Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-09-13

and probably to points Of interest in the
Chesapeake bay. Receptions will be held
by the President of the Unit ed States and
the Secretary of Commerce and Labor,
and luncheons will be given by the Amer
lean Fisheries Society, the Blue Ridge
Rod and Gun Club and the Alaska Pack
erS' Association.
Preceding the meeting of the congress
the American Fisheries Society will hold
its thirtySeventh annual session. OF
this society DR.. Hugh NJ. Smith deputy
commissioner of the United States bureau
of fisheries. is the president He Is also
secretary general Of the congress. But
one other officer of the congress has been
chosen the bureau of fisheries having
conferred the honor of the presidency of
the international assembly upon DR. Her
mon c. BumpuS. director of the Ameri-
can Museum of National History of New
York city. Other officers to be chosen
by the congress from among it's members.
new feature of this years assembly
will be the awarding of cash prizes for
papers, ageregatng S2.9H. The prizes
range from $50 10 $3.50 in gold. and the
donors include the American Fisheries
Society. the American Museum of Natural
History of New York the Museum of
the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and
New York Botanical Garden. the Smith
sonian Institute the United States bu-
reau of fisheries. Fish Commissioner
George NJ. Bowers, Hayes Bigelow of
x. Cheney of Tarpon Springs. Fla; Prof.
Theodore Hill of Washington. DIR. F. NJ
Johnson of Boston and the New York
Academy of Sciences.
Subjects to Be Discussed.
The subjects range from the best
methods of combating fungus diseases in
fishes in captivity" to international regu-
lations of the fisheries on the high seas"
the latter being the subject of the paper
for which the Smithsonian Institute Of
fers a $500 prize. Mr.. Bowers offer of
500 is for the best demonstration of the
efficacy of artificial propagation as APP
piled to marine fishes and that of the
bureau of fisheries is for report de
scribing the most useful new and original
principle. method or apparatus to be en-
plOyed in fish culture or in transporting
live fishes
There is probably no subject more i'm
portant than fish propagation and fish
culture, though there are some varieties
OF fish to which It has not been necessary
as yet to resort TO these methods of con-
servation. The history of fisheries,
however contains many lessons to tho
effect that the existence of superab bum
dant supply today is no guarantee that
such conditions will continue. Much has
been accomplished by the United States
bureau OF fisheries in the direction of re-
plen.shing depopulated waters and ii is
impossible TO foretelI that any class of
fish, even though numbered by billions,
will never need the fostering care OF gov
ernments. Even the cod, though one
may lay more than "a million eggs. needs
the guardianship of the bureau and many
hundreds o. fry have been distributed off
the New England coast. Through the
United States and state fish commissions
the threatened disappearance of the shad
from the Delaware river was averted, and
IL must be remembered that in the days
of William Penn the colonists maryeled
at the multitude of shad in the Delaware
Those were the days. however, in which
the Chesapeake bay was paved with oys-
ters as il was until recently paved with
crabs and those were the days also when
terrapin was common article of
diet in some of the tidewater sections of
Maryland that slaves objected to its too