The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-10-12

problems or even to justify hypotheses,
 says the New York Sun, editorially.
 | Our own fish commission, for exam
 pie, has been trying to establish the
 reason for the remarkable dminution
 in the mackerel catch, which in the past few years has fallen to about a | tenth of its former dimensions. Fears
 have been expressed that this excel | lent fish has decreased in numbers per 1 manently
 The belief that this is not the case Is
 based upon the fact that ever since | mackerel became commercially valua- | ble the supply has varied largely from
 one series of years to another. But
 what causes this variation and the present abnormal decrease in the sup, | ply? The commission reports that 1t
 Is unable as yet to answer the question. | We know little about any changes i'll
 the biological or physical conditions of
 the sea that may affect the vitality and
 habits of the mackere We do not
 know why it Is that the efforts artifi-
 cially to propagate this fish have met
 with little success the proportion Of
 eggs matched being very low. All that l can be done in the present state or knowledge to revive the industry, which | once recorded four hundred and thirty | thousand barrels of salted mackerel in | a year, Is to ask the cooperation of the
 mackerel fleet, so that when spawning | school of fish are met the ova may inn ! mediately be secured, impregnated and
 thrown overheard to develop aid the
 natural surroundings of the fish.
 The bluefish is caught along our | entire Atlantic coast and to some eX- l tent in the Gulf and is usually very | abundant; but it is scarce this season | and why it has left us and whither 1t | has gone are unanswered questions. I The departure of the bluefish would eX- l cite the most painful feelings if there | was the slightest probability of his pro longed absence. The old salts in the
 bluefish business, however, are conf-
 dent that he will come home from for eign parts before a great while.
 The natural supply of oysters does
 not keep pace with the demand, and
 though artificial bedding has augment
 ed the yield largely, there are some puz-
 zling questions for which an answer is anxiously sought. Our fish commission
 has not yet found any practical meth oli Ol IdlSlIlS OySlSI II llOiii e'i eii'Si'A'
 fertilized eggs, nor has any way been
 discovered of supplying the bvalve
 with artificial food. The world Is look
 ing to us more and more for oysters, for our product is about six-sevenths of the total yield, and most of our out put Is required at home. We shall feed
 the world with oysters if some way is discovered of propagating them artif- cially;> but while we are seeking a method attention Is called to the grave necessity of preserving our existing re- sources, for it is found that many oys- ter fishers do not know how to harvest the crop and keep the grounds unim- paired for future harvests. Louisiana, alarmed last year by the decline of her oyster indistry started an investiga- | ton, and it was found that the fishing methods had been very injurious, re- sulting often in the practical destruc- ton of the oysters. The fish commits l sioner's report to the governor of Lou | isiana assured him that with improved i methods and proper restrictions ahe | planting industry of the state | might be extended greatly. In some l regions on the Atlantic coast oyster | planting has not kept pace with dredg- ing and the grounds have been over worked. A bugaboo that has cost oys- ter fishers dear, particularly in the Chesapeake region, should be laid low | by the two reports of the commission on the so-called green oyster The popu- lar impression has been that these oys- ters derive their color from copper and are therefore unwholesome, but it has been shown conclusively that the color Is due to vegetable matter that serves as oyster food and does not in the least impair the food value of the oyster.
 The fishing industries, as a whole, have been studied from a scientific point of view for only comparatively short time. Most of them do not yet rest upon scientific basis, and. owing to ignorance and mistakes, their value will be impaired more or less until their is directed by greater en- lightenment. Where the very best methods of wheat culture are applied as in England we see that the yield per acre Is double that of our own nat ulally better wheat lands. This means simply that (methods for the highest utilization of wheat lands have been sought and discovered, but have not yet been applied generally in our great western fields. Experience and re- search have not yet deduced methods for the highest utilization of the worlds fisheries, though large progress has been made. When we understand , in our own country, how best to reSu- , ate and preserve the fisheries, we shall , not hear a dozen reports every year 1 such as those recently made on the , needless deterioration in the sponge f fisheries of Florida's gulf waters and ', the serious impairment of some Of our ( coast fisheries ,
 CHESHIRE, r