Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1911-10-29

ASHINGTON, d. c.. oct. Is
TVAYG Are you Disguised with the
" high price of meats?
DO your steaks, chops and
YSNfENSA roasts cost more than you
kS@szssS9 can afford?
Are you growing tired OF pouring your
money into the pockets of our great
butcher barons?
II so, why don't you eat fish? 1t will
make more brain and just as good mus
Gle. 1t will digest quite as easily, and,
taken fresh from the waters, will make
you go singing through life. The Japa-
nese nation, one of the happiest on earth,
as composed of fish eaters. The Chinese,
one Of the strongest and thriftiest, lives
largely on the same food, and all over
Europe nearly every farmer has his own
private fish pond.
There is no land that will rear fish
better than the United States and there
is no sort of animal life which will breed
so rapidly nor produce so much. Man
has but one, two, or at the utmost three
young at a time, and the same is true
of cattle and horses. Some breeds Of
sheep produce twins, and the hog often
has ten or twelve pigs at litter. The
fish multiplies by the thousands. The
Pacific salmon has on an average 5000
eggs, the shad $1,000, and the cod is said
to drop as many as 100000. Indeed it
has been estimated that if all the cod
eggs laid in one year should produce fe-
male fish, and they in turn lay similar
eggs, that within few years the whole
world would be covered, and we could
have a tower of eggs reaching from here
to the moon.
All this is preliminary to my story Of
the great work which our Uncle Sam
Patriarch has under way to increase our
fish supply.
Planting Fish by the billions.
During the last week have been talk
Ing with the men who run the fish COM
mission. They have a big office here in
Washington, and connected with it are
fish hatcheries scattered all over the
union The government now matches fish
as farmers hatch chickens and its output
of the finny tribe last year was more
than 4,OOO, 100000. OF these there were
something like 20O,OO0OOO salmon, over
100000 whitefish, 6OO,OOOOOO or 100000
900 pike perch and almost 2O0O00,O00 cod.
The white perch numbered 3OO,O0OOO0. the
flat fish 100000, 900 and the Holsters almost
200 OOOO 900. In addition to this there was
an enormous planting of oysters and a
distribution of food fishes so numerous in
variety that 1 cannot mention them all.
Some Of these fish were taken from the
Atlantic to the Pacific, and some were
brought from the great northwest to
Maine and other states. There are now
large government hatcheries in twenty
ha CHI cd
are increasing by the hundreds of millions
per annum. Since the establishment OF
the bureau, which was about forty years
ago, more than 2S,OC0,OOO,OOO eggs have
been artificially produced, and of these
about half have been the output of the
last six years. 1 am told also that this
work is at its beginning and that if our
waters are properly stocked and cared
for we may yet shake our fists in the
faces of the packing interests and live
upon fish.
New Fish Laws Needed.
The next congress will be asked to
make new laws for the protection of our
tish in the streams and along the coasts,
BIS we'll as to the proper management OF
pur oyster farms. During my stay in the
offices of the fish commission 1 had a
chat with DIR. Hugh NJ. Smith, the dep
hty commissioner. DR.. Smith is a high
- authority on all such matters. He has
Travelled widely over the world looking
up new fish and fish products, in order
that they may be transplanted to the
United States.
He tells me that the states now have
the right to control the protection and
propagation of the fish within their
boundaries. He thinks this should be
given over to the national government,
and says that many of the states are
allowing their fisheries to go to ruin.
Take the shad, which gives us tens of
millions Of pounds OF the most delicious
food every year. 1t Is the leading fish
Of our eastern seaboard, and it runs up
the coastal streams of the Atlantic as the
salmon does up those OF the Pacific. The
government has beech doing what II can
TO plant shad and it has placed some
thing like 300 million OF the young in the
various streams. All these fish were
reared from eggs taken from the fish
caught for the markets and the flesh OF
the fish was eaten. AS II Is now IN some
Of the states, the shad are taken when
they first enter the streams The eggs
are not ripe at that time and are useless
to the hatcheTies. The result is that
the spawntakers must wait for the run
farther up stream, and millions are lost
In North Carolina the fishermen so con-
troll the streams that the greater part
Of the shad cannot go up the rivers to
spawn. This was done to such an eX-
tent that the supply of North Carolina
shad was greatly reduced The output
TELL TO 100000 when the officers Of the
bureau of fisheries went TO the North
Carolina legislature and secured certain
protective laws. AS a result, this last
year the catch has been fifteen times as
great as II was before those laws were
passed, and the shad are rapidly grow
ing in number.
The Potomac shad are almost unprO-
tected. There are fish nets running from
Washington all the way down 10 Chesa-
peaks bay. The fishermen OF Virginia