ready to cut that was absolutely stripped by the ducks before the binders could get in, and the surrounding area produced forty sacks to the acre.

Then we had an excess of twenty acres of rice in the shock which was stripped of every grain and in addition there were pieces of rice land in numerous places on the field that were stripped in various stages.

These depredations commenced about September 12th, 1917, but the worst feature or at least when we noticed it most was when the water was off the fields and the rice in the shock. We were then able to estimate our losses easily.