Huntsville gazette., 1885-11-28
SFisA pRoDucTroN.

FISH PRODUCTIONS.
The Amount Of Fish Consumed Annually
by the Peoplesof Europe aud America.
If Mulhalrs 8 statistics are reliable.
says an auslink journal. there are not
far short df 16O. 600 vessels engaged in
Europe and North America in fishing.
Between 600. 600 and 100000 men are
employed in this industry. and the
total annual product of fish is not far
short of 1,500. 900 tons. Few people
realize the meaning OF these latter
figures. A ton of fish is equal in
weight ptol about twenty EIGHT sheep $
and hence if Mulhall's estimate is ap-
proximately correct, years fish sup
ply f6f ten European countries, in
cludea IAN this estimate, and the United
States and Canada might be repre-.
sented BY $4,000. 900 sheep. OF this
amount the United Kingdom, Canada,
BnSeil and the United States alone
aggregase 100000 tons equivalent to
2S.OOO,OO0 sheep. 1t has been truly
said TIT ~ talk in metaphor of the
harvest pf fthe sea. but we have only
lately been able to realize what the
mstaphor means. The fisheries expo
sition in London in 1883 did a great
deal to encourage the study of marine
biology, andsit il with no small degree
of 1atisfaotion that we are able to say
thai in2 this Amuch-needed work the
United States ranks second to no other.
On the other hand, Great Britain,
whose fisheries are of vital Importance
to her for food. has done little, and
can not vet boast laboratory on the
seashore. Indeed, Prof. Lancaster, an
eminent authority on marine biology,
declares the British fishing industries
still barbaric. The produce of the sea
is recklessly seized regardless of the
consequences of the method. the time,
or the extent of the depredations. Ac-
cording to the English authority. the
old proverb that there are good
fish in the sea as ever came out
of it no longer holds good. The
harvest OF the sea in the future.
like the harvest on land, needs cult
waiting. It was shown not long ago
that in eight months twenty-eight boats
engaged in the haddock fishery at Rye
mouth, England, used 62O tons of mus
sels-about AZ 10000 mussels-in the
capture. of the haddock. Yet Prof.
Lancaster says that no pains are taken
to cultivate or preserve the mussel, and
knowledge of it's reproduction and
growth. is still incomplete, as it is of
other bait. SOles every year are be-
coming scarcer, and oysters are becom-
ing more difficult to obtain. At pres
ent, says the same authority, absolutely
nothing is known of the spawning of
the sole; the male fish is not even rec
ognized. The reasons for oysters being
scarce are not known, nor how to make
them abundant. There are many econ
omists in England who maintain that
the haphazard and improvident meth
DDS of fishing are exhausting the fish
supplyo of that country as surely as min
ing is exhausting the supply of coal.
The supply of many kinds of fish is
rapidly diminishing. and the only way
to check the waste is by the systematic
study of the conditions which regulate
the supply. 1t is undoubtedly true that
1.-The world could not be fed if men
sought their food on land with as little
forethought and system as fishermen
cast their nets into the sea-" To what
extent these facts, which are causing
considerable discussion in England. ap-
ply TO the United States, we are not
prepared to say. The excellent work
for many years of our Fish Commission
exonerates our Government from the
accusation of total neglect of this i'm.
portant industry.-7Mrf Field and
Farm.