Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1917-07-20
DIRECTOR OF STATION TELLS
HOW FOOD PRODUCTION
is INCREASED.
GOOD PROGRESS WITH
NEW MUSsEL RANCH
Investigators Seeking Practical Plan
For Saving Eggs Of Fish Caught by
Commercial Fishermen - Release
$4,000 Young Mussels in Streams of
Country.

Muscatine. July 20-Add to the allied
enemies of the high cost of living, the
government biological station at Fair
| port.
Did you think that the clam
| hatchery had fulfilled its mission in
| life when it had Matched millions Of
| little CLAIMS and induced them to be-
come boarders under the gills of un-
suspecting fsh3
Such q delusiou, II any of the local
| business men who attended the noon
| day luncheon held it was quickly
abused when DR.. Austin F. Shra, di-
rector of the Fairport institution, re-
vealed some of the ramifications of the
work he and his assistants are do
ing.
Fighting the n. c. Of L.
Their activities include such efforts
as:
Putting the humble dog fish on a
commercial! basis. The dogtish is dog
fish no longer but under government
auspices has become gowfin. AS
smoked fish it is delicious. and a rep
resentative of the Fairport laboratory
is now travelling in connection with q
university home economies demon
strator, showing the residents OF river
towns haw to smoke and eat with rel
ish friend gowfin.'
investigators OF the hatchery are at
present at work at Keokuk lake en-
deavoring TO frame some practical plan
for saving the eggs of a number Of
species OF fish which are caught by
commercial fishermen, and turn these
into a desirable and marketabl Die brand
of caviar.
Raising fish from the eggs Of fish
caught by fishermen which would. of
course, otherwise he wasted. Recently
over 100000 young buffalo fish were
turned loose Matched from such eggs
which had been artifcally fortified
and fostered in the F'airport plant.
Start on Mussel Ranch.
But it should not be supposed that
the prime purpose of propagatins
mussels is being neglected. So nucn
progress is being made, DR.. Shira
stated, that the hatchery is rapidly
approaching the successful realiza
ton of it's ambition to place mussel
raising on commercial basis that
| is where men may properly raise the
mussels for market, if they have the
! proper body of water available. Al
ready they have succeeded in producing
| shells of marketable size in two years
| with Lake Pepin muckets.
| The vast extent OF the work of the
| hatchery is evidenced in the state
| ment that in the past year some
! thing over 332,0O0.00O young mus
sells have been released into the
streams Of the country by the Fair
| port hatchery at a cost of about 2
! cents a thousand, this including all
! possible estimates of overhead for the
| cost and maintenance of the Fairport
| plant and the field work and equip
/ ment.
| Saving the Mussel Meats
Perhaps the most interesting sin
| gle announcement made by DR.. Shira
was that the station is working on a
plan to give the soft part of the mus
| sells. the meats hitherto an utter loss,
commercial value. These are now
being dried and ground and are good
| for chicken feed and for fertilizer.
AS yet the process has not been so
| Lar ueNSIOpSu L[dl the STATION ISSlS
justified in recommending it for COM
mercial exploitation.
| Only four sorts of shells have been
successfully propagated to any great
| degree, these being the river and the
fat muckets the yellow sand shells
| and the black sand shells. Difficult
ties Of many kinds are faced, for in
! stance. but one fish can be used as
host for the glochydia of niger
head mussels, that is the river her
ron. Yet the river heron is a very
delicate fish. and can not be either
caught or raised successfully for the
stations purposes. On the other hand
the only host" fish for yellow sand
shells is the gar Cars are not deli
| cate, but the station, with some
thought for the feelings Of good fish
ermen, is delicate about propagating
them and can only infect those gar
which are caught from the river
thus materially restricting the propa-
cation of this most valuable Of all